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Showing posts with label band. Show all posts
Showing posts with label band. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Do Colors for Branding Matter?

THE BRAND COLOUR SWAP: WHAT’S IN A COLOUR?

Ever imagined taking a brand and swapping its colour scheme with one of it’s competitors? Imagine no more, graphic designer Paula Rúpolo reveals all
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It started as an exercise: How would brands be perceived by us if they had a different colour scheme? Could we get used to them with time or would it produce something unimaginable?
You know, my dear graphic design friends, that just imagining, in this case, isn’t enough though. I hope none of the brands displayed here will come after this curious graphic designer claiming copyright abuse or anything similar – as I said, it’s an exercise. An exercise which got interesting when it revealed results which show that perhaps, in the branding world, not all choices are that naive. Let’s start.
Colour is probably the most important part of branding. It walks side by side and hand in hand with the brand’s visual identity, is there from the very first minute and, if it’s chosen correctly, stays for eternity. Would you get eager for french fries without McDonald’s giant yellow M? Or would Coca-Cola be the same without its magnetic red? We can’t know for sure. Coke doesn’t even have an exact Pantone matching colour anymore (though they recommend 485, apparently), making it almost mythical. Respect.
If you went to design school, one of the first things you’ll have learned is: colours represent emotions. Blue means calm and trust, green means vibrancy and draws eco friendly connotations, red means passion or danger and will make you want to leave a restaurant quickly if it’s plastered on the walls. Or something like that; ‘urgency is red’, they say. Luckily or not, I had a couple of professors of semantics who were very keen about it back in my BA, they made me never forget about the obvious: everything means something, always.
All meanings are associated by simple use, common sense and by the exposure we get to them with time, however they’re not necessarily universal. White can mean peace in western culture, while it represents the masculine (the yang of the yin and yang) in China, so it’s important to keep things in context. Any good company knows they should take that aspect into consideration when moving into new markets, that way they won’t step into a murky, controversial puddle. You can’t lose with common sense.
The idea, as you saw in the title, is called ‘The Brand Colour Swap‘. I’ve selected a few of the most well known brands in certain markets and replaced their colours with those from their main competition. Not all the results turned out to be overly revealing, but you can always channel new thoughts when changing the place of things. Kind of like when someone once did what most designers would consider their worst nightmare: the Comic Sans font as the typography for a glutton of famous brands.
Just place the mouse over the images to swap it!
Any particular ‘swap’ you’d like to see featured here on this post? Just leave a comment and it can be updated. Also feel free to comment with your thoughts on the swaps.
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Note 1: What’s the colour of McDonald’s european rebrand? Interesting…

TBCS: The Brand Colour Swap, logo colour, brand color swap, branding, logos, famous brands, graphic design, art direction, visual identity, coca-cola, subway, marketing, advertising, marketing agencies, coke, google, yahoo!, facebook, twitter, t-shirt printing, t-shirt printing for marketing, promotional clothing, t-shirt printing London, t-shirt printing UK, marketing UK, ferrari, BMW, samsung, nokia, apple, microsoft, pepsi, visa, mastercard, logos, logo design, tips
TBCS: The Brand Colour Swap, logo colour, brand color swap, branding, logos, famous brands, graphic design, art direction, visual identity, coca-cola, subway, marketing, advertising, marketing agencies, coke, google, yahoo!, facebook, twitter, t-shirt printing, t-shirt printing for marketing, promotional clothing, t-shirt printing London, t-shirt printing UK, marketing UK, ferrari, BMW, samsung, nokia, apple, microsoft, pepsi, visa, mastercard, logos, logo design, tipsTBCS: The Brand Colour Swap, logo colour, brand color swap, branding, logos, famous brands, graphic design, art direction, visual identity, coca-cola, subway, marketing, advertising, marketing agencies, coke, google, yahoo!, facebook, twitter, t-shirt printing, t-shirt printing for marketing, promotional clothing, t-shirt printing London, t-shirt printing UK, marketing UK, ferrari, BMW, samsung, nokia, apple, microsoft, pepsi, visa, mastercard, logos, logo design, tipsTBCS: The Brand Colour Swap, logo colour, brand color swap, branding, logos, famous brands, graphic design, art direction, visual identity, coca-cola, subway, marketing, advertising, marketing agencies, coke, google, yahoo!, facebook, twitter, t-shirt printing, t-shirt printing for marketing, promotional clothing, t-shirt printing London, t-shirt printing UK, marketing UK, ferrari, BMW, samsung, nokia, apple, microsoft, pepsi, visa, mastercard, logos, logo design, tipsTBCS: The Brand Colour Swap, logo colour, brand color swap, branding, logos, famous brands, graphic design, art direction, visual identity, coca-cola, subway, marketing, advertising, marketing agencies, coke, google, yahoo!, facebook, twitter, t-shirt printing, t-shirt printing for marketing, promotional clothing, t-shirt printing London, t-shirt printing UK, marketing UK, ferrari, BMW, samsung, nokia, apple, microsoft, pepsi, visa, mastercard, logos, logo design, tips, gatorade, powerade
TBCS: The Brand Colour Swap, logo colour, brand color swap, branding, logos, famous brands, graphic design, art direction, visual identity, coca-cola, subway, marketing, advertising, marketing agencies, coke, google, yahoo!, facebook, twitter, t-shirt printing, t-shirt printing for marketing, promotional clothing, t-shirt printing London, t-shirt printing UK, marketing UK, ferrari, BMW, samsung, nokia, apple, microsoft, pepsi, visa, mastercard, logos, logo design, tips, gatorade, powerade
Note 2: Not much of a difference, both brands have a one colour scheme very similar to each other.
TBCS: The Brand Colour Swap, logo colour, brand color swap, branding, logos, famous brands, graphic design, art direction, visual identity, coca-cola, subway, marketing, advertising, marketing agencies, coke, google, yahoo!, facebook, twitter, t-shirt printing, t-shirt printing for marketing, promotional clothing, t-shirt printing London, t-shirt printing UK, marketing UK, ferrari, BMW, samsung, nokia, apple, microsoft, pepsi, visa, mastercard, logos, logo design, tips, gatorade, powerade
So, what are the conclusions?
Lots of brands use a similar colour strategy. The strongest and most well known ones either keep a one colour identity (like Coke) or none at all (like the iconics Apple and Nike, but that’s achieving a new level of recognition indeed).
Blue, yellow and red are still the most used colours for most of the big companies; even Mastercard couldn’t help but bring in a dark blue to it’s visual identity lately. All in all, the icons from most logos are recognisable of course though it might make your brain freeze for a while trying to find what’s wrong with that image, right?
Please speak you mind below on the comment area. :)

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Paula RúpoloTHE AUTHOR
PAULA RÚPOLO
Paula's an Art Director for startup companies & small business. Multitalented, she has worked at magazines, world known design studio Estudio Mariscal and several enterprises for the past 7 years. Twitter | Google+View all entries by this author

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Smart negotiation tactic by musical band to keep their name


Here is the smart negotiation tactics used by the electro-pop duo The Postal Service. After selling more than 400,000 copies of their 2003 album, band members Jimmy Tamborello and Ben Gibbard received a cease-and-desist letter from the United States Postal Service (USPS) citing infringement of its trademarked name. The dispute could have turned ugly. The USPS was concerned about a dilution of its name in the marketplace. Given their recent success, the band members were reluctant to change their name.

Yet during negotiations, the band managed to turn the dispute into a syner- gistic opportunity by identifying the priorities and non-competing preferences of both sides. Tamborello and Gibbard pointed out that the losses the USPS had suffered to Internet and e-mail communication were large, especially among the age cohort of the band’s fan base. The USPS agreed to grant a free license allowing The Postal Service to continue to use its name. 

In exchange, the band agreed to print a trademark notice on its albums, to promote the use of the USPS by its young fans, and even to perform at an annual USPS event. As this story illustrates, when negotiators take stock of each other’s priorities and resources, they often will spot opportunities for wise trades. 

From Harvard's Program on Negotiation,
 Effective Conflict Resolution Strategies to Avoid Litigation
 
www.pon.harvard.edu/publications