Branding & Visual Studies: Foundationsand Research

Above, top to bottom: Quaker Oats mascot; Sealand identity proposal by Metahaven.

Almost two years ago, I was asked by SVA MPS Branding Chair DebbieMillman and Co-Founder Steven Heller to teach a course for the new program,which kicked off its inaugural year this September. Over the months leading upto the program’s launch, I had the opportunity to immerse myself in researchand to seek out the opinions of fellow faculty as I prepared this class. I amgrateful for their contributions, and for the smart and hardworking studentsthat enrolled in the course. I couldn’t have asked for a better group, and theircontributions deepened and amplified the themes I’ve laid out here at everyturn. In preparing the class I found few resources online for assembling a classof this kind, yet its topics seem to infuse our contemporary discussions of designand identity at every turn. I offer the syllabus here as an evolving document andwill be adding to it myself over time. I welcome suggestions for additions aswell. —RG

Course description: Beginning with the history and underlying ideas of brandingand identity design, this course will examine the development of classic identitiesas well as seminal identity designers and design studios. We will also reviewcontemporary cases that highlight the challenges of brand and identity creationin specific sectors including fast-moving consumer goods, durable goods,services, organizations, places, and ideas. At the same time, we will examine bothcritical viewpoints around the practice of identity design and speculate on thefuture of brands and branded environments.

Above all, this course will:

Educate and train your eyes

Ask you to observe, evaluate, and critique basic claims and assumptions

Provide you with a platform for research

Guest lecturers: Guest lectures by contemporary practitioners will complementour coursework. This semester, we will welcome:

Dmitri Siegel, Executive Director of Marketing, Urban Outfitters

Matt Wishnow, SVP D2C, Warner Music Group; Founder, Insound

Randy J. Hunt, Design Director, Etsy

Albert Lee, Portfolio Lead, IDEO New York

Class blog: Our class blog is a place to continue discussion, debate, and sharingoutside of our weekly class meeting. You will be required to submit three kinds ofshort posts to the blog:

Image posts: Select an image drawn either from our current courseworkor from your own ongoing research. Write a short description about thisimage, what it is, how you see it, why you find it interesting, etc.

Material posts: Select a reading, link, or video related to our focus inclass that week along and write a short note about its connection withour coursework.

Discussion posts: Generate five questions or comments for discussion innext week’s class related to that week’s reading material.

Please tag your posts with your name to get credit and plan to monitor the blogclosely to keep current with your classmates’ posts.

Instructional format: This course will employ a variety of formats includinggroup presentations, individual presentations, discussions, lectures, and workingsessions. When appropriate, video or other supplemental materials will be used.Students are strongly encouraged to take part in class discussions and in theirown working groups. Working groups will be assigned early in the semester andwill remain together for all group projects.

Projects and evaluation: Students are required to attend every scheduled classmeeting, complete all required readings, participate actively in class discussions,and collaborate effectively in an assigned working group. Individual work, groupwork, and in-class participation will be evaluated using a four-point rubric(Beginning = 1, Developing = 2, Accomplished = 3, Exemplary = 4). Coursegrades are pass/fail but rubric evaluations will be available upon student requestat the midterm and final class. At the end of the semester, group project slidesand notes should be collected as a set of PDFs and handed in. Individual projectsshould be emailed as PDFs as well. All tagged blog posts will also be considered inthe final evaluation.

Classes

Class 1: Myths and meanings

Class 2: Taxonomies

Class 3: Clarity and confusion

Classes 4 & 5: Practitioner groups

Classes 6 & 7: Market sectors

Class 8: Futures

Class 1: Myths and meanings

Summary: I started the class by looking at a wide spectrum of definitions ofbranding, and sorted them into four categories. Simple definitions took the formof “Branding is [blank],” reflective definitions suggested the brand was a kind ofmirror for the internal dynamics of either a company or its consumer base,metaphorical definitions took this took this idea of the “brand as [blank]” andpushed them even further, and, finally, there are negative definitions, which oftensuggest that banding is not what you think it is. Like all definitions, each claimsays as much about the claimant’s position as they do about the practice ofbranding itself.

We then looked at branding through more historical lens, suggesting that whathas come to be known as branding can also be seen as the merging and mixing offour earlier professions: marketing, advertising, public relations, and graphicdesign. What triggered these disciplines to start to merge? One answer mightcome from looking at a shift in business itself as businesses, particularlyfast-moving consumer goods like packaged food, realized it was ultimately morevaluable to own the means of representing a product than it was to own themeans of producing a product. Thus a company’s assets moved from tangibleassets, or physical capital, to intangible assets, or intellectual captial.

Throughout the semester, we returned to this remark by John Stuart, Chairmanof Quaker Oats (1900), which I introduced in this first class:

If this company were to split up I would give you the property,plant and equipment and I would take the brands and thetrademarks and I would fare better than you.

Stuart realized as early as the turn of the 20th century that the image of hissmiling Quaker was worth more than any of his mills.

We went on to view branding not just through the merging of various professionsbut also through the lens of various academic disciplines like semiotics,economics, psychology, and anthropology. And finally, we saw the products ofbranding and identity design — symbols, logos, colors, etc. — as not a single but avaried set of signs, including marks of ownership (cattle brands), marks ofaffiliation (club insignias), marks of nationality (flags), marks of autheticity ormaker’s marks (ceramic stamps), marks of reputation or rank (four-star general),and marks of aspiration (luxury brands), which typically have evolved out of oneof the preceding mark categories.

I then posed several questions about the future of identity design:

How can an identity function not as a solution but as a framework? Howcan it function less like a building and more like a masterplan?

How can an identity remain simple and flexible enough to generate newimplementations?

How do time and collaboration yield successive variations? How canthese differences be productive?

The first question prompted an connection to Stuart Brand’s famous concept of abuilding’s “shearing layers” that suggest a single building is changing at variousspeeds all at once.

Above, top to bottom: Graphic from How Buildings Learn by Stuart Brand. The sixth installment ofBrandʼs BBC series of the same name.

The second question prompted a look back to an earlier talk I’d given at ArtistsSpace on the evolution of its A monogram from the institution’s founding in ’70sto its current iteration today by designer Manuel Raeder.

Above, from top: An early Artists Space monogram; marks from the early- to mid-ʼ80s; a mailer from1984; the Artists Space website in 2010.

The third question prompted a reference to art historian George Kubler, who,rather than looking at art objects on an individual basis, tried to position eachobject within a lineage of objects that are formally related to it, influenced by it,and influences on it. Kubler’s method blurs the boundaries between objects andtreats them more like ideas captured at a certain moment, the way a page onWikipedia is both static and evolving at the same time. This all-at-once-ness ispresent in the wonderful example of Knopf’s Borzoi dog, who takes many forms,each of which was made at a certain point for a certain reason by a variety ofdesigners, all of which signal that the book is a Knopf book, and whose selectionis somewhat conditional on the type of book Knopf is publishing in that case.Thus a Knopf book may be described as “a book with a dog on it,” and thisdescription alone, though loose, is sufficient to mark it as a Knopf book.

Above, from top: The cover of Kublerʼs The Shape of Time; the Wikipedia page for “Collaboration”and the history of its modification; a selection of Knopf Borzoi marks.

In-class project: Pick five brands that you identify with; discuss your thinkingwith the class. (30 mins)

Individual project: Using one of the five brands you identified in class, write aletter to Roland Barthes; come to class next week prepared to read and discussyour letter. (5-10 mins)

Rubric: Understanding of Barthes, Engagement with chosen brand, Quality ofwriting

Reading

Roland Barthes: “The Eiffel Tower” from The Eiffel Tower and OtherMythologies

Roland Barthes: “Toys,” “Plastic,” “Soap-powders and detergents” fromMythologies

Douglas B. Holt: Chapters 3 & 8 from How Brands Become Icons

Class 2: Taxonomies

Summary: In this session I introduced the idea of taxonomies as a tool forvisually organizing many of the marks we see. Taxonomies involve two simpleactivities that come naturally to designers: classing and ordering. Heterogeneousthings are classed into common sets and those common sets are ordered into ahierarchical scheme. The Animal Kingdom, which moves from kingdom tospecies, is a good example. As you move up the chain, you get increasinglyspecific.

Above: Taxonometric classes (top) ordered into a hierarchical table (bottom) from Per Mollerupʼs bookMarks of Excellence.

We looked at a few different ways of creating taxonomies within identity design,from playful (Tibor Kalman’s “A New Identity” for Print Magazine), to basic(Elinor Selame’s 1975 chart of symbol types) to complex (Per Mollerup’sclassification system). As we did, we discussed some of the assumptions thesecharts made, and what kinds of other systems might be open to exploration.

Above, from top to bottom: Tibor Kalmanʼs “A New Identity” flowchart taxonomy for Print Magazine,reproduced in Perverse Optimist. Elinor Selameʼs chart of symbol types from her book Developing aCorporate Identity

Finally, we discussed some different ways companies organize their own brands.With the help of some taxonomies prepared by Australia’s Blueprint Advisory, weorganized these strategies into “uniform” brand strategies (like BMW’s),“endorsed” brand strategies (like Apple’s iPod), “variable” brand strategies (likeP&G’s Gilette, Clarol, Cascade, and more), and “hybrid” stratgies that combineelements of each. While uniform strategies work well for durable goods like carsand services like air travel, “variable” strategies work well for fast-movingconsumer goods to aid in consumer recall and differentiation.

Above, from top to bottom: “Uniform,” “Endorsed,” and “Variable” brand strategy charts by BlueprintAdvisory.

Individual project: A taxonomy is a hierarchical classification scheme useful insimplifying or abstracting a large set of varied data. For next week, your task is tocollect 50+ varied logos and propose a taxonomy to organize them. While thelogos in your collection will necessarily inform the taxonomy you construct, donot be overly literal in your conclusions. Logos that are all one form, logos from asingle industry, etc are simply catagorical; they are not taxonometric. Also, whileambitious or even fantastical taxonomies are welcome, be sure to come to classready to support your claims with solid arguments. (10 mins)

Rubric: Good collection, well-organized taxonomy, assertions supported withwell-crafted arguments

Reading

Per Mollerup: Chapter 1 from Marks of Excellence

Karl Gerstner: “Logos and labels” from Visual Language

Paul Rand: “Logos, flags, and escutcheons” from Design, Form, andChaos

Bruce Mau: “Audition” from Life Style

Hans Weckerle: “Typographer as analyst” from Design

Class 3: Clarity and confusion

Group project: Using brands from Kevin Clancy and Jack Trout’s HarvardBusiness Review article on “Brand Confusion” as a starting-point, select a pair ofbrands often confused for one another and research their histories, theirpresent-day visual identities, and their market positioning. From this research,propose at least five actionable steps one or both brands could take to helpmitigate consumer confusion and, potentially, increase market overall share. (20mins)

Rubric: Quality of research into brand histories, strength of arguments, overallpresentation and group effort

Reading

Barry Schwartz: TED Talk [Video]

Malcolm Gladwell: “The Ketchup Conundrum” from The New Yorker

Nicholas Lemann: “The Word Lab” from The New Yorker

Classes 4 & 5: Practitioner groups

Group project: Prepare a profile and portfolio selection for a significantpractitioner of visual branding and identity design. This could be anyone:individuals (Paul Rand, Saul Bass), design firms (Pentagram, IDEO, Chermayeff& Geissmar, M&Co), industry giants (Landor, Wolff Olins, Siegel & Gale,Interbrand, Futurebrand, Lippencott), boutiques (Lloyd, Baron & Baron, A+R,Saffron), advertising agencies (Wieden+Kennedy, Saatchi & Saatchi), evenin-house departments (Target, CBS). Along with preparing a representativeselection of these firms’ work, you should be ready to offer your analysis eachgroup’s impact and overall philosophy. (20 mins)

Rubric: Breadth of survey, quality of visual and factual research, depth of insight,conclusions, and take-aways, overall presentation and group effort

Reading

Wally Olins: Chapters 1–4 from The Corporate Personality

Phillip Meggs: Chapter 22 from Meggs’s History of Graphic Design

Thomas Frank: Chapter 1 from The Conquest of Cool

Metahaven: Intro Riff & Chapter 1 from Uncorporate Identity

Classes 6 & 7: Market sectors

Group project: Fast-moving consumer goods, durable goods, services,organizations, places, and ideas together comprise the six broad sectors ofbranding. Within each of these sectors there are several subsectors as well;organizations, for example, include not just corporations but also governments,NGOs, universities, churches, and museums to name a few. Consider each ofthese subsectors in your analysis, survey representative brands in each subsector,and then gather and analyze these brands’ visual assets and communicationstrategies in order to draw conclusions about the particular challenges faced byboth the subsector, and, more broadly, the sector as a whole. (20 mins)

Rubric: Breadth of survey, quality of visual and factual research, depth of insight,conclusions, and take-aways, overall presentation and group effort

Reading

Judith Williamson: “Magic” from Decoding Advertisements

Raymond Williams: “Advertising: The Magic System” from Culture andMaterialism

John Berger: Chapter 7 from Ways of Seeing

Daniel Boorstin: Introduction & Chapter 5 from The Image

Rotterdam 2001: Introduction and presentation by Mevis & VanDeursen from Identities

Dexter Sinister: “We would like to share”

Class 8: Futures

Individual project: As thoughtfully as you can, tell us what’s next, what’s coming,what’s on the horizon. What areas of opportunity do you see opening up? Howwill branding change in the next five years? How about the next ten? How canbrands take advantage of this? How can customers? What sort of visual forms,systems, and strategies could be around the corner? What are pitfalls, dangers,and how can we plan for them? What are some risks worth taking? Where arethere new opportunities? Take care to be persuasive and support your claims withfacts, statistics, supporting visuals, and memorable take-aways. Consider this apitch. (5 mins)

Rubric: Use of course materials in preparing presentation, big ideas presented inan accessible way, focus and polish in presentation, conclusions and thoughtsfuture action or study

Further readings and resources

Books

Alina Wheeler: Designing Brand Identity

Al Ries and Jack Trout: Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind

Andres Janser and Barbara Junod: Corporate Diversity: Swiss GraphicDesign and Advertising by Geigy 1940 to 1970

B. Joseph Pine and James H. Gilmore: The Experience Economy: WorkIs Theater & Every Business a Stage

Chuihua Judy Chung, Jeffrey Inaba, Rem Koolhaas, and Sze TsungLeong (editors): The Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping

Ellen Lupton and J. Abbott Miller: “Subliminal Seduction” and “Lowand High” from Design Writing Research

George A. Akerlof and Rachel E. Kranton: Identity Economics: How OurIdentities Shape Our Work, Wages, and Well-Being

Jan Conradi: Unimark International: The Design of Business and theBusiness of Design

Joe Duffy: Brand Apart

Jon Miller and David Muir: The Business of Brands

Lars Thøger Christensen and George Cheney: “Self-Absorption andSelf-Seduction in the Corporate Identity Game” from The ExpressiveOrganization: Linking Identity, Reputation, and the Corporate Brand

Matthew Healey: What is Branding?

Nancy Koehn: Brand New: How entrepreneurs earned consumers’ trustfrom Wedgwood to Dell

Paul Willis: “Symbolic Creativity” from The Everyday Life Reader

Rita Clifton (editor): Chapters 1, 4 & 7 from Brands & Branding (TheEconomist)

Rob Walker: Buying In

Roland Marchand: “AT&T: The Vision of a Loved Monopoly” fromCreating the Corporate Soul: The Rise of Public Relations and CorporateImagery in American Big Business

Scott Lash and John Urry: Economies of Signs and Space

Steven Connor: “Rough Magic: Bags” from The Everyday Life Reader

Thomas Watson, Jr.: “Good Design is Good Business” from The UneasyCoalition: Design in Corporate America

Tom Calkins and Alice Tybout (editors): Kellogg on Branding

Wally Olins: “How Brands are Taking over the Corporation” from TheExpressive Organization: Linking Identity, Reputation, and theCorporate Brand

Videos

ABC Nightline: “Ideo redesigns the shopping cart”

Bruce Mau: “Interview with Charlie Rose”

Joe Duffy: From “Thirty Conversations on Design”

Mickey Drexler: “Interview with Charlie Rose”

Naomi Kline: “CBC: Hot Type Interview”

PBS Frontline: “The Persuaders”

Robin Chase: “Zipcar and the next big idea”

Sol Sender: “Designing Obama”

Steve Jobs: “Apple’s approach to branding”

Tim Westergren: “Interview with Charlie Rose”

Wally Olins: “The Nation And The Brand And The Nation As A Brand”

Online articles and resources

Adam Arvidsson: “The Logic of the Brand”

Adam Sternbergh: “Up with Grups”

Armin Vit and Bryony Gomez-Palacio: “The Secret Design History of 12Famous Brands”

Corporate Identity Catalogue

Dmitri Siegel: “Design by Numbers”

Dmitri Siegel: “Message on a bottle”

Joshua Porter: “Leveraging Cognitive Bias in Social Design”

Joshua Porter: “Metrics-Driven Design”

Michael Bierut: “Authenticity: A User’s Guide”