Branding

Branding isn’t just about getting “Oh, those guys!” recognition from your audience. It’s about instantly giving an all-encompassing visual summary of your project. It’s about creating a sense for your viewers of what your project is all about, so that they can get down to reading the details.

If your audience is focusing on trying to sort through confusing and conflicting colors, layout patterns, and garish styling, they aren’t paying enough attention to the message.

I don’t know of that many successful marketing campaigns that popped into a designer’s head over eggs and toast. I can’t speak for the rest of the design world, but for me it takes trial and error and a lot of sweat.

So… how do you take the essence of a project or program, and boil that down into colors, icons, and visual layout that emotes something recognizable to the public, and makes sense at the same time? Having a large recycle bin helps.