Future trends in branding

One of the first things you get taught as a junior brand manager, is how to bitch-slap an ignorant wally who dares to attempt to alter the exact Pantone shading of the logo that you are assigned to protect with you life.

Most corporates have manuals detailing the exact way a logo needs to be used and laws governing its reproduction.

But in the era of blogging, social networking and mash-ups — through which consumers have the power to do what they want with a company’s logo and show it to the world — a bit of flexibility is essential if brands are going to adapt to a rapidly changing world.

“In the past, corporate identity was about control and consistency,” said Karl Heiselman, chief executive of Wolff Olins, which is part of the Omnicom Group. “With too much control, what happens is that people forget about the content.”

Wolff Olins, which has offices in London and New York, has designed new logos for other clients, including New York City and the New Museum of Contemporary Art in Manhattan, that are intended to be used in a flexible way as “containers” for content, Mr. Heiselman said.

So like user-generated ads and customer-made products, logos as well need to shift with the times and become more adaptable for users needs. Next thing you know you'll be encouraged to 'design your own' Eskom logo for your dart board.

More: A move to let logos carry more of the message - NYT

Comments

[WCS]

Sorry to be a pain... The picture of the New Museum of Contemporary Art in the NY Times article (following the link) has a grammatical mistake. Isn't that one of the 1st no-no's of adevertising? Or is there something I am missing?