Client:
Multiple
While EGG’s focus has primarily been on new product and technology creation, with the added layer intellectual property consultation, a decade of our lives was spent specifically in brand innovation and brand marketing. And initially, the technical components under that larger umbrella, from planning, to brand and product naming, to logo design were all done for larger entities and brands. So the training was advanced.
As we’ve always been by default the branding experts as well, even as product leads at other companies, we’ve continued to evolve and advance our learning and that as a science.
Egg is specifically not a brand agency, it is a multi-field innovation shop with internal but broad design and engineering skills. We crossover into brand development either to help prevent clients from creating a new Brandroid (see right), or in wasting time and money when hiring a dozen technical specialists to create pretty but meaningless and unrelated brand signals.
The Brandroid
A real brand is less about external glitter, and more about purpose, values, backbone and taking a position. Pretty templated corporate design elements in place of real brand verbal and visual signals are proliferating like a race of new programmed fashion-robots…
Though we’d initially engaged our Upstart clients for new product or IP work as the brand dev for these companies impacted the success of that work, we’d often “fix” an element here or there. However, unlike the original contractors that created pre-existing elements we spent several weeks in Discovery, and what we call Brand Engineering, not knowing how to “just design a logo” without that context before realizing these were unique practices for Upstarts, but ones that meant the difference between a new brand that has a shot at becoming an icon, and a pretty face that gets lost in the noise.
Much of the background in Brand Engineering is not formal strategy, but work in Semiotics and Linguistics. Since Upstarts, understandably need to see “proof”, the external signals that come from this work are usually considered identity components, the most important, and directly interrelated, being brand name, logomark symbol, and tagline (from either UVP or EVP, the latter from Brand Purpose/Promise). To make it financially palatable to Upstarts, we packaged just these processes and outputs, often including one Implementation Piece for clients to re-purpose in the long term for other brand touchpoint design vs. being beholden to an outside agency to design new assets every time they needed (expensive).
As many of the tag-lines we create come out of Engineering and then in naming, as a “call and response” mechanism to the branded Name, we will include some examples, but for brevity, focus on Naming and then show examples of various Logomark sketches or final logo-marks, that came as part of those names.
Most brand strategists will cite the importance of new brands creating new emotions. This is partially right. Great brands create new meanings that solve for consumers and bring them together as a tribe. That is specifically how they become Icon Brands. There is a cultural rallying point, emotions are fleeting, meanings last a lifetime. This is where an understanding of semiotics and linguistics is key, which insures the visual (and written) meanings and symbols to depict it have an interior soul.
“Emotions are fleeting, but new meanings last a lifetime.”
— Ren Moulton
First, the best brand strategists will bring in some of the internal elements at least in any client conversation. Though we’ve found a continued misuse of lower-level concepts and words taken from business strategy and misappropriated for brand strategy. Including “mission and vision” which clients should already have a strong grasp of (!) versus the brand-similar Purpose and Promise. Similar, but different.
Regardless, where we diverge is going deeper into meanings and behaviors, and specific structures for modeling the interior of a living brand (engineering), but then determining the specific set of unique signals the Brand must convey, and the specific visual and verbal symbols and structures to convey that meaning. This is where we bring in actual semiotics, linguistics, and behavioral psychology before designing any “identity” pieces for the client.
“Words and images are both symbols. Great brand design does not require 20 creators, but rather a single design process under which writers and designers work side-by-side to create a single symbolic tapestry of signals that mean more, together”
– Ren Moulton
We start any naming project with real discovery, then brand strategy and engineering work, including 3D positioning. Before we create new names, we need to understand specifically what unique meaning we are trying to design and build through the use of words. From there, we go back to study these meanings in different languages, etymological dig, then translate that into “roots” that have meaning today.
When we start the actual naming, we do under 4–5 different stylistic frameworks.
While we’ve likely generated over 10,000 unique names, we typically curate longer lists into 10 top names, 2–3 by specific type, based on what we’ve found a client prefers. However, we see logo-font as a key piece of meaning. How a person “reads” a brand name is partially visual, not just auditory/musical meaning.
Our steps in logo design are common to most professional designers or shops. Where we differ is we already know the specific meanings we need to symbolize, and thus the specific colors, structures, and symbols to choose from and utilize to convey those chosen meanings.
Example of sketches & final logos
Example of sketches & final logos
Example of sketches & final logos
Example of sketches & final logos
Example of sketches & final logos
Example of sketches & final logos
Example of sketches & final logos
Example of sketches & final logos
Example of sketches & final logos
Example of sketches & final logos
Example of sketches & final logos
Example of sketches & final logos
Example of sketches & final logos
Example of sketches & final logos
Example of sketches & final logos
Example of sketches & final logos
