Desiging within one color, one brand

Challenges with making brand colors work with design.

I work for Netflix, and I have been trying for the past 2 months to get used to the idea of designing with lots of red. In our quest to make the user experience’s be king, we can start to look at other notable brands that have used their colors prominently and aggressively without sacrificing design integrity. Easier said than done.

Most brands go through evolutions, colors end up being like a nice accessory to the times. Decades of time have shown us how each brand changes not only with trend, but also with the message they are trying to send out. Notable examples of this can be seen by companies such as Coca Cola who have exemplified the need to adjust to change. How does this change occur? When in the end you still have to let people know that you are in fact within the realm of their brand? and how far can you push the line of things that are not within brand guidelines for the sake of reaching a design goal.

Back to the Coke example: The logo of coke has become so iconic in our time, that the evolution of the brand has been, to play with the two mayor elements of the brand, keep those rock solid, and then push the environment around them. What makes this so incredibly versatile ( and also made easier because coke is an actual object that can be placed in a setting and instantly recognized weather by silhouette or by logo) is that you stop being bound to the brand outside of that silhouette and logo. In the the following images you can begin to see how coke works from the brand out, to give itself room to design fairly unique treatments for various situations, without ever compromising the brand. Some would argue otherwise, and I will amend my statement by saying that coke is so iconic they have built themselves this room to maneuver outside the lines of conventional brand treatment. Having said that, in the realm of design, they have created a dream situation. Were the designer has the possibility to play with soo many things without feeling like they are corrupting the brand or not adhering to it.

In the first set of images you start to see some departures of design. The first image show samples of the coke can designs for the 2007 holiday season, second image is a much older design for new coke, around early 90’s.

The third image corresponds to the current (July 2008) Homepage for Coca-Cola. Here you begin to see the design freedom that is arising from the company. Aside form the fact that currently they are promoting a “design the world a coke” interactive piece that allows you to design the iconic silohueette to your hearts content and share it with the world,(speaking of designing completely outside of brand!!!) they are also not being strict to the how to present the product. While red is a prominent voice in terms of color, there is no overwhelming sense that its one type of red, and shown only in one type of way. The best part is, if I were to refer back to my comment on the two elements that make up the brand, I would at this point identify them

as the silhouette and the coke lettering which creates a stem of swashes that can be clearly identified as design elements within the page. This is what the brand is, weather the red is there or not, we still know it to be Coke. Im not saying we dont need the red, or that red is not essential to defining coke to the world, but what I am saying is that red can take on many forms. The most exciting example for my theory is the designs that have come out for the promotion of the Blak coke. The bottle, lettering and color are all there with delicate variations, but in an exploration that solves a design problem, communicates the differences between products, but keeps it all in the family. Here the design did was it should, it told us the Coca-Cola Blak is darker ( its combination with coffee) energetic, and still part of Coke.

I think there are plenty of brands that let themselves explore color as means to deliver design, but its hard to do. Specially when you don’t have the clout nor the history that coke has.

The challenge lies in positioning one element of the brand so solidly that it can’t be challenged, and then giving yourself the freedom to place it in different contexts. I think it’s essential for designers to push, if anything they might not get away with it, but at least they are thinking of the brand in its current moment in time, and not keeping it referenced in the root of its birth. If the brand becomes antiquated and obsolete then it dies in consumers eyes.