The appeal of a redesign is that sense of endless possibility—
the chance to reinvent a company’s identity
to reflect its best self. But as anyone who’s been
through the process knows, there are countless ways
things can go off track. A designer’s challenge is to
steer around all the obstacles—from design by committee
to unrealistic deadlines—and deliver a smart
solution to the problem at hand.
First things first
Sean Adams, partner at AdamsMorioka, says 80 percent of any redesign
is talking, gathering information, and building consensus.
“Everyone tends to think the solution is a
new logo,” he says. “If someone calls and just wants
a new logo, we’ll say we’re not interested.” Instead,
his firm looks for situations where they can build
partnerships with a client. They demand access to
the final decision-makers and look at big issues—
like messaging and core business values—before
working back to the visuals.
The firm makes it a point to talk with as many
people in a company as possible. Who do they think
the company is? What do they think they do? For
a rebranding project for Nickelodeon, this phase
included talks with employees in the mailroom all
the way up to the company president. “We’re like
archaeologists trying to dig back to the core of who
they are,” Adams says. “Our job is to try to take
away the subjective point of view.” And the way to
do that is by establishing a set of criteria everyone
wants to meet.
Getting the specifics
At ID Branding, a rebranding
project typically starts with an all-day identity
workshop. The firm facilitates a discussion about
business context, talking with the client about the
company’s history, vision, mission, and values. Then
the agenda moves to tone and voice. What would
the business be like if it were a person? Stuffy?
Casual? “In order to establish the kind of connections
they want with customers, they need to relate
to people on a human level,” says creative director
Brian Rupp.
Answers to all of these questions can help
articulate what makes a client uniquely valuable in
the marketplace. Rupp says these findings are put
together in an identity platform—a document that
answers the questions who, what, and why. It’s then
approved by the client and used as a foundation for
future creative work.
Tim Smith, principal and creative director of
Tim Smith Design,
suggests you also familiarize yourself with a client’s
customers. “Get a client to provide you with information
from their customers or do it yourself,” he
says. “Interview end users. They’re the ones who have
to respond.”
Designer as client
Sometimes the best tactic to make a redesign go
well is to get out of the way. When Davia Smith
became the art director of Money magazine last year,
the publication had already decided to redesign. An
extensive research project got feedback from readers
(and potential readers as well) while internal staff
met for their own brainstorming sessions. When
it was time to start on the new visual look, the
magazine hired Pentagram’s
Abbott Miller to lead the way.
Miller met with four key decision-makers at the
magazine, who shared their goals and research. Then
he was given the freedom to go behind closed doors
for three weeks and come back to the table with a
number of big-picture proposals. “He’s a very careful
listener, and the things he came back with addressed
very specific challenges we talked about,” Smith says.
“The whole experience was wonderful.”
About the author
Michelle Taute is a freelance writer and editor in Cincinnati who specializes in design topics.
