Blending a texture layer into your photograph is a great way to make your images more creative. Matt demonstrates how to do this in Photoshop.

QUICK-FIX COLOR TWEAKING PLUG-IN

Color correction in film and video in any ideal situation should be left to those who have spent years training their eyes to finesse each scene to the perfect combination. Yet, in all reality these days, that’s not going to happen for most of us.

Thankfully, Red Giant Software’s Magic Bullet Looks came along and packaged the color process in one intuitive package as a plug-in and standalone application. Magic Bullet Looks brought us more than 100 presets and the ability to customize our own combinations. As beautiful as this product is, it can be intimidating and a bit pricey for some.

This is where Magic Bullet Mojo 1.1 comes in. If you feel that Magic Bullet Looks still wasn’t fast enough or simple enough, then this $99 plug-in from Red Giant Software is a no-brainer. Now, Magic Bullet Mojo is more of a tweaking plug-in than a full-fledged, color-correction plug-in; however, if you pay attention to most movies that have come out in recent years and their color palettes, you’ll soon find that there are actually only a handful of differences as far as color correction goes. Warm skin tones and cooler hues in the shadows? All you have to do is move two sliders and you’re done. How’s that for trimmed down?

So, if you’re looking for a quick-fix finisher tool to help your colors stand out from the rest, be sure to check out Magic Bullet Mojo from Red Giant Software.—Jason Scrivner

Company: Red Giant Software LLC
Price: $99
Web: www.redgiantsoftware.com
Rating: 5
Hot: Affordable; easy to use; color palettes
Not:

Making things look old and dirty is another matter and a little tougher.

People usually use Photoshop to make things look “nice and clean,” and many times the Clone tool will suffice to get the job done. Making things look old and dirty is another matter and a little tougher, however. Whether you’re creating something from scratch or retouching an image to show the effects of time, the process is similar.

The myriad billboards and signs that populate my Times Square painting are supported by an endless maze of girders that usually lie hidden from the eyes of the public on the street. Time and the elements have a dramatic effect on these structures. Creating these elaborate support systems is one thing but making them appear as if they’ve been there for a long time is what you’ll learn in this tutorial.

STEP ONE:
We’re going to focus on two girders and the bolt and nut that hold them together. The first step is to create the paths that form the shapes of the two girders and the bolt and nut that hold them together.

Additional paths were generated for the shadows and threading on the bolt. In our example, these paths were generated from scratch but you could also trace the shapes in an existing photograph. Note: In the case of a photograph, it’s important to select individual sections so that they can be altered to add the worn look.

STEP TWO:
Here, we filled each path with the appropriate color in a separate layer for each element. A filter of Texturizer (Filter>Texture>Texturizer) in Sandstone was added to the beams and they were also given layer styles to create the edges.

To make the effect look believable, it’s important to portray the damages correctly. Guessing at what something would look like isn’t always effective. It might look good to you but not quite right to someone else looking at your work. To try for a genuine effect, it’s best to study reference material. For instance, simply walk down the street and look at an old structure to see how dirt builds up, paint peels, rust forms, and look for any other characteristics of the effects of wear and tear. It’s a great idea to take a couple of shots of the damages to not only serve as reference material but you might actually use them to create the effect. More on this concept later.

STEP THREE:
Use the Brush tool (B) to create these weathered effects. The right brush tip is important, and Photoshop comes equipped with many tips that can do the job. Spatter, Chalk, Charcoal, and a few others will give you the desired effect provided they’re modified in the Brushes panel (Window>Brushes). The Spatter tip will work perfectly, so that’s what we’ll use.

In the Brushes panel, click on Brush Tip Shape on the left and increase the Spacing a little. Click on Shape Dynamics on the left and set the Size Jitter and Angle Jitter to 100% to complete the steps necessary to randomize the brush tip. That will allow you to create very realistic dirt and grime. You might want to up the percentage of the Minimum Diameter for the Size so that no tips are applied that are so small they look like dots.

STEP FOUR:
As mentioned earlier, a photograph of damaged surfaces can be turned into a very effective brush tip. Here’s a photograph of a weather-beaten stone façade. [Insert Fig04] Select a rectangular section of the photograph, leaving about 1/2″ of space on the outer edges. Feather the selection (Select>Modify>Feather) with a setting that’s high enough to soften the edges, thus eliminating any hard lines. (Note: Adding the feather through Select>Refine Edge allows you to preview the amount of feathering being applied.) Finally, choose Edit>Define Brush Preset to turn the image into a brush tip.

STEP FIVE:
In the Brushes panel, modify the tip to make it work the way you want. In this case, the most likely first step is to reduce the Size of the brush tip. The current size will be that of the original selected image, making it too big to be effective. Then apply the same alterations in the Shape Dynamics section that were outlined above for the Spatter tip. Because the selection of the photograph is a specific shape, you might want to soften the edges of the strokes. To accomplish this, choose a soft-edged brush tip in the Dual Brush section of the Brushes panel. Play with the settings in that section until you see the desired effect in the brush preview at the bottom of the panel.

You’re now ready to start rendering the ravages of time on your image. If you’re creating the image from scratch, each section should have its own layer above it to contain the damages for that section. In this example, the different sections are the crossbeam, bolt, nut, and upright. The layer containing the object being weathered should then clip that second layer containing the damages. To clip the layers, Option-click (PC: Alt-click) between the two layers. If you’re creating these damages over an existing photograph, then your damages will still be created in their own layer but the layer will be masked to confine the damages to the specific area being weathered. That’s where those paths mentioned at the beginning come into play. They help to create the appropriate layer mask for the layer.

STEP SIX:
This image shows where we’ve added the dirt and grime to the crossbeam. Using the Spatter brush, the effects are added using different sizes of the brush. To get the larger stains, a large brush size is chosen. It’s also important to lower the Opacity for the brush so it will apply what seems like an overall stain of weathered grime. After raising the Opacity and lowering the size for the tip, you apply random stains throughout the section. Note that the area around the nut and bolt has more dirt than the rest. This gives the illusion that the space between the crossbeam and the nut has accumulated additional grime. It’s even seen running down the edge as if smeared by falling rain. The stream also follows the bend in the beam.

STEP SEVEN:
Here, the vertical beam is weathered; you can see where the stream of dirt from the crossbeam above has continued to flow. There’s also a buildup of grime at the seam of the two beams. These little touches add realism to the finished product.

STEP EIGHT:
The nut and bolt also have some corrosion so, besides dirt and grime, they’re also rusty. The same brush tip will do the trick with one additional modification: In the Color Dynamics section of the Brushes panel, we set the Foreground/Background Jitter to 100%. All the additional settings are set to 0%. This will allow the brush to randomize the color of each tip shape as the stroke is applied to the canvas. By choosing a dark brown for the Foreground color and a medium orange for the Background color, you’re now ready to corrode your metal parts. Note the way some of the rust travels along the edges of the nut. This is synonymous with how things look in real life.

It’s these little touches that make things look real. Now open Photoshop and do some damage.

ALL IMAGES BY BERT MONROY UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

In this two-part tutorial, viewers will learn how to use a stock image of a paper texture to design an envelope, a stamp, and a cancellation, all within Photoshop.

A few weeks back, I got together with one of my favorite photographers, Rick Sammon. Rick had invited me to come up and hang out with him around his neck of the woods.  We spent the time hanging out at the largest Buddhist temple just an hour north of NYC.  After doing some shooting and processing, I found myself wanting to print this one HDR over at Artistic Photo Canvas.  Click on Read More to learn how to download it for FREE!

Summer Xmas- by Artistic Photo Canvas

Getting a print sent to you from APC feels a lot like Christmas.  The folks there are so meticulous about putting together your canvas – you can really feel the attention to detail.  The great part about it though, is that the attention spills into how they pack it, how they put it in the box, and how they ensure it gets there safe, with a warm note from Lew, the company’s Co-Founder and President.

My Unboxing Moment

I had talked to them about creating something called an Unboxing Moment.  Everyone loves to unbox what they’ve gotten in the world of technology, and they usually want to share it with the world.  I figure.. why not show the faces of the customers using Artistic Photo Canvas and their prized memories!!

They’ve taken that to Twitter!  If you use Twitter, simply send @APCPro a Tweet with a picture of you and your print, with the hashtag #APCUB.  Then you too can share with the world your unboxing moment, and can even win a cool prize!

Download This Image for Free

I thought this image looked great as a mini pano, and I was excited to get it.  I figured I’d share it with the world!!

Go to the Artistic Photo Canvas Blog Post by Clicking Here. You can ready a post about the picture and at the bottom, there’s a link to download the high res file – no strings attached. Want to print it at home? knock yourself out!  Want to print it with APC?  I’m sure they’d love it.

The great part about it is that they dont expect you to.  They’re giving the picture away for free.. just because they love to.  And that’s why I love em!

You can Follow me on Twitter by clicking here

TEXT ANIMATION PLUG-IN FOR MACS OFFERS MORE OPTIONS

After Effects has such a powerful built-in text engine, what more could an animator need? Noise Industries has answered that question by taking a close look at existing features and augmenting them with their Motype 1.2 plug-in.

I find myself using it most often for random characters; you know, that technobabble stuff clients always want scattered around the screen, making all compositions look like consoles from the Starship Enterprise. I can create this effect using the After Effects text engine alone, but Motype gives me many more options. For instance, I can specify a specific pool of random characters from which the randomizer can choose; limit the randomization to uppercase (or lowercase) only; or choose just letter, just number, or just symbols.

Motype allows me to quickly set up text fly-ons, fade-ups, descrambles, etc. without mucking about with keyframes. As text moves, it can leave behind an echoey trail or even spit out custom particles. The effect has built-in motion blur, 3D-camera movement, and interesting background patterns that can sit behind the text.

My one gripe about Motype is that it’s an island unto itself, rather than being fully integrated into the After Effects existing text engine. As such, although it has built-in 3D capabilities, it doesn’t interact with the native 3D engine in After Effects. Nor can you move its text along on After Effects paths. This means that when planning a text effect, you must decide if you’re going to achieve it with the After Effects engine or with Motype—it’s tough to combine the two.—Marcus Geduld

Company: Noise Industries, LLC
Price: $99
Web: www.noiseindustries.com
Rating: 4
Hot: Fills in gaps from After Effects text engine
Not: Not fully integrated with After Effects; Mac only

Recreate the type effect from a popular online game. Matt chose to use Adobe Illustrator because of its options for outlining text.

COMPLETE SET OF PROFESSIONAL MUSIC APPLICATIONS

Most people who know me think of me as a video guy. But some may not be aware that for much of my life, I’ve been a musician—behind the instruments, not at the control boards and mixers. So when it comes to music-creation software, I’d consider myself “amateur to semi-pro,” and I believe it’s folks like me that Apple had in mind with the latest update of Logic Pro, now called Logic Studio.

The new Logic Studio consists of Logic Pro 9, MainStage 2, and Soundtrack Pro 3 and the first thing noticeably different from previous versions of Logic Pro is the redesign of the interface and ease of use. Next is the addition of MainStage and all of Apple’s Jam Packs.

As a self-taught audio-recording engineer, I’ve used the standards, such as Pro Tools, Cubase, and Ableton Live. I’m producing podcast themes or “quickie” music beds, however, so I usually revert back to the simplicity of GarageBand. I’d given up on previous versions of Logic because they were too complex and foreign. Now, after a few years spent in Soundtrack Pro (via Final Cut Studio) and GarageBand, Logic Pro 9 is a snap. Without any manual or tutorial, I jumped right in with my Korg M3 keyboard and recorded my first piece. This was fairly easy because of the new streamlined workflow and the fact that all of the essential editing and mixing tools are right in front of you—not hidden three submenus deep. When beginning a new project, you even have the option of using a template wizard to get the jumpstart you need.

One of the most mind-blowing features of the new Logic Studio is its vast library of instruments and loops—40 GB, give or take. For the first piece I created in Logic Pro 9, I used my keyboard as a real instrument; however, when I plug it in as a MIDI controller through USB, I have at my disposal an extensive library of sounds and effects built right into the software. This alone is a huge advantage that Apple has over the competition; but it doesn’t stop there. With MainStage 2, my MacBook Pro is now a virtual bank of guitar amps and synthesizers that I can quickly set up and tear down at a live gig. Not a musician? No problem. Apple has also included all five Jam Packs so that you can take prerecorded music and create your own jams without the instruments.

In the past, Logic has retailed for about $1,000, so you’d think that the price tag might have escalated. But…how about $499? That’s right. There’s absolutely nothing—ahem—logical about that, but I’m certainly not complaining.

Now, of course, Logic Studio isn’t by any means perfect. For instance, although Logic Pro 9 is more streamlined, with everything within reach, it means that you need a lot of screen real estate to give all the tools some “breathing room.” Also, as cool as MainStage is, it seems powerful enough only for fun jam sessions, not center stage performances.

There will be those—probably the true day-to-day professional musicians— who will criticize Logic Studio. Yet, with all the changes and competitive pricing, I think Apple’s target audience is the amateur to semi-pro musicians (like me) who are looking for a fast, efficient, but powerful, recording tool in their arsenals.—Jason Scrivner

Company: Apple Inc.
Price: $499
Web: www.apple.com
Rating: 4

Hot: Jam packs; price; easy workflow; instruments
Not: Requires lots of screen space; not for big performances

Clare Nicholas graduated in 1986 from Bristol Polytechnic, U.K., with a B.A. (HON) 1st Class in Fine Art, Specializing in Printmaking. She continued her studies in printmaking at the Royal College of Art in London, but was soon lured in by the illustration department next door. In 1988, she sold a number of pieces at her graduation, including a piece to the Art Director of British Vogue. She was later commissioned by the same publication to produce an illustration for a horoscope feature.

Clare has used her printmaking skills in conjunction with Photoshop and Illustrator to create fantastic, unique pieces of art that retain the feel of handcrafted images. Her work has attracted myriad clients, including BBC Worldwide, The Ecologist, Southampton University, and Reed Business Information. Currently, she’s producing an ongoing series of images for the BBC magazine, Who Do You Think You Are?, which supports a TV show exploring our ancestry.

Layers: How have you incorporated your training in traditional printmaking with the digital world of Photoshop and Illustrator?

Nicholas: Printmaking is a wonderful medium that boasts many different processes, each with their own unique characteristics. It’s an indirect method of mark making that involves creating a plate or block or screen to produce the picture. Each process requires sensitivity to its limits. I always enjoyed combining printmaking methods, such as lithography and etching, to capitalize on each technique. Images can be constructed by layering and overlapping, sometimes transparent marks and areas of form. This compares quite closely to the way I work using Photoshop and Illustrator combined: I collect reference material in the form of photographs, simplifying the images by heightening the contrast and sometimes creating silhouettes. Then I apply texture and marks to them, which I’ve manufactured by freehand and scanned. I create my textures and marks using rollers, brushes, and paint spray, sometimes working into the textures when dry by scraping and scratching back to the negative.

I was always interested in pushing the boundaries of the medium by breaking the rules a little and found hand burnishing and over-inking relief prints gave them unique and interesting qualities. In this way the process had its own unpredictable input into the creation of a piece.

One of the things that I like about using Photoshop is the interaction between the software and myself. I see it not just as a tool but almost as having its own personality, which often contributes unexpectedly to my image making. Being self-taught means that quite often mistakes provide an inspired approach to composing that I’d never have arrived at logically. I see myself very much as a Photoshop novice exploring the possibilities, having fun, and adapting my style as I learn.

Layers: How much input do your clients have in the initial concept for your designs?

Nicholas: The level of input from clients varies a lot but I generally prefer to have the freedom to come up with my own concept, as I find that too much art direction can sometimes suffocate the creative process for me.

Layers: What’s the key to unifying your digital montages into a single message?

Nicholas: I like to use a limited color palette and to keep the dynamic simple by making the images fairly minimal and unified by the textures and fluidity of the marks. By using a limited color palette, the visual journey can be controlled and softened.

Layers: Your work has been used in industries ranging from business to food to medicine. What is it about your particular style that makes it so versatile for such a wide range of subjects?

Nicholas: I think my printmaking knowledge has led to a technique with a very organic friendly feel. In this way it’s particularly successful when applied to natural subjects. I do have regular input to a British publication called Estates Gazette, which often features my illustrations in the legal section. Although it can be a rather starchy topic, my approach seems to provide a sympathetic visual solution.

Layers: Where do you find inspiration for your particular style of art?

Nicholas: I love the simplicity and color of the 1950’s designs and I particularly like the work of Alvin Lustig. I draw inspiration from a wide base of influences. Three contemporary illustrators whose work I admire are Kate Miller, Sara Fanelli, and Roman Klonek.

Layers: If deadlines weren’t an issue, would you prefer to spend more time printmaking or working in Photoshop?

Nicholas: I guess I do miss the printing process but my move toward digital production was induced by a need for speed. When it comes to commissioned work, I find that digital is much preferable, as it’s infinitely easier to edit.

I think there’s also less inclination to become possessive about the piece. When you craft an image by hand, it really is a labor of love, and having an outside input can be difficult to embrace. There’s also, of course, the added benefit of remaining clean!

Contact Clare Nicholas http://altpick.com/clarenicholas

ALL IMAGES BY CLARE NICHOLAS

BRANDS ARE NOT JUST ABOUT COMMERCE, THEY ENABLE US TO MAKE SENSE OF THE WORLD

People tend to view brands as things to be guarded against, held at arms length or as necessary commercial evils, and if left unchecked, will invade every aspect of our lives, turning us into soulless consuming clones. This view demonstrates a limited grasp of the fundamentals of identity and human experience in general. Brands enable people to make their way in the world—brands always have and always will. Any “thing” that constitutes the world can be usefully held as a brand. All that varies between brands is complexity, consistency, and efficacy. The more effectively a brand relates to the world the more it will inspire people to use and promote it. This is how brands become known, this is how they become successful, and this is what makes them so directly relevant to every aspect of our lives.

Whether contemplating existence, cooking a meal, or putting a man on the moon, brands are involved in every instance of every socially significant activity, no matter what type of value is being exchanged. With such a view it’s not difficult to realize that without brands experiences worth sharing aren’t possible.

This remains true not only for sophisticated consumers in developed countries but across all cultures and for all peoples of the world. Any identity that’s articulated sufficiently and held stable enough for future use is effectively a brand. Typically, industrialized First-World terms and tools are used to articulate the most effective brands and, as a result, these are the highly commercialized brands that we know, love, and loathe.

What distinguishes commercial brands from others is that the type of value they trade in is flexible, easily transferred, and immediate. It should come as no surprise that these brands have the most power to affect change, so they get the most attention.

The marks of experience

According to media theory, all experiences are mediated by terms: terms determine the conditions of environments and these terms direct behavior within those environments. This set of connected ideas plays a key role in understanding the experience of brands.

Established brands tend to provide a rich mix of media, becoming deeply immersive and, therefore, highly memorable experiences for consumers of their products and services. This is what makes the story of the role of brands in society so compelling, and also utterly unavoidable.

Brands are generally identified by their physical and practical attributes. Typically, these are the products and visual marks that most people recognize as logos, but this is the crudest and most basic definition of a brand. A brand is not just a logo or a product; a brand is the overall experience of a particular identity. This includes every aspect of an identity, from the most visceral and practical to the most cerebral and esoteric.

For an identity to be useful, it must be branded, it must be “marked out.” Crucially, a branded identity enables the identity to be grasped and understood by consumers, but equally important, this also enables it to be managed effectively. The terms of the brand “mark out” the brand experience and these terms are themselves a type of mark worthy of further study. These are the marks of a brand; they are “brand marks” and these marks determine and mediate all brand experiences.

Business is a brand strategy

Brands make it their business to become known for offering distinctive experiences. Established brands understand that business is all about experience, either experiences that relate directly to a brand’s practical products and services or abstract experiences associated with the brand. Effective brands actively manage their brand strategies in order to bring their products and services to larger audiences. They continually adjust the terms of their brand to remain relevant to people’s lives by becoming more effective and ensuring, as much as possible, that they become or remain the preferred choice.

The measure of the success of a strategy is the measure of the brand’s effectiveness in the world. A brand has to be relevant to the task at hand, a task that may be as transient and self-serving as elevating social status or as significant as highlighting the importance of an idea in a broader cultural context, such as the sustainability issues surrounding climate change. One such example is BP.

In the late ’90s, following the merger with Amoco, the new company realized that it was worth retaining the BP brand, but the brand identity was no longer fit for purpose. To an increasingly environmentally conscious public, BP began to represent the petroleum age at its worst. A new story was needed to determine a brand identity to express a more relevant and sustainable long-term brand strategy.

As British Petroleum, the BP brand did not reflect the company’s global citizenship and pointed at Britain’s trouble-stricken imperialist history. This impression was reinforced by BP’s old-fashioned and rather militaristic badge. A radical re-imagining of BP was necessary, and a new brand strategy was needed to ensure a sustainable future for the company.

To some degree, BP may be wearing a mask, but in time the features of the brand will take on the features of the mask. For diehard eco-warriors, this kind of branding may appear as a superficial greenwash, a false mask, but in the realm of appropriately mediated brand experiences, BP has now become a breakaway brand, leading by example. BP’s transformed brand identity represents a set of ideas that drives an internal and external business culture that envisions a future (B)eyond (P)etroleum.

Brand strategy and design are best understood as the articulation and coordination of brand marks to make a brand experience not only compelling to consumers, but more effective and graspable so as to also enable the brand to be properly maintained, managed, and steered into a future. Simply put, a brand identity is a brand strategy made experiential.

Brand imperatives

In brand consulting, the reason a brand exists is best handled as an imperative. A product or service is a manifestation of the imperative and usually provides the basis for a marketing strategy and brand identity. In combination, an imperative, strategy, and identity describe the major components of a brand. The brand strategy and identity can be dissected further into types of marks and configuration of those marks.

The brand experience is not only restricted to the customer as an end-user but represents the total experience of the brand identity, including the experience of the people responsible for creating and managing the brand. These people direct the imperatives of the brand; they are responsible for forming and shaping the brand—they are the brand’s Imperative Directors.

Perhaps the most well-known and spectacularly successful contemporary example of an Imperative Director is Apple’s founder and CEO, Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs’ company creates products he believes should be available on the market for not only his personal use but also for the benefit of those around him. As the Imperative Director of Apple, Steve Jobs actively determines the attributes of the Apple brand. This means he influences, fundamentally, the formation and coordination of the brand marks that determine the experience of the Apple brand: a brand experience, at the core of which are the Apple products we know and love.

Perhaps the ultimate Imperative Director, although faced with less tangible marks to coordinate but with perhaps the most pragmatic impact on people’s daily lives, is the most powerful man on the planet, President Barack Obama. He is arguably the most effectively branded president in history, leading the most thoroughly branded country in the world, the United States of America.

The language of brands

As the marks of a brand mediate the experience of a brand, it’s worth having a closer look at what qualifies as a brand mark.

The easiest way to understand the nature of a brand mark is to start with physical marks. These are all the physical marks that relate to bodily sensations: sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. Besides the brand name, the way a brand looks is often taken to be the full extent of a brand. For most people, the way a brand looks is the easiest way to understand what constitutes a brand. Visual recognition tends to guarantee the most stable and consistent cues that enable people to recall and promote a particular product or service. This is usually in conjunction with the reason the brand exists (the imperative as described above), and this is probably the reason a person becomes aware of a brand in the first instance. Most likely, in some way, the brand enabled the person to intervene in an activity more effectively than using a competitor’s product or a previous model, or perhaps there were no such previous products at all. The latter typically forms a new type of brand experience and often creates whole new categories of products and services, and brand experiences. Think, for example, of life before the Internet; what the Internet now means and what role brands such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter perform in people’s daily lives.

Brand marks that are more challenging to grasp are those presented in language. Brands try to consciously own a “language-space” so that the brand is cued without the need for a visual reference such as a logo, a specific physical context, or the product itself. In this way brands get to share a more flexible and intimate social space, where people tend to be less guarded against the coercive promotion of brands in the media.

In traditional media, brands are often seen to be staking a claim to a particular territory, where clearly they demand attention for their own commercial ends. For this reason, advertisers rely on entertainment to lower the natural resistance to artificial, hyped-up, and interruptive brand promotion. However, as brands are media themselves (determined by the environment created by their various types of marks), they also tend to evolve with developments in communications media, and as a result of the digital media revolution taking place online, brands are becoming more consumer-centric.

Brands are now all about you, the consumer. Digital media have enabled mass personalization and customization previously unimaginable. Consumers now get to realize aspects of themselves within the environment of these new types of brand experiences. This represents a rich and potent mix of brand experience and personal identity on a massive scale at an unprecedented level of complexity.

Brandmarks versus logos

All the various types of marks that describe and orchestrate the overall brand experience support and make meaningful a primary brand mark. Most people know what a logo is, but the term logo is not suitable for evoking an entire brand experience. This is particularly the case in brand experiences understood and managed as nested sets of interrelated and interconnected brand marks.

Written as a single word, the term “brandmark” denotes the primary brand mark’s status. The brandmark is the most concentrated representation of a complete brand identity. It is for this reason that brand consultancies have declared the death of the logo. Logos are no longer important, and a new type of language constructed of brand marks is taking center stage in brand consulting.

The personalization of brands in combination with a more open and collective approach to managing brands also reflects the changing nature of the products and services offered. A brand that presents an excellent case for establishing a certain type of visual mark to cue an entire brand experience without relying on a single (and solitary) logo is the Symbian Foundation (www.symbian.org). A set of distinctive illustrations serve as the brand marks of the Symbian Foundation brand identity. This is a set of marks that demonstrate the unlimited creative possibilities of open-source software development. The brand marks are so distinctive in form as well as content that only a single illustration is required to cue the entire Symbian Foundation brand.

The rise, and rise of brand consulting

Logos are also very much a product of the efforts of the advertising and design consultancies that helped bring capitalism to the masses in the 20th century. No longer restricted to marginal in-house departments, marketing as a profession has emerged as a commercial entity to be reckoned with. Marketers quickly realized that joining forces with what were previously known as below-the-line design consultancies, as opposed to above-the-line advertising agencies, would enable them to realize their ambitions more expediently. The rise of the brand consultancy has since become unstoppable. Design consultancies and advertising agencies are now considered relatively ineffective and old-fashioned in brand management.

There may still be bigger budgets in advertising but it’s the slower moving, deeper thinking, and more meticulous brand consultancies that are best positioned to determine long-term brand strategy and identity. Brand consulting is now a highly specialized field that draws deeply on human experience in the broadest sense, combining business acumen, marketing knowledge, psychology, media theory, sociology, philosophy, science, art, and in more esoteric-oriented consultancies, lessons learned from organized religion. Brand identity has a direct correlation to individual as well as collective identity and as such requires complex and robust existential frameworks to navigate effectively. From this position, the marks of brands can be formed and coordinated to harness all types of experience and even to imagine new types of brand experiences.

These may seem like grand claims of brand consulting. No single brand consultancy is likely to offer a clearly defined system that demonstrates all these areas of expertise in a neat system. However, the caliber of experience embodied in the people who direct and operate the world’s top brand consultancies is often extensive and profound, drawing on all types of human experience and understanding. Academic credentials combined with worldly experience and social sensibilities of consultants ensure brands are not only credible but, whenever possible, exceed expectations. Landor Associates use a model they call the Brand Driver Platform™, and guiding all strategic and creative work are ideas such as “relevant and different” and “transform and transcend.” These form part of a creative methodology that covers most types of experience and helps determine new possibilities for brands.

Brand consulting is a rich and complex process. Some aspects of it are the products of calculation and analysis and some aspects are born of intuition and insights available from novel information provided by specialized sources and already successful clients. Broadly, brand consulting either consciously directs or “intuits” work through four types of thinking: (1) The art of branding ensures new experiences are uncovered and created, (2) the science of branding ensures an empirical basis for practical value in products and services, (3) the philosophy of branding ensures that all propositions are meaningfully directed, and (4) the religion of branding ensures that people are encouraged to reach beyond their known frameworks of experience and embrace visions of collectively effective strategies.

A recent brand transformation that demonstrates highly effective brand consulting drawing on all these areas of experience is Pick n Pay (www.picknpay.co.za), a South African superbrand with a growing global reputation. Deeply loved and highly regarded during the troubled history of South Africa, Pick n Pay has championed the consumer for more than 40 years in openly credible and verifiable corporate social responsibility practices. Landor Associates directed and created the brand transformation, furnishing it with an internal brand driver of “Fresh Thinking” and a public-facing brandline “Inspired by you.” The company now makes it their business to be customer-centric and openly holds itself accountable to “you, the consumer” in South Africa and parts of Australia. Pick n Pay is now a major supermarket in tune with its customers and equipped with a robust brand identity in a mutually dependent brand experience.

Also, in the context of digital media, the demands placed on brands to become more participatory and interactive have seen the emergence of the digital consultancy. These digital consultancies usually have either an advertising or branding orientation but both are subject to brand consulting. Most of the larger brand consultancies now have a digital offering not only to better serve clients but also to promote themselves as brands.

Think: Landor Associates (www.landor.com), Interbrand (www.interbrand.com), Saffron (http://saffron-consultants.com), Venture Three (www.venturethree.com), The Arnell Group (http://arnell.com), Siegel+Gale (www.siegelgale.com), and Wolff Olins (www.wolffolins.com)

Brand ideas and reality

The ideas with which brands align themselves profoundly influence the experienced reality of a brand. These ideas relate to the total value they offer with no specific visual marks required to be present at the point of recall. The subtlest cues in presentation enable powerful imagery to be recalled instantly—imagery that reflects the experienced reality of the brand, and much more. If a brand successfully aligns itself with an idea, a philosophy, or way of life, the value of the brand becomes priceless. Brands that achieve this often become deeply enmeshed in personal identity and often develop fanatical followers. This status is hard won by brands and is considered by brand owners and consultants as the holy grail of brand identity.

Think: Tiffany, Nike, The Olympics, Nokia, David Beckham, Armani, Avatar, and Audi

Multiple readings of a single idea that cue the richest experience of a brand make for the most effective brand ideas, sometimes evoking the esoteric (and even the sublime), enabling people access to a transcendent experience in a highly quantified and commercialized environment. If the idea also works as a public-facing brandline, then the idea forms the most compelling and evocative type of brand mark that underwrites an entire brand experience.

Honda’s “The power of dreams” is one such example of a very successful and highly desirable set of language-based brand marks. The interpretation of the brand idea in the brandline goes something like: Honda’s products are dreams; they are the products of dreams; they power dreams; Honda is imaginative; Honda is powerful; with Honda people can realize their dreams (powerfully); and so on. Most people dream, most people imagine, and most people need powered mobility. The poetic value of the brand idea in Honda’s brandline is self-evident. It evokes what Honda can do for people beyond the high-quality (and for many of Honda’s customers the “dream-like”) mobility products the company brings into the world.

A few other examples of notable brand ideas of a similar richness in meaning and conceptual depth include: GE’s “Imagination at work,” Apple’s “Think different,” Intelsat’s “Closer, by far” and “Zero degrees of separation,” O2’s “We’re better, connected,” Seagate’s “We turn on ideas,” Cotswold’s “We get outdoors,” Sony’s “Like no other,” and Disney’s “Imagineering” to illustrate the power of language-based brand marks.

Some successful brand ideas are built directly into the primary brand mark. Amazon’s brandmark succinctly expresses the type of value it offers. The dot com indicates that Amazon is an online brand and evokes imagery of an abundant digital rainforest delivering an A to Z list of products. Not only is this expressed literally in the brandmark using a functional arrow but the arrow is also tweaked into a pleased smile; a smile that has a very good reason to exist. This is not a self-satisfied smile slapped onto a brand devoid of ideas; this is a smile that delivers an emotional experience relevant to the category defining brand experience that is Amazon.

Some brands just don’t get ideas

In contrast to Amazon’s smile, Pepsi’s recent brand transformation idea appears as a comical, witless, and cheesy grin, crowbarred into a recognizable but mechanical and creatively vacuous brand identity. Unlike Amazon’s smile, the Pepsi smile has no obvious reason to exist.

Other established heavyweight brands such as Panasonic don’t really grasp brand ideas properly. The brandline “Ideas for life” may make sense in an internal company culture—it may suggest that ideas from Panasonics will last a lifetime—but the overt idea is a claim beyond the remit of the brand. If Panasonic produced medical products that had a direct impact on the life in people, the brand idea would prove compelling. Audio/visual and other electronic products may improve lifestyles and may indeed last a lifetime, but they cannot claim to offer life itself.

The most obvious casualty, but through no fault of the brand consultants involved, has been Tropicana’s recent packaging debacle. The new brand ideas were a step forward with an appropriate brand idea but a reactionary market pushed back to demand the familiarity of the visually rich but old-fashioned and over-worked brand identity.

The rules of branding and measuring success

There is a maxim in design declaring that in order to break the rules you must first know the rules. In branding the only rules that are relevant are the rules governing common sense, consistency, and creativity.

Everyone consumes brands, including the designers who design them and, of course, the marketers who define marketing strategies. As consumers, designers and marketers are well placed to recognize trends and innovations, and tend to be in touch with leading brands making a difference.

All brands are ultimately subject to the dominant narratives in culture, and this largely determines a common sense. In order to gain preference over competitors, brands need to align themselves with desirable outcomes relative to these narratives. If brands don’t behave sustainably, they become marginalized, lose market share, and fade from memory. Fashion trends and hype drummed up by advertisers may enable short-term success but consumers are invariably reminded of long-term issues in the media and these artificial advertising strategies become short-lived. Brands who align themselves with long-term objectives are the brands most likely to become successful by gaining trust and respect from consumers. These are the brands we rely on to intervene meaningfully in the world.

What varies between consumers is what stories they expect their brands to tell. Brands that tell the most compelling stories gain and maintain the most social currency. These are the brands that not only consistently deliver on their promises but continually surprise consumers with new, creative, and relevant experiences aimed at improving the quality of their lives.

There is no right or wrong in branding, there is only what works and what doesn’t, what sells and what doesn’t. Consumers aren’t easily fooled. Consumers understand intuitively which brands really matter.

How to convince your client that they need a brand and not just a logo

1. Explain that you should be employed to find a brand idea that will form the basis of all the company’s branding (and perhaps even future business decisions) of which a logo should only be one expression, an idea that is likely to form the basis of a the brand’s overall approach. Such an idea may already be a defining characteristic of the business waiting to be celebrated in the branding.
2. Point out other brands your client admires that can be identified by branding elements that are not the logo. Some well-branded businesses can be identified by their color, typeface, photographic, illustration, or even copywriting style alone, or (more commonly) a carefully selected combination of these elements. Try to point out the underlying idea that determines all these other brand elements.
3. Your client’s success is your success. Sell a process to your client; a process you’ll guide them through and that will enable you to decide on a brand identity solution together. This will help you to establish a long-term relationship with your client. If you deliver good ideas they will be more likely to consult you again to develop the brand ideas even further.
4. Avoid references to the word “logo,” rather talk about the marks of a brand of which there should be a primary “brand mark” (two words). Replace “logo” with “brandmark” (one word). This will help you and your client to think about the overall experience of the brand and not just the logo in isolation. Logos are only meaningful in context and they should be seen to add value to that context. It is unlikely that a logo alone will be able to add sufficient value to a business. Logos are best employed in a system of brand marks that determine a unique brand experience.
5. Avoid logo beauty parades. Don’t only show different logos; logos are usually abstract expressions of an idea. Show how the logo idea relates to other brand expressions of the same idea. Show how an idea works in other situations, not just on stationary. The better the idea, the more unique, adaptable, and valuable it will be, and the higher the fees you can justifiably charge. Dedicated logo designers are a dime a dozen whereas Brand Identity Designers offer far more value and often dramatically improve business for their clients.

Additional resources

Here are some books and online resources to elevate your branding strategies.

Books:
Marks of Excellence by Per Mollerup
Branding: From Brief to Finished Solution by Mono
Designing Brand Identity: A Complete Guide to Creating, Building, and Maintaining Strong Brands by Alina Wheeler
The Dictionary of Brand by Marty Neumeier
Logo Design Love: A Guide to Creating Iconic Brand Identities by David Airey
Graphic Design, Referenced: A Visual Guide to the Language, Applications, and History of Graphic Design by Bryony Gomez-Palacio and Armin Vit

Blogs:
Brand New: www.underconsideration.com/brandnew
Brand Strategy Insider: www.brandingstrategyinsider.com

Reviews:
Identityworks: www.identityworks.com

Forums:
Wireality: http://wireality.com
Identity Forum: www.identityworks.com/forum

Top five global brand consultancies:
Interbrand: www.interbrand.com
Saffron: http://saffron-consultants.com
Landor Associates: www.landor.com
Siegel+Gale: www.siegelgale.com
Wolff Olins: www.wolffolins.com