Bringing Your Brand Online
By Amy Burnham Greiner
Building a brand isn't a hard concept to grasp: You develop a unique identity and stick to it. In practice, however, it's easier said than done. It takes time and money to research, design, build, and manage a company's brand. For designers, this task requires in-depth knowledge of a client and its products to define what makes that company unique and to determine how best to present it in a visual way.
Most designers understand this principle for print work, but the interesting thing is just how often this work and research fails to carry over into the Web design realm. To be fair, I think most of this oversight is unconscious on the part of the Web designer. After all, why just create a boring electronic version of a company's plain-old black and beige logo when you can make it eight different colors, spin around, shimmer, or stand on its head? Designers have a strong tendency to try to show off the powers of the Web instead of continuing and building on a client's developed and tested identity.
It's important to remember that designers are problem solvers, not fine artists, and that good graphic design serves a specific purpose. We're hired to present and organize information visually in a way that best represents a product or company, not to create something flashy or pretty. It has been said that design that makes a customer say "Wow, what a cool design" is actually poor design. A much more valuable response for the client is "Wow, what a cool product."
Each client is at a different stage regarding its identity. Here are some examples of how I've addressed some of my clients' needs and helped to continue existing brands or create identity from the ground up.
