The identity of a brand

Logo. Identity. Brand. These are all the same and can be used interchangeably, right? Well, in a word, no. These three little words are very close to a designer’s heart as they lie at the core of what we do: confuse them at your peril. A common misconception is that a brand is simply a logo, whereas a logo is not your brand, nor is it your identity. All have different roles that work together to help form a perception of a company or product.

The words ‘logo’, ‘identity’, ‘brand’ and ‘branding’ are often bandied about by different people, within marketing companies, advertising agencies, public relations firms and graphic/web design studios, as well as clients, who define them within their own frame of expertise and reference. So, it’s not surprising that people have become a bit confused and think they’re just marketing buzzwords that mean little and are an excuse for agencies to pocket large amounts of cash to draw a few squiggles – the many articles on the Internet about the London 2012 logo being a case in point.

So, we've taken a look at these words (using the London 2012 logo as a starting point) and created an easy to use, basic guide and explanation for each to remove some of the mystery and waffle from the equation. Now, we certainly don’t pretend to have all the answers here, and there may be some designers (and marketers) who disagree with our definitions, but hopefully this makes things a wee bit clearer. If so, it’s a good starting point from which to explore the complex world of branding.

» Download our guide to logos and identity here (PDF)

Bringing Informa to life

When Informa – one of the world’s leading academic, training, events and conference providers – came to us asking for help to create an engaging corporate video to bring the Informa brand to life, we knew it was going to be an interesting but challenging experience…

It’s been a great project to work on as it’s had a bit of everything – scripting, music research and editing as well as illustrations, animations and a search for the right voice over artist. This was vital in providing the right tone and pace and we even re-recorded this to ensure the timing was spot on. The Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony proved to be the perfect backing track for the final video, although I think it’s safe to say that if we never hear it again it will be too soon!

The brief

Our brief was to add personality and fun to an otherwise corporate brand look, convey the diverse areas in which Informa operates, as well as its past, present and future ambitions and integrate both animated illustrations and video material into the final result – quite a lot to consider.

The first thing we needed to do was come up with the concept and style that summed up everything Informa does – not an easy task when the company spans a vast array of sectors and whose roots go back to the 18th century. So, it was a pretty big challenge to find an overall style and draft a script that summed up Informa’s ethos of bringing ‘knowledge to life’.

The process

We came up with the original idea of ‘the journey of the dot’, taking the dot from the ‘i’ in the logo to create illustrations and working them into an initial storyboard. From this, we created an animated demo to help define the style and developed this into the final version. The dot gave the video personality and allowed us to create the story around it – an engaging and quirky way of bringing the Informa brand to life.

part of the initial storyboard showing the progress of the Informa dot

We art directed a video shoot on location, filming Lloyd’s List – a core part of Informa’s business and the world’s oldest, continuously running daily newspaper – coming off the printing press. Not only that, but to communicate Informa’s multi-platform solutions we also filmed one of our very own staff downloading the latest edition on an iPad through the Lloyd’s List app.

Finally, to ensure the video had the right balance of animations and live footage, we also edited supplied footage of Informa’s conferences, exhibitions and ‘a day in the life’ of Informa employees for use in the final video.

Our head of Digital, Ben Jackson who was responsible for all the animation and post-production work said:

"This was both fun and challenging to work on – Informa is a really interesting company with an incredibly wide range of brands and specialisms, so we had to cover a lot of ground. Keeping to the target four minutes meant quite a few bits ended up on the cutting room floor (perhaps we'll release a 'Directors Cut' one day!). We also had to make sure we kept the pace up through the whole piece. Whilst the original plan was for a totally graphic based animation, we found that over a certain length, adding footage helped avoid 'animation fatigue' – this of course meant we had to beg, borrow or just go out and film it – which presented a very different set of challenges! All the graphics were created from scratch in Adobe Illustrator – these were then imported into Adobe AfterEffects where the entire piece (animation, video and audio) was created."

Informa is delighted with the final video and so are we. Graham Jerome-Ball, Director of Brand and Communications at Informa, said:

“The Informa corporate video had to achieve a number of objectives, include our history, our ethos, our people, our products and services and wrap it all up in a memorable 4 minute time-frame. No pressure there then but ToThePoint rose to the challenge and provided considered and innovative input at all stages. This project could easily have stalled but TTP team kept focused and gently prodded me along when needed and, most importantly, listened to our needs as they changed and multiplied during the project lifespan. Creative, friendly, communicative, on budget and a sense of humour – what more could you ask? 

What more indeed, thanks Graham!

See the video in full here or view on our website
the video can also be seen on the Informa homepage

Informa – bringing knowledge to life



use the 'expand' icon in the lower right to view fullscreen

Helping YahLive go live

view the finished site here: www.yahlive.tv

New satellite broadcasting service YahLive needed a striking website to highlight its HD services to potential viewers and broadcasters across parts of Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Asia. The company was formed from a partnership between European satellite operator SES Astra and Abu Dhabi’s Yahsat and YahLive’s key USP is that everything it broadcasts is in full HD.

One of the initial problems we had to tackle was the two different audiences that the site was targeting – the general public looking to buy a new TV subscription and TV broadcasters who would use the service to launch new channels and programmes. Therefore, the design, imagery and tone needed to work across both audiences.

As such, the overall look and feel for the site had to be modern and colourful whilst being culturally and brand appropriate. The site needed to highlight the great content available from the new service, from Hollywood blockbusters to more localised sport and programming, as well as explain the more technical aspects of the service such as satellite coverage and equipment.

To achieve this, we created a fresh design for the site, using a dark grey background and a contrasting lime green from YahLive’s colour palette for navigation, along with large, bright images to highlight the HD offering.

We built the site using Sharepoint on YahLive’s specification as it had to be compatible with the company’s existing systems. This provided quite a challenge as Sharepoint can be a little less forgiving when used for external website.

We also ensured the system could be easily added to and maintained by YahLive’s marketing team so they could add images, copy and video in order to promote the latest content.

Here at TTP, we do enjoy a challenge and it’s been an interesting project for us to work on, increasing our understanding and experience of working with international teams and a good one to add to our growing website design portfolio.

Adding a little extra Phys

The Physiological Society has been keeping us busy this month as we’ve designed and produced its 2011 Annual Report and the summer edition of its quarterly magazine, Physiological News, which keeps members up-to-date with The Society’s latest activities, news and offers views on current physiological issues. As physiology is the science of how different systems function in the body, we drew on this when refreshing the logo to create a contemporary interpretation of an ‘action potential’–the electrical impulse in a nerve cell.

We’ve been practising what we preach as each has its own distinct look and feel yet both reflect the brand evolution that we implemented for The Society last year. The core aspects of the rebrand was to ensure the refreshed identity was applied consistently across all materials as well as help The Society communicate as effectively as possible with a variety of audiences.

The annual report features strong branding with an eye-catching front cover design of a transparent silhouette of a running figure and showing the major organs and arteries within the body. The cool blue and grey colour palette and concise copy reflects the professional and matter-of-fact tone, whilst the imagery throughout references the human body's movements and the pull-outs and graphs reflect the design of the 'impulse' wave of the logo.

The latest edition of Physiology News, however, contains more in-depth copy and analysis along with more imagery of members of The Society to make it more personable for the members. The large amount of white space helps break up the text and give the magazine a light and airy feel.

Both magazines have been extremely well received by The Society’s members and external shareholders and are certainly playing a part in enabling The Society to communicate effectively with its different audiences. Jacob Lonsdale, Media and Communications Manager at The Society, had this to say:

"The new visual identity is modern, confident and alive. Similarly, the new Physiology News is a step change for us: it’s not just that the publication now makes a highly professional impression, but it’s actually something the reader will want to pick up – it’s exciting, enjoyable and, importantly, much more accessible. It’s been turned into a tool we can really use to engage with our audiences."

A job well done, then.