The Evolution of Brand Strategy
The Changing Roles of Identity and Navigation Design
By Vic Zauderer and Marc Escobosa
As the Web continues to be integrated into the world of business, it is increasingly important for companies to differentiate themselves through brand strategies that exhibit clear messages and provide fulfilling user experiences. The most successful brand strategies take advantage of the Web medium, using well-designed identity and navigation systems that showcase a site's purpose and provide the infrastructure for an intuitive user interface. This gives Web designers newfound inroads into the conception of a company's brand. In fact, there has never been a more opportune time for creative people—Web designers, Web builders, graphic designers, and UI designers—to cross the imaginary design boundaries they're used to and to take part in the design of business.
What Is Identity? What Is Brand?
A company's identity is most often its first visual representation of itself, and therefore critically important in a world where first impressions are paramount. Designers are taught that an identity is the graphical representation of a company through the use of a symbol (also described as a mark or logo), a typographic treatment (also known as a logotype), or a combination of the two. In print design, the identity is often extended further into a "graphic system," which combines all of the visual elements used in promoting a company (stationery system, advertising, collateral, T-shirts, and so on).
