Gawen Rudder: The Branding Iceberg
Gawen Rudder, principal of The Knowledge Consultancy, believes symbols communicate faster, symbols are more direct.
From the first Egyptian hierolgryphs and our Aboriginal rock art, to the Christian cross, Olympic rings, branding irons, body tattoos, street graffiti … From the Coca-Cola Spencerian script to the Nike swoosh, identity branding has evolved over time to become an extraordinarily powerful business tool. The ubiquitous logo (from Greek logos – ‘word’) is but the tip of the brand iceberg.
The world’s great designers include such names as Saul Bass (remembered also for his film titles), the irascible George Lois, Michael Wolff of Wolf Olins and perhaps Andy Warhol. Here in Australia, the creatives and companies which have shaped the landscape include Ken Cato, Mimmo Cozzolino, Garry Emery, Tony Lunn, Les Mason and Brian Sadgrove. Then there are newer independents like Houston which, overseen by renowned industrial designer Marc Newson, refreshed the Qantas logo; the crew at Principals; plus local offshoots of global corporate holding companies like FutureBrand (IPG), Interbrand (DDB), Maud (Accenture), Re (M&C Saatchi), SomeOne (VCCP) and Landor, Designworks and Cornwell (all WPP companies.)
A brand should ‘talk’ to you, reassure you and deliver trust – a quality that’s in shorter supply today. Around the board room table, a trusted brand is a company’s most important assets, which is why the decision on corporate branding is often at the CEO/Chair level. A brand logo can evolve and change imperceptulally over time, as in the case with Vegemite, but the essential colour palette and diamond design remains and reassures.
As branding veteran Hans Hulsbosch says, “What gets me up in the morning is that branding allows, even demands, that you get to use both sides of your brain.” That heady mix of creativity and business nous.” The magic and the logic.
Back stories covering a cross-section of familiar logos are testament to that heady mix:
The Nike ‘Swoosh’: In 1971 Carolyn Davidson was a graphic design student at Portland State University. For her lecturer Phil Knight (later co-founder of Nike), she came up with a wing-shaped logo. For this she invoiced him at a modest two dollars an hour, totalling US$35. Some years later, and re-thinking the transaction, she was honoured with 500 Nike shares which today are valued in excess of $500,000.
Rand the Brand: As a young page designer for magazines like Esquire, Paul Rand set his sights on the then-unknown price of $100,000 for a single brand design like IBM. To help achieve this, he re-branded himself and changed his name from Peretz Rosenbaum to a more ‘Madison Avenue- friendly’ four-letter combination – simple, symmetrical and memorable.
Warhol’s Mother: Similarly, Andy figured he’d never get his ‘five minutes of fame’ with a name like Andrej Warhola, so he too changed his name and became a brand. In his early days as a designer-cum-illustrator for such brands as Tiffany, I.Miller and Dior he enlisted his mother, Julia, to pen her singular baroque and rather quirky hand-writing for his work. Clients loved it, and Andy had her alphabet converted to Letraset.
Chupa Chups: From the Spanish ‘Chupar’ – ‘to suck.’ The yellow daisy logo was designed by Salvador Dali over coffee. Surrealist Dali also appeared in TV commercials for Alka-Seltzer, a French chocolate brand and collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock to create the dream sequence in Spellbound.
Floating the Boat: In 1964 Landor moved head office on to a ferry boat, docked in San Francisco Bay. Like the Chiat\Day / Frank Gehry binoculars building near Venice Beach, its unexpected creative environment attracted visitors like Andy Warhol, Tom Wolfe, Issey Miyake, Marshall McLuhan and others.
A Subliminal Arrow: Have another look at Landor’s FedEx logo. Blink. Look again and see the arrow. Subtraction is the secret – the use of negative space where the colour white defines the arrow.
There’s a Bear in There: Or check out the Toblerone pack. See Mount Matterhorn that defines the Swiss chocolate pyramid shape? Look again for the bear from Bern in the negative space.
The Sound of Music: Back in 1994, Intel – for all intents and purposes an ‘invisible’ brand – pioneered sonic branding. The five-note ‘Intel Inside’ mnemonic. What you hear are the words they want you to associate with its brand. Apple craft beautiful sounds for their users to associate with their brand experience. (Do I hear a faint effect accompanying the Netflix logo with what sounds a little like the ‘double-table-knock’ in House of Cards that the now-disgraced Kevin Stacey caused to collapse?)
The Rolling Stone: When the brand was born in 1928, Holden’s Motor Body Builders appointed a sculptor to design their enduring lion and stone logo. It was based on a prehistoric fable in which lions were seen rolling stones, which in turn inspired the invention of the wheel.
The Green Dot: Check out Deloitte’s green full point. CMO Matt McGrath tells me the colour is a huge part of internal branding and everything revolves around the circle iconography.
Our obsession with branding began in the sixties, when Rosser Reeves described the difference between ads that made product claims and those that depended on imagery. “Brands,” Reeves wrote in his classic 1961, Reality in Advertising, “establish contact with the subconscious below the word level. They do this with visual symbols instead of words.” Symbols communicate faster. Symbols are more direct.
As Reeves added, “Their sole purpose is to create images and moods. We know that hungry or thirsty children, long before they can actually read, recognise the ‘golden arches’ of Maccas or the special script of Coke.” An apple-green shopping bag acts as a beacon to a certain supermarket and a kangaroo tail makes us feel like home.
Today’s static images are being increasingly supplemented and magnified by digital magic, motion graphics, sound bites and more. And tomorrow’s technology will continue to amplify the power of branding.
(This article is drawn from Gawen’s drafts for the book commissioned by Hulsbosch to commemorate the company’s 35th anniversary.)