Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about brands. Why? Because the brand experience matters, especially to designers. I asked myself questions such as what makes a brand shine? What makes a brand the one that people rave about to family and friends, who are ecstatic to talk about, who willingly part with cash to buy t-shirts and other items with that brand’s logo on it and wear it with pride? How do you create a feeling for a brand? Why does it even matter?
Going Deep
For those of us who create design, brands do matter. We’re not creating a website or a business card in a vacuum. Every time we create a design, we are adding to that brand’s current perception, it’s feeling to those that interact with it: the customers, the employees. Before we work on a project, we must understand the brand, probe deep into what it means and the brand’s true mission, what it wants to give back to the world. By going deep, That allows the brand’s voice to stay the same, to boom loud to the world it’s message.
Crafting the perfect experience through design
Once we understand a brand’s feeling, we can then create art, our design work. As the brand interacts with the customers, it will evolve, refine, and strive for constant improvement. The Japanese language has the perfect word to capture the definition of constant refinement: shokunin.
For artists, this word embodies who we are—the constant refinement of our own craft. So as we create our designs and refine brands through our design, we are also refining ourselves, our craft, our art.
What are you doing to apply the principles of shokunin? Share below!
Charlotte Chapman 