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Designing and Maintaining an Emergent Brand

When the Emotive Brand design team creates a brand system, we design it to last for many years. In order for a brand system to last that long, it needs to be consistent with a specific core idea, yet flexible enough to grow over time in order to accommodate changes in the landscape, growth into new sectors, building out sub-brands, etc. Let’s explore two different methodologies in conducting brand design and the end result of each: modernist design and emergent design.

Modernist Design: One Solution

Modernist design methodology is built on the practice of digging to find the golden nugget of a single solution, then testing and polishing that nugget into something that is refined and workable for the specific problem at hand. The rules for the solution are codified and set in stone. The specific problem is continually solved using the same set of rules. However, this often leads to the same solution being applied to multiple different problems as a way of short cutting the design process. Why wouldn’t businesses be trying to use the same solution? It’s what they have in their toolkit – but they aren’t aware that this method is ill-fated from the start. It’s the classic “when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” 

In contrast, emergent design strives to give you the raw steel to work with, so you can create hammers, pliers, screwdrivers, drills, any tool that will naturally solve the problem at hand yet still remain true to its core composition.

 

Emergent Design: A Step Further

Similar to modernist design, emergent design also strives to find that nugget, but goes a step deeper and inspects the atomic composition of the nugget, and uses that underlying structure to let the rest of the design system emerge naturally from its basis. 

Just as nature is able to adapt to its environment, emergent design adapts to an ever-changing business environment. Take the butterfly. Within the core of a butterfly is a systemic solution to a specific set of problems, but those problems can vary across the entire planet, yet the core of the butterfly is able to adapt. Circumstances were created to benefit an insect that drinks nectar and transfers pollen across plants. This in turn became beneficial to the larger ecosystem. The butterfly never receives education or is told specifically what to do in its role, but the structure of the creature itself lets its behavior emerge naturally. 

 

Designing To Let Your Brand Learn on Its Own

Emergent rulesets are cultivated naturally from the core of a brand in response to execution. We learn in the same way. Our core has a few properties that are true no matter what, then we are let loose to execute that core within the world. The results that we receive from our behaviors directly modify our core and lead us to change our next execution. A new rule has emerged.

Let’s say that you’re a naturally curious teenager. Your curiosity is your core and it naturally leads you to learn new things. So you pick up guitar and learn a few songs to show your friends. You get a positive reaction and a big rush of dopamine. A new ruleset has emerged. Learning new things at a deeper level facilitates your core curiosity in a beneficial way and so that emergent ruleset of deeper learning becomes interwoven with your core. This modification to the core will change your behavior to not only be curious about things, but to learn them on a deeper level in the future.

Adaptation and learning are innate characteristics to emergent design. Take Darwin’s finches below. They are of the same family (share the same core), but have adapted to their environments over time. Emergent brands do the same thing. The core is not prescriptive, but emergent. The core family of these birds did not restrict their adaptations, because if it did they wouldn’t be able to propagate as much as they have. Because the core was able to be modified from external factors, the core let an adaptation emerge in order to take advantage of a new food source. In business, this means your brand can flourish entering a new market and still represent the core of your company. 

An Emergent Brand Is Self-Maintaining

Emergent design leads to the opposite of a traditional brand guidelines document. Instead of specifying very specific instances where the system was designed to work, we instead specify the core concept and underlying structure of the brand and let the rules dictate themselves. An emergent system grows over time, it adapts to its environment, and as a result the rulesets change and grow over time as well. This eschews the typical PDF or printed guidelines document where everything is set in stone and ushers in a new era of digital-only guideline systems that are accessible and editable by your design team.

When a designer looks at an emergent brand, they should be able to take in the system from seeing just a few examples and be able to execute the system without drudging through 5 pages of what NOT to do with your logo. The componentry at work isn’t the thing that needs to be systematized. The most critical thing that a designer needs to understand about an emergent brand is what defines the core and what properties are being used to express the core.

When we consider the Embark example above, this is what the core of a brand looks like. Embedded into the geometry of the mark is a series of hexagons. This is all you need to design the rest of the Embark system.

But Emergent Design Depends on the Designer

The thing about emergent design systems is that you need really good designers to see them through thoughtfully. You can’t just plug any person into your design role and expect them to be able to execute on an emergent brand. They need to be able to see the underlying structure of your system and know where to push it to adapt to your business’s needs. Take Yamaha for example. Their core is “Sharing Passion & Performance.” They make products that range from dirt bikes to professional audio equipment. If they had a strict modernist brand, both of the products below would share the exact same design characteristics. However, they don’t. The dirt bike is light, stripped-down, colorful, and aggressive. To the right, the guitar amplifier is a solid and reliable heirloom that is beautiful enough to be passed down to your grandchildren. They still stuck to their core of “Sharing Passion & Performance,” but they adjusted the aesthetic values of the execution based on the emergent nature of the forms of the products themselves and the demographics of the people who would buy them.

How To Interview Designers for Your Emergent Brand

Here are some questions to gauge fluency in emergent design and the underlying intention behind design candidates.

What is your philosophy of design?

  • See if they have a specific idea of what they are trying to accomplish in their practice. If they are early on in their career, it might be fuzzier. Avoid people who just want to make “cool shit” without any conceptual thinking backing it up.

Where do you start in your design process?

  • Look for whether or not concepting is at the start of their process, or if it’s there at all. Concept underlies all emergent design.

Can you show us an example of something where you had to research a really complex topic in order to come to your design solution?

  • It’s critical for designers to have a cogent understanding of the topic they are designing for. They are making decisions that are directly impacting the communication of the business and they need to understand it thoroughly.

What is the underlying idea in a specific project and how was that idea brought to life in componentry?

  • See if the idea extends into typeface selection, color choice, graphic system. There should be an underlying idea that has informed the whole system and that idea should be woven throughout everything.

You wouldn’t use only a hammer to build a house. There’s a myriad of problems that you run into that require special tools suited to each individual job. Emergent design allows for multiple tools and solutions to naturally occur that all remain true to your original core element. It’s a flexible methodology for chaotic times and a philosophy proven by nature for 3.5 billion years.

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco-based brand strategy and design studio.

Design Trends for 2019

Friction Builds Character

Friction is one of those words you see in Silicon Valley all the time. Specifically, in technology’s promise to remove it. A frictionless experience is instantly digestible, seamless, clean. The only problem is that in desperately trying to remove the friction from every experience, you can remove the experience altogether. A little friction, intrigue, or mystery is not always a bad thing – especially when it comes to design. As we look forward to 2019, we have talked about trends for employer branding and overcoming strategic challenges. Today, we turn our sights to the world of design. Combining the best elements from nostalgia and futurism, the design trends of 2019 are reinventing the aesthetic movements of the past to create a bold and fired-up vision for the digital future.

Just My Type

They say never use Futura. Well, apparently, everyone listened. This year, all the big brands decided to invest in creating their own typefaces. Airbnb, Netflix, Uber, and Squarespace each took the plunge. And while designing your own typeface can have a huge upfront cost, it will actually save them millions every year on font licensing. Plus, type is an essential building block for creating meaningful connections for your brand. You get what you pay for.

Design Trends for 2019

Think Way Outside the Box

After years of being forced to encase every element in a strict order of circle avatars and content boxes, designers are finally being given the freedom to experiment with open compositions. Akin to the iceberg method of writing, these are designs where you are only given a slice of the picture and are enticed to explore an entire world off-page. As Meg Reid of 99designs says, “Often open-styled, seemingly chaotic, broken, and cut-up, these compositions take a very strong design hand since the placement of each element is anything but random.” Check out the beautiful motion of VIITA Smartwatch, or the typographic playground of Lionel Durimel.

design trends for 2019

Worlds of Opportunity

As technology advances, it seems like we’re wielding entire universes in the palm of our hands. Perhaps it’s only natural that design has followed suit, exploring the use of isometric illustration. In short, it’s about creating visual storytelling through elaborate miniature landscapes or scenarios. The style is especially adept at explaining services that have many parts or stages, which is probably why technology companies like Cryptogoal and Docker have embraced the trend.

design trends for 2019

Brutalize the Web

Though it was written in 2016, Xtian Miller’s essay  “How To Brutalize The Web” continues to be way ahead of its time. In architecture, Brutalism was a movement that exhibited a lack of concern to look comfortable or easy. Web Brutalism continues this trend, exhibiting an intentional effort to be whatever a consumer website isn’t. As Miller says, “A unique journey and experience for the user is more memorable and engaging than the one they’ve seen countless times before. A Brutalist approach can provide the opportunity to create something that is unexpected – even chaotic.” Sites like Bloomberg Businessweek and Drudge Report were early adopters to this movement, which has only led to more experimental and artistic sites like Yale University of Art, The Outline, Indiecon, and Props Paper Magazine.

design trends for 2019

You Too Could Have a Body Like Mine

In HR, we talk a lot about the importance of representation, perspective, and making sure everybody has a seat at the table. Maybe that’s the force behind the recent explosion of retro human illustration among software companies. In all skin tones, proportions, and sizes, brands are becoming body positive for every kind of body. Zendesk, Slack, Headspace, and Airbnb all took part in the mid-century aesthetic of bodies that can move, work, and thrive with jazz-like agility.

design trends for 2019

Bold Colors, Bolder Gradients

Vivid color combinations have been on trend for a while now – but expect these transitions to only get dreamy, bolder, and more futuristic. Ever since Dropbox blew the lid off its blue and white identity, it seems tech companies are getting more and more comfortable with embracing something vibrant.

design trends for 2019

Limitless Opportunities

It would be impossible to list all the ways that designers will push the envelope in 2019, but if there’s one key lesson here, it’s this. Don’t be afraid to visually disrupt your audience. Your technology may be frictionless, but that doesn’t mean your design has to be. As Charles Thaxton says, “If the internet is trending toward commercial consolidation and monopoly, it shouldn’t really surprise us that this would also mean a monopolization of its effect, its look and feel, too.” Don’t feed into the design monopoly. Nothing is harder to grab than your customer’s attention. Design is your first line of defense in disrupting the expected and instilling a sense of true delight.

To discover how your brand can disrupt and differentiate itself through design, contact Founding Partner Tracy Lloyd at [email protected]. Emotive Brand is a brand strategy and design firm in San Francisco.

The Key Difference Between Graphic Design and Branding


Graphic Design vs. Branding

Brand is a dirty word. It’s misunderstood and misused by people in and out of the industry. Some people think it means a new logo. Others, an advertisement. And as a company that has “Brand” in its very name, we spend a fair amount of time educating exactly what this word means.

Today, we dive into a key distinction: the difference between graphic design and branding. That may seem basic, but you’d be surprised by how many projects are stymied by this lack of clarification. Understanding this distinction is a crucial first step in creating a visual identity that is both gorgeous and strategically informed.

Graphic Design Is the Skeleton

When thinking about what makes a brand, it’s natural to start with the visual cues: logos, headers, business cards, websites. In truth, these elements are only a very basic skeleton of what makes a strong brand.

Great designers are the guardians of your visual identity, taking great care to make sure that each element – colors, shapes, typography, and yes, the logo – is compelling and consistent across all environments. When done right, graphic design ensures that everything is cohesive and in its right place, like a proper working skeleton.

Branding Is the Body and Soul

But of course, a business can’t run on bones alone. To keep the metaphor going, branding is the entire fleshed out body. Not only one’s muscles and clothes, but one’s beliefs, behaviors, and personality. It’s everything from how your customer support answers the phone to the stock photography in your sales deck. Branding is any action a corporate body makes, and the art of branding is making that movement as deliberate and harmonious as possible.

Graphic design and branding are inextricably linked. Aesthetics mean nothing without a solid strategy, and a solid strategy means nothing if it can’t be expressed. As an agency, we constantly have to balance these two forces. Sometimes, that means choosing between something beautiful and something purposeful. In a perfect world, you’re able to get the best of both worlds, but at the end of the day, every decision must be made in service of adding depth to the brand.

Aesthetic vs. Function

So, how do you navigate those difficult conversations? It can be tough, especially when as many as 80% of entrepreneurs believe that graphic design and branding are the same things. While creative decisions will always feel subjective, it’s important to remember that branding goes far beyond the visual. It handles the entire customer experience on all levels, senses, and dimensions. No matter how technical or granular, no element is ever “just a mark” or “just a logo.” It’s a nuanced, interconnected system that is involved in an active conversation with your audience.

Simply put, graphic design feeds your brand, your brand feeds your business. If your visual elements are competing with one another, you’ll never win the competition for your customer’s attention.

Emotive Brand is a brand strategy and design firm in San Francisco.

Putting Emotion in Motion Graphics: An Interview with Keyoni Scott

As a Junior Designer at Emotive Brand, Keyoni Scott comes to EB having just graduated from Arizona State University. One part motion graphics enthusiast, one part film buff, Keyoni sat down with us to discuss his approach to design and what he’s hoping to get out of his first job in “the real world.”

First off, welcome! We’re super excited to have you on our team. Can you tell us a little about your background?

I just graduated from Arizona State University with a major in graphic design and a minor in film media and production. The funny thing is, everyone told me that was a weird combination – that I should have paired it with business. But my interests have always been geared towards learning the 3D aspects of media. What excites me most is applying the techniques of film making into the world of motion graphics. I want to find ways to translate that type of visual storytelling for brands.

Are there any designers you look up to?

I’m the type of person that’s inspired by people from all different fields: film, photography, graffiti, design. I don’t like to discriminate, but I do admire the work of Paul Rand. If I had to describe my aesthetic, I like to keep things clean, tight, and minimal. I’m interested in trying to tell full stories in very short spaces. All my favorite creators are people who can remove the unnecessary details while still getting the big message across.

I remember getting to tour Pixar when I was younger. It was the thing that sparked my interest in motion graphics and storytelling. Beyond just loving art, it made me ask, “How can I apply my art? How can I bridge the gap between inspiration and the real world?”

What trends do you see in graphic design right now?

Something I’m seeing is how many brands are embracing motion graphics into their designs. I love the challenges of taking a flat, one-dimensional piece and finding a way to bring it to life. I think more people are realizing that this is something they should be including in the larger package of what they give to clients. Especially with how active brands are on social media, that space can be utilized in an exciting way. When you’re scrolling online and see picture after picture after picture, motion stands out and is so much more engaging.

Given that this is your first job out of college, what are you hoping to get from this experience?

In school, it seemed like there were two options for graduating graphic designers: you either work at a giant corporation for more money, or you work at a smaller, more creative agency for slightly less. I never want to lose my creativity. I always told myself the joy of not being bored at work is worth way more.

I’m a very curious person. The way I learn is just by diving in and figuring out how something works. I’m looking for a workplace that’s open, where no idea is a bad idea, and where people listen. It’s key to create a positive environment where people aren’t scared to share their ideas. I think it’s also important to try to get to know one another. If you’re too closed off, it forms a wall that can’t be broken down.

Now that you’ve graduated, what advice do you wish you had at the beginning of your degree?

When you’re studying in a very small program of around 40 people, it’s easy to compare your talents to them. You might think, “Okay, I’m in the top ten, maybe top five.” You’re in this little bubble, and then you start applying to some outside agencies in the real world and that bubble is quickly popped. You have those days of doubt where you wonder: Did I learn enough? Did I try hard enough? But at the end of the day, I truly believe I took full advantage of my situation. I barely slept during college. I’d just say, make sure that if you’re putting your name on something, it’s something you’re proud to stand by.

Beyond your design skills, what do you feel like you bring to the Emotive Brand team?

I think I bring a fresh perspective and another way of thinking. Even though I’m a super visual person, I want to bring meaning into everything I do – even if it means sacrificing aesthetics. To me, nothing is more important in design than having a big impact.

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You can check out some of Keyoni’s work at his website.

Emotive Brand is a brand strategy and design agency.