Photographs and Styling

What do your pictures say about your product?
Some examples can be found in the AIGA archives! Just search “branding”

 
Should you show the product and collateral when you shoot your packaging? Tea Branding Example here

Or maybe people are modeling your products/services like this for AOL.

Or perhaps it’s all on a seamless white background like this milk brand. 

This is the time to evaluate what’s the proper styling for your brand.

This Brand Book Needs to Be…

Due Next Thursday, Feb 23rd will be a rough comp of your entire brand book that needs to be digitally uploaded to issuu so we can review in class. Print and trim out at least one spread to bring to your group’s critique.

Think of the book as something you would use to pitch to a group of investors. You need to show them what the brand is, show the product and the great thinking behind it. 

Brand Brief Diagram
I had you guys fill out this worksheet towards the beginning. Now, you have the choice of redesigning it for your brand book or can write new copy that speaks to each of these topics.

Visual Parts
Logomark
Color
Type
Image/Illustration/Patterns

Brand Event
Explanation text about the event
Show your designed piece for the event (invitation/giftcard/promo)
If applicable, create a photoshop rendering of the event (see Rhyl garages below)  

Packaging
Display each piece of your packaging
Style it to the appropriate tone of your brand, i.e:

• are there people interacting with it?
• is it always part of a set?
• is it shot on a seamless white background, or on mom’s kitchen counter? 

Additional Options
If you created any other supplementary materials, include them as well.

THIS IS A DESIGN PIECE! 

This brand book is just as important if not more important than designing the brand itself! You need to communicate the thinking and the beauty of your brand within the pages of your book. This book about rebranding RHYL hits the mark…showcasing the thinking behind the book, while letting the beauty of the products sing on each spread. 

Other examples: Emblem Health , Smart in Your World ,  Red Papers , 

The use of full bleed spreads

Using the brand’s pattern as graphic elements in the book itself.

Displaying a mix of original source material that lead to the color palette 

Creating realistic photoshop illustrations to give the reader a sense of how it actually looks in the environment. 

All of these elements add up to create a very real and tangible illustration of what the brand looks like and how it spreads in the environment, in print and even on trucks! When someone closes your brand book, they need to walk away having an idea of what it is you do, and how you look when you do it. 

GOOD: Meet the Boba Guys

GOOD has a whole Monday series following MBAs with a creative bent as they build and brand their Boba Tea Business. These are interesting reads that shed some light on the business and design of starting a new business.

PDF presentation from week two. Brand Matrix, Naming, Dynamic Brands, Packaging and Vehicles. Click here to download.

Click here to download the PDF presentation from the first day.

The Brand Gap PDF Presentation

A nice overview of branding featuring content from Marty Neumeier’s The Brand Gap. Some old examples, but much of this is still relevant.