I've always valued the importance of keeping at the heart of design, the story. But why is the story so important?
To answer that we need to go back to the beginning of the story; this value was a 'seed planted' during my studies for my degree in illustration - everything that was included within my design work had to have a purpose and reason for being there. The reasons could be on multiple levels, some discreet, some prominent and obvious (after all simple is often the most effective), but everything from the tools used, to the chosen medium to express the message, down to the final delivery of the communication (including the material it's printed on or the media it's distributed through) - they are all connected by one thing - the story.
All stories have a beginning, middle and end:
- the beginning is the foundations and values; the key ingredients, your skills, that makes your brand
- the middle is the adventure - the here and now, your experiences, your projects that you're working on (remember you can change direction and try different avenues)... and great branding will evolve with you
- the end is the results you want to achieve, your ambitions, the project focus, and to leave people wanting more (well there is always another chapter or a sequel waiting to be written...the great bit is that it never has to be the 'end')
It's really important to nurture and value those ingredients and talents - in a growing business it is all too easy for those little things to be taken for granted and overlooked. They're the skills that make you or your brand unique, the items that attracted your first clients, and foundations upon which you built your brand. That's not to say you cannot evolve or grow - in fact it's the complete opposite - you can mix those ingredients to try different 'recipes' and come up with new directions and solutions. Nurturing is about giving the ingredients the creative time and space to develop, prove and rise... these will continue to add value to what ever you do.
Throughout my design career I've been privileged to work with gorgeous licensed brands, including character and designer brands. Designing products and packaging with their individual assets and style guides as reference I developed a keen in-depth understanding of their story; their key characteristics and values, their audience, about the artist...from which I was entrusted to develop new style guides for collections.
Hallmark® is a great example of this; I even got the chance to visit their design studios to see the huge archive of Forever Friends™artworks (right down to the very first illustrations!), to select designs for a heritage collection and develop a logo and identity with them specifically for the collection. It was truly amazing to see how this character had evolved over the years... Anyway, let's go back a few steps to the beginning of this story; a leading craft distributer, I was working for at the time, obtained the licence for 'Forever Friends™', many people in the industry were dubious about the relevance today of a brand that seemed like it had had its time. I was so excited to be given the project to concept designs for the craft industry (it had been one of my childhood dreams to work with this brand!)...the concepts got the go ahead, and the products were received by the industry and market really well, earning the company big financial profits, a great reputation for licensed work, the respect of a variety of well known licensors who we then collaborated with, even to the extent of being able to work with 'rival' licensed brands at the same time; 'Me to You™' by Carte Blanche®. The key was understanding their stories and staying true to their brands - there were many points of difference including their target audience, their approach, look and style... both had a really relevant place within the market, had their own following (and a special place in my heart too! - another big tick on my dream list of brands to work with).
Since then I have worked with design consultants and agencies to create and refresh brand identity; whether bringing them up to date, relevant to their current audience, direction and key values or creating and establishing a style guide as a reference to their 'design identity' (their story), along with designing and art working assets (including print patterns, icons, inspiration for use, logos, tags and packaging examples) ready for other companies to license. Being able to look at the whole story and see where they started, where they have been, and where they are now heading, gave the insight to the key elements that needed to feature within their 'design identity', to maintain their recognition whilst provide the versatility in the ever changing market to meet the relevant needs and purposes.
As you can see the story is pretty integral to design (and to everyday - it's important to not overlook what makes you happy) - it gives the direction, focus, personality, trust and recognition in your 'brand or product' and takes you back to the heart of what you set out to achieve. Capture that within the design, whether for brand identity, promotional material, photography or event styling, and it will allow you to connect on so many levels providing the bigger picture and the experience. For me the story within my design work is your story, which also means that some of the projects I've worked on I cannot share specifics or showcase them (which doesn't make me love them any less - there are so many that I would love to share and tell the world about) but in keeping true to the story, it's all about the brand, my part is behind the scenes in the detail and the workings, a bit like a mechanic, making sure that it works and that it's fit for purpose...it's in the little things!
