Rebranding...

One of our first projects in uni as part of the Masters of Design was to brand ourselves. My friend almost took this literally and asked me if I would be willing to brand her body - I said I'd be willing to make the tool, but not to do it. I'm not embarrassed to say that I totally wimped out.

It's so important the brand we put across to define how we're seen. My jewellery has always been about being clean and simple, I like to keep things elegant. Something, though I only started this blog a few weeks ago, I don't feel it quite has. It feel clunky and rather than feeling quite mature and thought about, I feel childish and I think it's because of the nme and design I've put with it.

Therefore I'm contemplating a redesign, a rebranding if you will. There are many examples of rebranding you can see every day, for example the Shell Petrol logo, running from a very traditional and faithful depiction of a clam shell to the modern, simplified design we see today. Another example is Coca-Cola, who's product is recognisable simply many aspects from the vivid red and white colouring, the swirling logo and the shape of the bottle.

Branding and rebranding is everywhere and the evolution of the Coke bottle just shows how effective it is, as from 1915 onwards you can already, very clearly see the contour or hobble skirt, bottle shape which has become synonymous with the brand. It was designed by Earl R. Dean as part of a competition to design "a bottle which a person could recognize even if they felt it in the dark, and so shaped that, even if broken, a person could tell at a glance what it was.(1)" Dean based the bottle on one of the main ingredients, coca, so used the pod form of the cocoa pod to inform his design. Nearly a hundred years later, the form's still there.

Sometimes rebranding is needed to improve a brand, sometimes just to make you feel more comfortable. It's no different than changing the way you dress, the content stays the same, just the outer layers change.

That's what may happen to this blog, I'm thinking about something a little bit different for the look, even a possible name/URL change - though I don't know how that works exactly - but the content will be the same...my inane whitterings and usual idiosyncrasies.

I need to think about...