Cohesiveness + Consistency (Branding)
Graphic design is a creative field, and in it is a world of artistic freedom. When applying graphic design to a job market, however, one must take into consideration the concept of branding.
While the very term ‘branding’ opens up a Pandora’s Box of eye rolls and groans in most artists, it’s important to understand what that concept is and how to achieve it, if for no other reason than to make yourself marketable so that you can (hopefully) put food on the table.
There is artistic value in understanding these concepts, however, as they can help you to form an identity for yourself as an artist.
What is branding?
In short, branding is when a company or product is represented (consistently) by certain graphic design elements, including (but not limited to):
Logos
Colors
Typefaces (Fonts)
Shapes, lines, + other design elements
Layouts
Tone
Ethics
Cohesiveness + Consistency
Two of the most important concepts when it comes to branding are cohesiveness and consistency. While one can argue that cohesiveness and consistency are synonymous, we can make some distinctions.
Cohesiveness is primarily concerned with design elements in any single design installment. More specifically, whether the design elements complement each other enough to create a feeling of wholeness within a singular design.
Consistency is when those design elements carry over into and onto subsequent designs and projects. That consistency helps the brand to establish identity. When viewers see those design elements, they’ll associate them with your particular brand.
Graphic Design Elements of Branding
As mentioned above, there are several graphic design elements that go into creating a cohesive design, and eventually a consistent brand.
Logo
As mentioned in the Shapes article, a logo is a symbol or emblem that represents a company, product, or organization. As such, it should be unique and recognizable.
Using a logo may or may not help with cohesiveness, but using it consistently across designs can really help to establish a brand identity.
Color
Color can be a very powerful way to create cohesion in a design, but also consistency across designs to create that brand identity.
When choosing a color for your design or brand, it’s highly important to understand the theory, associations, and meaning behind various colors.
Font (Typeface)
Font choice says a lot about a company or product. It can also go a long way to create a feeling of cohesion across any given design, and consistency from one design to another.
That isn’t to say that a design needs to have only one font choice, but it’s important to limit your font choices, and have them complement each other. You might do this by choosing one serif font, one sans serif font, one display font, etc.
Not only are there aesthetic differences in font types, but associations to consider, too, as we discuss in the Typography article.
Other Design Details
In addition to the above, many brands utilize other design elements that help with formatting or creating a certain viewing experience.
Inverse has a number of consistent design details; most notably the gradient textures and separating lines.
Perhaps the brand puts quote excerpts in a box shape. Or they might separate sections of the page or image with a thin line. Maybe they always have a certain texture that they put behind the title or header. You get the idea.
These little design flourishes can actually go a long way to help with cohesiveness and consistency, especially for heavily formatted pages like you find in a magazine or email.
Layouts
Related, another way to create consistency is to use similar layouts for those formatted pages. What I mean by this is having a rule for how many columns and/or rows you have per page.
Bloody Disgusting’s grid features one main story with other recent content in two columns, and older content in four columns.
This could be something as simple as having two or three columns of text on one side with a splash page (big image) on the opposite side. Or perhaps you split pages up in a way where there are three columns of text across the top with two images side-by-side at the bottom.
However you go about it, there should probably be some form of consistency in your layout.
Tone
While this isn’t objectively a graphic design element, tone is increasingly important to brands in the digital age. What I mean by this is the tone of voice taken in captions, tweets, etc, that then carry over to overall messaging.
Is the tone objective? Professional? Hip?
The tone of messaging has as much to do with attracting (or turning off) certain demographics as the choice of font, so I feel that it’s important to include here.
Also, the tone should probably be in line with the other design choices, unless you’re purposefully going for a juxtaposition for comedic or cynical reasons.
ETHICS + Values
Another important brand consideration is ethics. While this might not seem like it relates at all to graphic design, hear me out.
Ethics, in a general sense, is the creation of rules and guidelines that determine what’s ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ within a given context.
Oftentimes, ethics is discussed in a way that heavily overlaps with morals, which are our own subjective ideas of what is ‘good’ and what is ‘bad’ or even ‘evil’. As much as we might like to, though, we can’t really define what’s ‘good’ and ‘evil’ about design decisions, but we can certainly create our own guidelines of what’s right and wrong as far as branding.
Style guide to drawing Lisa Simpson. Some other style guide excerpts from beloved cartoons can be found here.
From a design perspective, any developed brand will have style guides that illustrate what’s acceptable from a brand messaging standpoint. These style guides might include guidelines relating to colors, font choices, composition, lighting, and so much more. In that sense, style guides define the ethics of a brand’s design language.
Patagonia is a progressive company with a history of activism. More here.
Ethics also applies to a brand’s values. These values might be something like environmental sustainability, humanely-sourced ingredients, or social justice, to name a few worthy ethical standpoints. This is where a brand’s ethics are more closely related to morals than design.
Even so, ethics - in the moral sense - is still related to aesthetics in the branches of philosophy.
Case Studies
Fujifilm
Fuji is working to minimize their negative impact on the environment. More here.
The stars in the Subaru logo are an artistic rendition of the Pleiades, a highly visible star cluster that’s part of the Taurus constellation. The blue color represents reliability, black represents elegance and sophistication, and silver represents creativity and excellence.
Subaru is a company that underscores drivers’ responsible engagement with the environment. More here.
The classic Nat Geo logo.
The modern, more accessible logo.
National Geographic’s brand ethics extends to their primary mission: to raise awareness of and interest in the way humans interact, engage, and affect our environment. More here.