Farina's posts

28 October 2011

Friday Five: Flexible identities

Farina Broadley Design Production Manager | Read all Farina's posts

More and more designers are looking to flexible identities to incorporate a more dynamic way of branding a company.
Flexible or dynamic branding has been around for a while, from the likes of MTV, Aol and British Airways. Lately there has been an influx of flexible identities, playing on the letterforms or shapes associated to the brand.

Here's a quick run down of ones we've seen:

City of Melbourne
Brand consultants Landor were asked to design the brand for the City of Melbourne,  a city renowned for being culturally diverse, innovative and progressive. Using a detailed triangle grid, the bold M can be filled with bold colours, patterns and lines to create a strong but fun and progressive brand identity.
"A celebration of diversity and personal interpretation that is both future-proof and iconic."

See the brand development on Behance


Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
As a research and development centre, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (or MIT) is at the forefront of monitoring technological impact on everyday life and is well-known for its unique learning and collaborative ways with projects. Using a custom algorithm, the colourful three intersecting spotlights can create over 40,000 different shapes to "reflect the constant redefinition of what Media and Technology means today" and replicate the fluid approach that the MIT team creates. Any one of the MIT team can create their own unique shape with an online tool to create their own business cards and website. The typeface is down-played to low the unique logotype to be in the spotlight.

Read about the unique identity

ITI
Oslo design company Heydays created a multi-purpose identity for pioneering company ITI. They develop automation technology improving quality of life in homes, work, public spaces and healthcare. They took the idea of space and surface and developed that into the identity. (Site takes a while to load)

Visit the work on Heydays website

 

New York Tourism
Wolff Olins (who also design the new Aol. brand - see below) designed a brand concept for New York City tourism. The brief was to capture the essence of the diverse culture and the feel that New York is unique but cannot be captured with one single image, colour or logotype. The solution was multiple images and colours on layers of the logotype to create a young and modern street style vibe.

More about the brand

Visit the NYC website


Aol.
Aol.– the company’s new brand – was much talked about when it first launched back in 2009. It came in for a lot of criticism online amongst designers who felt the new style didn't suit the Aol. brand as it was too ambiguous.

More on the Aol. brand

More on the comissioned artists for the new brand


What are your thoughts on flexible branding?

Any statements made in these blog posts are the views of the blogger and do not necessarily represent the views of The Group.