Digital Branding

DIGITAL BRANDING

When I was at university, a lecturer showed us a small mechanical looking object and asked us what it was. We couldn’t tell her. She then asked, what do you need to know to figure it out? And we said, what does it do? She said – exactly. What this object IS, is defined by what it does.

Interesting idea. You are defined by what you do. Your purpose is fundamentally expressed by your functionality. Your design IS your identity. The thing you’re meant to deliver is everything about you.

For me, as a creative director, looking back I now think there was a pretty huge question missing in relation to the object, the person that designed it, and the people that wanted one. That question is: WHY.

WHY?

Let’s take the Nest thermostat for example. A fairly simple and elegant bit of technology, reimagining the things that are wrong with thermostats and heating controls in the home. What does it do? Well, it lets you set the temperature in our home in ways you NEVER IMAGINED before. You can schedule each day separately. You can view your energy consumption. You can activate it and set it remotely. And the interface lets you do what you want, not what it wants you to do like the old controls. That’s what it does.

But let’s cut to the chase: why does anyone care? Why should anyone care? Why does this product exist? Why would and why do people pay £100 on this that could buy them a year’s subscription to WWE wrestling pay-per-views? Why why why?

WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY?

WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY?

HEATENERGY

CONTROLCOMFORTSERENITY

There are lots of practical reasons why people buy things.

It’s better than the old one, it’s faster, it’s cheaper, it’s more efficient.

But if you keep asking why, you eventually get to something emotional.

The feeling someone gets from the practical benefit.

I get interested when people stop talking about the technical or practical stuff and get to the rock bottom, raw emotion of things. Something meaningful, something universal, something that gives people a reason to INSTINCTIVELY believe in your product, to want it with their gut, not to weigh it up against the other options. When people are weighing things up, you’ve already lost. It’s that moment that we all have when we almost out of nowhere say “I want that.” “I like that.”

FAST

SLOW

We use a number of models that help us run workshops with out clients to get to the essence of what they’re all about. Simon Sinek’s “Golden Circles” theory questions not just what you do, but why you do it. The Brand Archetypes theory established by Pearson and Marks allows you to consider the different personalities your brand can represent. And Kahnemann’s Fast and Slow thinking influences the way we figure out what to commit to, and what will really convince someone to engage with you.

All of this thinking then influences typography:

(Medium)

(Tumblr)

Use of colour:

2001 2015

And the overall experience – whether immersive and calming:

Intense and powerful…

Or sleek and precise:

Some sites are able to even carry the style through to their forms:

Others not so much:

If you are a quirky brand, shouldn’t you be able to carry it through to your forms?

Good – instead of “Done” it says “Go Go Go”

Bad – is this the language they should be using?

Slack carry it through all the way:

And even your 404 page can work for your brand: