Flexible Visual Identity

However, the birth of flexible logos is not only to adapt to new media—and new means of communication—but also a breakthrough of logo design itself that creates new possibilities for the innovation of logo form and breaks the fixed, monotonous, and invariable characteristics of the traditional static logos.

Cover image: Osoboe detstvo: Unity of the Unlike, DDVB

$37.50 [USA] £29.00 [GB]

Edited by Chen Jinming and Wang Xiangliang

This book explores the creation and methods of the flexible logo design process, and analyzes its application across dozens of international projects.

Each project explores the notion of broader brand extension stability, as well as the stability of consumers’ psychological recognition.

Flexible Visual Identity

Designers need to seek new design language to express a brand. Flexible logos are a kind of design form with more variability, stronger adaptability, wider coverage, and fresh visual effect. This new form perfectly follows the development trend of globalized, diversified, and internet integration of online and offline operations in the new commercial society.

Logos for a Stronger Brand

In the internet age, the means of communication keep changing along with the increasing formation. It becomes more difficult to catch the public’s attention and the monotonous and invariable logos can’t meet the needs of current and future commercial society any more.

Edited by Chen Jinming and Wang Xiangliang

Flexible Visual Identity Logos for a Stronger Brand Chen Jinming is teaching at the Design Institute of East China Normal University, and is committed to the practice and teaching research of brand visual recognition and green packaging design.

He has published several papers and books, and some student works directed by him have won international design competition awards.

Wang Xiangliang graduated from East China Normal University with a major is visual communication design, and he has also studied at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest, and the Pratt Institute, United States.

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Introduction In the internet age, the means of communication keeps changing along with the increasing formation.

It becomes more difficult to catch the public’s attention and the monotonous and invariable logos can’t meet the needs of current and future commercial societies any more. Designers need to seek new design language to express a brand. Flexible logos are a kind of design form with more variability, stronger adaptability, wider coverage, and fresh visual effect, which perfectly follows the development trend of globalized, diversified, and internet integration of online and offline operations in the new commercial society.

Flexible logos are a new form born along with the development of internet technology, especially multimedia technology, and high popularization of brands to be visually recognizable and spread information through multiple visual elements (or a series of visual element combinations). However, the birth of flexible logos is not only about adapting to new media and new means of communication, but also about a breakthrough of logo design itself that creates new possibilities for the innovation of logo form and breaks the fixed, monotonous, and invariable characteristics of the traditional static logos. Rather than being variable and unstable, flexible logos expand the range of stability from single visual form stability to broader brand extension stability, as well as the stability of consumers’ psychological recognition.

Flexible logos may have many different types and showcase different design paradigms in different themes and application environments. With slight adjustments of color and background by using similar patterns or textures in different design paradigms, it can establish a whole set of logo systems with varied features but in a consistent visual style.

The core expression of flexible logos is as same as traditional static logos, but its related expression forms and methods are variable and diversified. Whatever changes happen, it is based on the application occasion and the information to be spread, which is highly consistent with the Gestalt Theory that stresses that a gestalt will still exist or remain unchanged even when all its constitutes (such as size, direction, position, and so forth) change.

The concepts of flexible logos and dynamic logos are easily confused, and some people think they are the same and both are the logo forms relative to static logos. But, actually, they are different. The main difference is that dynamic logos are a new form relative to static logos, while flexible logos contain both static and dynamic logos, yet not all dynamic logos are flexible logos. Dynamic logos are a visual form by using multimedia technology such as computers and video to increase time dimension to the two-

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dimension or three-dimension model. Dynamic logos are usually dynamic but single, while flexible logos are much more changeable in type and scope.

From the view of time, dynamic logos existed earlier than flexible logos, and have already been widely applied in all fields along with the rise of the internet and the development of information technology.

Flexible logos are a design form that includes but is also independent of static and dynamic logos, showing different visual effects in different applications. In addition, flexible logos do not put effort into showing the whole changing process. Precisely, flexible logos are the form between static and dynamic logos, which can partly use the design method of dynamic or static logos, but are a different and relatively independent new form.

Flexible logos are also different from the logo variant. Logo variant is the result of improving the core logo to adapt to different media by changing the shape, adjusting the colors, and increasing or decreasing its parts to achieve the best communication effect of a brand visual identification system to make the logo more consistent with modern aesthetics and brand culture.

Taking the recent rebranding of Starbucks as an example, as the brand was already well-known, they just removed the outer ring and letters, enlarged the merman figure in the middle, and changed the bottom color to green. All of these changes could be regarded as the variants of the logo and the main purpose was to update the brand. The logo variant and the original logo are the progressive relation from one to another, while the variations of a flexible logo are the coordinating relation from one to many or many to many.

Flexible logos are similar to biological evolution, which stably creates self-replication and variation under certain conditions. Flexible logos mainly have the following characteristics: •Inheritance: Every flexible logo should have a genetic gene that is an invariable core or style that is helpful to the identification, so as to provide space for the changes of other parts. When changing part of a logo, attention should also be paid to the relevance and integrity between each variation of the logo. No matter what kind of the visual effect is finally achieved, the core expression, the brand spirit, should remain unchanged. The fixed part can be the filler, the shape, or even the style of the logo, which is always closely linked with the core of the brand value to convey the most basic concept of the brand, like a heritage of the gene. The flexible logo should find the possibility of breakthrough between unity and change while keeping the core part unchanged.

•Exclusiveness: An important standard for evaluating a logo is the stability. A good logo can help consumers to recognize the brand on any occasion or under any condition immediately and even associate the brand in some places without the logo. The traditional logo design depends more on the combination of invariable graphics and letters, tending to create a complete graphic symbol to send the message so as to build a sense of stability. However, after partly changing the form, color, texture, and background, flexible logos focus more upon the stability of the visual style and help consumers to have a sense of stability in mind through its unique design style.

Introduction

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•Mutability: Just like music, which can be murmured or bellowed, flexible logos do not have any fixed structural combinations or color concepts. Variability is the most important characteristic of flexible logos. To keep any element of the shape, position, color, form, texture, and background unchanged to remain the brand essence and logo identification, while changing the other parts to adapt to different uses, products, and carrier environments. Variability injects more vitality into logos, avoids people’s aesthetic fatigue, makes them more interesting, and meanwhile unifies different series of products of the same brand closely together to create endless possibilities for brand expansion.

• Adaptability: The adaptability of flexible logos comes from its variability. Variable style makes logos adapt better to all kinds of carriers, whether in the view of space or field. In space, the logo with different forms can be applied to different occasions and easily blend with the environment just through the slight adjustments of color or background. In the field, no matter what kind of derivative products the brand develops, the texture and parts of the logo could be changed to smartly suit new products and connect derivative products with the main brand. In this way, the logo can not only help consumers recall the whole brand image, but also greatly reduce the cost of constantly updating the whole design.

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1

The background of flexible logos

The origin of logos can be traced back to symbols of faith and the totem of primitive tribes. Ancient people used circles to stand for the vastness of the universe. The murals with bright symbols and images found in the caves of Southern France could be dated back to 10,000 B.C., and the experts consider them the earliest rudiment of the future design of logos and graphics.

In the 6th century B.C., Pythagoras, the ancient Greek philosopher, used the triangle to symbolize wisdom. While in the birthplaces of human civilization like India, Greece, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Babylon, and Ancient Rome, graphic signs were used in all kinds of wares and handmade products for collecting taxes and keeping accounts between craftsmen and their employers, and as the identification symbols of the makers since the beginning of the Stone Age.

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There is a long development process for logos from the primitive totems to the art nouveau movement in the Industrial Revolution eras, from the modernism and internationalism style to the postmodernism trend, from the luxury and extricate signs for the exclusive use of the noble to the natural and extensive design, and from the principle of ‘less is more,’ which advocates the trend of geometric minimalism graphics to the international and diversified comprehensive design, all these changes show the current social needs and the necessity for changing. Society, economy, culture, science, and technology all drive for the constant changing of logos.

1.1 Globalization and diversification of logo communication space Globalization and diversification is an inviolable topic in current society. Along with the diversified development in all industries, all kinds of brands are constantly appearing and even many countries, cities, and individuals are building their own brands. The purpose of creating brands is to increase their own influence and broaden the range of their audiences. Therefore, the communication space of a brand is expanding and covers all fields in society, and meanwhile, the different disciplines intersect with each other, showing the trend of diversification. Accompanying rapid development of economy, there are more and more globalized brands with increasing influence. Some well-known brands like MUJI and Adidas sell well around the globe, so under this background, their logos have acquired global spreading range and influence.

However, the expression and information’s communication quality of traditional logos have gradually decreased, which can no longer meet the needs as a carrier of visual information and brand identity, thus the flexible logo was born naturally. In recent years, the application examples of flexible logos are appearing quickly and widely, whose forms are diversified, dynamic, static, multi-standard, multisize, and multi-color. While standardization versus diversification and unification versus variability

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between people. The logos required for intelligent society are not simply cold patterns and several letters any more, but emotional design that communicates with the audience, delivers messages, or even receives the feedback and gives a sympathetic response.

1.3 Branding and symbolization in logo promotion Currently, the commodity economy is booming and new consumer groups keep emerging; their demand for quality of goods is also increasing along with increased income and changing consumption psychology. Consumers tend to rely more on the well-known brands or familiar ones when facing the dazzling array of goods with the same quality in the market. When familiar brands launch new products, they often resonate with existing buyers, who quickly approve and then become the buyers.

It can be said that goods act upon brands and brands react upon goods. People learn about, get familiar with, identify with, and finally rely on a brand through an excellent commodity, while the brand then launches more relevant products and builds a strong and powerful back-up force for its products in order to gather up buyers and acquire a higher popularity, and become known by more people. Therefore, the competition between corporations is not limited to the products, but turns into the different brands. The establishment of a good brand identity has already become an important tool for expanding the popularity of corporations and increasing sales, yet the advertising of a brand cannot be done without the logo design. It is particularly important that the logo is suitable for different media with a remarkable visual image and can quickly create a sense of psychological identity.

The range of branding is also expanding, and besides corporations, many countries, cities, and even individuals are putting efforts in building their own brands with the purposes of expanding communication range, improving their popularity, and increasing communication efficiency and quality in order to improve their own competitiveness, attract more clients, and create their own characteristics and uniqueness.

As such, brands have gotten involved in all kinds of industries in society, spreading into every corner and influencing all individuals. As more brands are being created, the design of the brand visual system has a broader market and more powerful functions. However, the accompanied problem is that it is more difficult to show the uniqueness with the increasing brands, and the audience is getting confused more easily. In the meantime, the competition between brands is also increasing, and designers are in urgent need of exploring new design methods and ideas.

Moreover, brands themselves are offering extra services and derivative products, as well as building sub-brands and relevant products, and the coverage of brands and the application fields are getting wider. The derivative products are not easy to be developed as an independent flagship brand, which need to rely on the popularity of the main brand, but with their own features to be accepted and remembered by customers.

Therefore, the relevant products are required to be related visually with the main brand, but not to be completely the same. Symbolization is the main feature of logos, and it can even be said that the design of a logo is the design of graphic symbols and fonts. Besides the functions for

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dimension or three-dimension model. Dynamic logos are usually dynamic but single, while flexible logos are much more changeable in type and scope.

From the view of time, dynamic logos existed earlier than flexible logos, and have already been widely applied in all fields along with the rise of the internet and the development of information technology.

Flexible logos are a design form that includes but is also independent of static and dynamic logos, showing different visual effects in different applications. In addition, flexible logos do not put effort into showing the whole changing process. Precisely, flexible logos are the form between static and dynamic logos, which can partly use the design method of dynamic or static logos, but are a different and relatively independent new form.

Flexible logos are also different from the logo variant. Logo variant is the result of improving the core logo to adapt to different media by changing the shape, adjusting the colors, and increasing or decreasing its parts to achieve the best communication effect of a brand visual identification system to make the logo more consistent with modern aesthetics and brand culture.

Taking the recent rebranding of Starbucks as an example, as the brand was already well-known, they just removed the outer ring and letters, enlarged the merman figure in the middle, and changed the bottom color to green. All of these changes could be regarded as the variants of the logo and the main purpose was to update the brand. The logo variant and the original logo are the progressive relation from one to another, while the variations of a flexible logo are the coordinating relation from one to many or many to many.

Flexible logos are similar to biological evolution, which stably creates self-replication and variation under certain conditions. Flexible logos mainly have the following characteristics: •Inheritance: Every flexible logo should have a genetic gene that is an invariable core or style that is helpful to the identification, so as to provide space for the changes of other parts. When changing part of a logo, attention should also be paid to the relevance and integrity between each variation of the logo. No matter what kind of the visual effect is finally achieved, the core expression, the brand spirit, should remain unchanged. The fixed part can be the filler, the shape, or even the style of the logo, which is always closely linked with the core of the brand value to convey the most basic concept of the brand, like a heritage of the gene. The flexible logo should find the possibility of breakthrough between unity and change while keeping the core part unchanged.

•Exclusiveness: An important standard for evaluating a logo is the stability. A good logo can help consumers to recognize the brand on any occasion or under any condition immediately and even associate the brand in some places without the logo. The traditional logo design depends more on the combination of invariable graphics and letters, tending to create a complete graphic symbol to send the message so as to build a sense of stability. However, after partly changing the form, color, texture, and background, flexible logos focus more upon the stability of the visual style and help consumers to have a sense of stability in mind through its unique design style.

Flexible Visual Identity Deduction

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Flexible Visual Identity Deduction

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Manuel Peris Freestyle Photo Manuel Peris Freestyle Photo is a creative and lively photography studio. With many years of experience in the profession, Manuel and his team transmit the energy, dynamism, and positivism in each one of their projects, characteristics, and identity hallmarks.

The redesign of the Manuel Peris image had to represent its professional character and also illustrate the level of the energy and innovation that define the studio. For the previous image, the designer used a silhouette of the photographer Manuel Peris himself. Conceptually, this option was an appropriate way to transmit the emotion with which a photographer works through the curved posture of the body figure. But this original static image did not represent his dynamism and innovative vision. The brand needed a flexible identity that captured the ease of adaptation and improvisation.

Instead, using the initials ‘M’ and ‘P,’ an iconic synthesis of the figure of the photographer was built, which, through the extension of the range of postures, gives the brand a flexible character. Red, black, and white, along with the use of pure materials, define the strength and urban personality of Manuel Peris Freestyle Photo.

Given that it is a photography studio, the applications of the brand were very clear and the brand had to work both online and offline. To this end, the business cards, photography delivery package, and merchandising pieces were developed. They were given tools to create a style of presentation of the photographs through the use of a watermark and an image treatment.

• Client Manuel Peris Freestyle Photo • Design agency Joan Rojeski Studio • Completion 2017

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351

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