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While new media offers a new ways to com-
municate, the essence of what you should
be communicating is still all about the brand.
“Technology has changed, but the way we
see and relate to and interact with the brand
has not,” notes Amanda Altman of A3 Design,
a family-owned design studio. “The rules of
branding haven’t changed, even though how
they’re created and displayed has changed.”
While designers may love having a whole new
box of high-tech tools to play with, customers
don’t cordon off their favorite brands by media.
“The reality is that consumers don’t think, ‘Oh,
this is the brand’s digital campaign; this is
their print campaign,’” notes Alicia Johnson of
theLab, a “media arts” company, and Johnson +
Wolverton. “You have to think about the brand,
how you want people to feel across the brand,
and then bring it all to life across all media.”
Even though some designers love the screen
and others love paper, it’s important to stay
focused on the message you’re trying to convey
about your client.”
IT’S ALL ABOUT BRAND BUILDING
AMANDA ALTMAN
ALICIA JOHNSON
263
Comedy Central rebrand, designed by thelab
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365 HABITS OF SUCCESSFUL GRAPHIC DESIGNERS
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While print is beautiful, it is static. You design
a logo, make it work in color and black and
white, at a reasonable range of sizes, and
voila: your creation is complete. In the digital
world, “You have behavior that is dynamic,”
points out Alicia Johnson. “There is the expec-
tation that the logo is going to do something.
Will it glow, move, emit sound, change color,
tell a story?”
Designers need to consider not just how to
bring a logo to life, but what that life says
about the brand. “You have to ask yourself
how does it behave and what does that tell you
about the company,” Johnson says. “These
things are fundamentally more important in the
digital than the print realm because all of that
behavior gets translated into the user interface,
the site architecture, how a user navigates ban-
ner ads, and more. You have to determine how
the behavior of the logo communicates the
essence and aspirations of the brand.”
BRANDS ARE NOW JUDGED BY THE WAY THEY MOVE
ALICIA JOHNSON
264
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DESIGNING NEW MEDIA
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Because the digital world allows anyone to
be exposed to just about everything, your
customer is likely to have different—and much
higher—expectations of brands, no matter
how large or small the company behind the
brand is. If the biggest brand—with the biggest
budget—is doing it, customers are going to
expect the same level of visual entertainment
from even boutique brands. “The younger
generation has been inundated with brand
messages and marketing since they were
born,” Amanda Altman says. “It used to be that
you didn’t see a new product until it was on the
shelf.” But this is no longer true. “This genera-
tion wants the newest and coolest first, and
they can sniff that out based on branding. Even
small companies have to compete with the
Nikes of the world on a visual level because
this is what consumers are now used to.”
YOU’RE ALWAYS COMPETING WITH THE BIG GUYS
AMANDA ALTMAN
265
Opposite and above: Rebrand project for Comedy Central by
thelab, a media arts company.
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