“Building Community One Bike at a Time”

The Beltline Bike Shop is a neighborhood-driven organization that provides the opportunity for kids to earn a bicycle through community service. During this process, kids learn how to repair bikes, generate self-confidence through helping others, and develop lifelong relationships with members of their community.

Challenge

Every year, Matchstic and some of our wonderful partners gift a rebrand to a deserving non-profit that is making our city a better place. Our 2011 recipient, the Beltline Bike Shop, posed some unique challenges. With an existing logo that seemed to completely change in almost every application in addition to the need for a logo that is able to accommodate the potential of opening additional locations, the Beltline Bike Shop needed a flexible mark that symbolizes the Atlanta beltline, community, and hard work.

Our Primary Inspiration

A Few of Our Sketches

Solution

The contained mark echoes the way the Atlanta Beltline contains our city. As a visual capsule, the gear’s rivets represent multiple members of a community that, when combined, create a unified presence. Two wrenches, the most commonly used tool in the shop, come together and form the bicycle's tires. The typographic choice is inspired by the industrial space that the shop lives in and is subtly rounded to match the curves of the gear. Overall, the combination of color and shape creates an ambitious mark that is supported by a subtle 3-dimensionality.

Primary Brand Mark

Supplementary Marks

Rave Card. Special thanks for our printing partner Standard Press!

T-Shirt. Special thanks for our printing partner Zoink!

Stamp

Cupcakes by Becky

Website. Special thanks to our friends at Hybrid Design, Tastemaker Communications, and Ries & Ries.

App Website

iPhone App (Free Download!). Special thanks to Highgroove.

Hand-Painted Sign

This weekend, the Beltline Bike Shop will be hosting Adair Park’s 2012 Spring Porch Crawl. Proceeds from the Porch Crawl will aid the shop and it’s a great way to get to meet members of the Bike Shop and hear stories from the community it has impacted through the years. There will be snax & libations! Visit the Beltline Bike Shop Blog to learn more.

I've been wanting to write on the topic of Brand Standards for a while now – partly to flush out my own thoughts, but also to share my struggles with the trending topic.

For those that don't know, Brand Standards (or sometimes called Style Guides, Visual Identity Guides, etc.) are multi-page documents traditionally thought of as the do's and don'ts for a brand's visual assets such as logos, trademarks, fonts, colors, graphic elements, copy writing, visual themes, and imagery. They usually contain exciting topics like clear space, minimum sizing, hex colors, and grid requirements.

In reality they should be fun, but I see tons of them that just don't feel usable, interesting, or even human. Often they are formulaic, mechanical, and complex. Most end up as beautifully designed dust collectors tucked away in a desk drawer. The last thing I want to do is create more useless paperwork that clutters up the world. If this is the case, why do brands create them? Why are they needed? What purpose do they serve?

Here's what I believe GREAT brand standards should do:

1. Help establish a consistent and recognizable visual language for the brand.
Simply having a "cool" logo isn't enough anymore. A brand needs to have a differentiated and unique identity system across all applications that is recognizable to it's costumers. Southwest's "No Change Fees" bright yellow billboards can't be confused with Delta's black & white imagery with angled red type. If you remove a logo and can't tell it from the competition, you're in trouble.

2. Define the "sacred" and the "soft" elements equally.
Great standards take time to carefully define what is untouchable (sacred) as well as explain areas for creative freedom (soft). For example, the Coke script logo, contour bottle shape, and color red are untouchable but perhaps everything else is up for grabs. That balance of sacred and soft has led to beautiful things like this.

3. Serve as a central rallying point for all designers, agencies, and/or stakeholders involved in designing elements for the brand.
Almost every designer has an undefined opinion on what they think is "good." When multiple designers get involved they leave their fingerprint of uniqueness on each piece. They want their piece to be special, interesting, and award-winning. They aren't necessarily thinking about brand cohesion. Standards should be the rope that reigns them in but at the same time isn't so tight that is chokes the creativity out of them (which goes back to point #2).

Chances are if these three points aren't relevant to you then you don't need standards. If they are, then what's important is to to clarify the problem(s) you're trying to solve, create standards unique to that problem (and you), and create them with the end user in mind. Most of all, make them human, useful, living, and inspirational. The world has enough dead documents laying around in drawers. Create something great. Create something people want to use.

Big thanks to Intern Devin for the blog image.

Last Friday I was fortunate enough to spend the morning listening to some great speakers at Chick-fil-A Leadercast – And for someone as un-fashion-savvy as myself, I found speaker Angela Ahrendts, CEO of Burberry, to be surprisingly interesting. She spoke about creating a work culture that acknowledges the past, while pushing forward through trust and intuition.

Know your roots.
In the beginning, Burberry made trench coats for the British military. Their brand mark (above), developed in 1901, an illustration of a soldier on a horse carrying a flag, reads "prorsum" which is latin for "forwards". Simply put, the brand has always been British and has always had a desire to be progressive. Acknowledge your past and what you stand for. Put your egos and agendas aside. Don't do it for yourself, do it for the brand. It's bigger than you are.

Trust each other.
Burberry's internal structure is exactly the opposite of the traditional corporate structure. Their young creatives make the decisions, while their experienced veterans use their know-how to execute those ideas correctly. They do this so that they're actually speaking to this generation of consumers. Finding this balance has got to be challenging, but it's only possible by doing the job you're asked to do correctly, and trusting that the person next to you is doing the same.

Lead by intuition.
Once you know what you stand for, and your trust issues are out of the way, follow that little guy yelling inside you. It's so easy to get hung up here, trying to decide where to go, and then not really going at all. Trust your gut and move forward. You can't actually prove that something will be successful, you just have to trust that feeling.

"Be interested, not interesting." It's a popular saying and it's a powerful way to help people feel valued, heard, and appreciated – meeting very basic human needs. Similarly, brands need to feel human and meet human needs by injecting an element of this into their own DNA.

Simply asking people (or customers) what they like, love, and loathe about your brand is a great start. Mass surveys can work but what's best is a person-to-person conversation (on the phone or in person). Desiring feedback means the world to people, it connects you (and your brand) to them. After several conversations, you'll come away with groundbreaking or affirming insight on what's most loved and most problematic about your brand. Then, and only then, can you go about your work to solve any problems noted.

As mentioned in Dwain's presentation, imagine a giant scoreboard keeping track of the words you use (a brand) and the words they use (a brand's customers). At the end of a conversation if your score is higher than theirs then you lose. Customers want to feel heard and that means they don't want to feel like you are always trying to sell them something. They want to feel appreciated beyond the transaction. Today's marketplace desires authenticity and vulnerability over the veneer of perfection.

Just like people, brands aren't perfect. But their willingness to listen & help can greatly mend all imperfections.

See more from Dwain's talk at the April 2012 Creative Mornings.

So much of my inspiration for blog posts comes from our amazing clients, and this post is no different.  Last week I was in a meeting with a group of executives discussing the implementation of a new brand style guide.  As we discussed the need for rules and regulations to keep the brand consistent and coherent, one executive quietly spoke some of the wisest words I've heard in my whole career.  He said…

We need to teach them to yearn for the adventure of the sea. Not beat them into submission.

I didn't say anything at the time, but his words knocked me to the floor.  What a way of articulating the importance of not losing the heart of a brand.  What is our real reason for being in business outside of money?  What is that thing about our business that motivates employees to show up and customers to keep coming back?  If we have no sea for our employees and customers to yearn for, we must go back to the drawing board and find it.

I'm a bit of a history nerd, especially when it comes to military history. I've been reading the book "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand and I'm engulfed by it. One of those you can't put down. Towards the end of the War, as documented in the book, the tide turns when the American military launches the Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber. It was the largest aircraft released in the war and could fly farther and faster than any other bomber ever to fly. It had a combat range of 3,250 miles dwarfing it's predecessor by 1250 miles and it flew almost 100 miles per hour faster than the B-17. This new bomber put Japan mainland in bombing range almost immediately and changed the outcome of the war.

Innovation perhaps won the war for the allied forces. Perhaps today it wins the war of brand differentiation. The rate of rise and fall is staggering in today's market. What took Blockbluster decades to build they lost in a few short years, taken down by a young Netflix and an even younger Redbox. Instagram sold to Facebook for $1 Billion dollars, with a staff of 12.

In last week's Creative Mornings talk Dwain Cox, Director of Innovation, said "The world is starving for different. The world will reward different." He added "Be good and be different, but if you can't be both, be different- good will come." Good advice for all businesses & people alike.

Just like in 1945, innovation can drive victory and perhaps win the war in marketplace.

This map may be nothing more than a truism but it is interesting to see brand architectures revealed. So many of these house hold names I never consider in relationship to their parent brand or "brothers and sisters". For instance the company that makes my Oreos also makes my A1 steak sauce. They are cousins so to speak. Not a huge disconnect but then there's the company who makes my Pringles that then also makes my baby's diapers which have quite the opposite effect on my appetite. The value of a pluralistic brand architecture.

I talk with lots of people about branding.  I mean, it's pretty much all I do all day.  And as much fun as it is for us to create a new brand identity for something, I feel like my job is often to talk people out of branding all of their new ideas.

First off, we all have to remember that the #1 principle of branding is Focus.  It's about being known for one thing in your customer's mind.  And if you have the discipline to hold to that philosophy, you'll throw away all of your ideas that deviate from that focus.  I end up in conversations with people who have no company, yet they are already asking for logos for the three companies that they are going to create and need brands for.  Stop the madness!  Do one thing and do it really really well.  Apple is one of the largest companies in the world and you can fit all of their products on one conference table.

Every product and service you have may not need it's own brand identity either.  More often we are called into a company to simplify the brand system that has gotten out of control rather than create more cool, fun stuff.  Again, Apple only has one logo and all of their products are simply names that fit into a specific font.  The iPod logo isn't unique from the MacBook logo.  The equity is all tied up in the main Apple identity.

Remember, branding is all about solving your business problem.  If you need to brand something in order to solve that problem, then definitely do that.  Make the investment.  But start by asking, “Why does this need its own brand?”

thanks to Jonathan for my great blog graphic

CHOA, as it's referred to, was challenged to expand the reach of their brand while preserving precious and emotional brand equity. The goal was to modernize the brand, making it more cohesive, strategically-focused, and appealing to teens and their parents. The goal was to enhance Children's brand equity in order to support future recruiting and a growing national reputation.

Process & Solution

Through qualitative and quantitative research, it was concluded that the historical "Hope & Will" characters held strong brand equity & awareness throughout Georgia. To revolutionize the identity would not be wise. With this in mind, an evolutionary rebrand approach was elected in order to both maintain and grow the current brand equity.

The new Hope & Will are a simplified and modernized version of the lovable children. Subtle changes to the design include oval eyes, bigger smiles, clothing more suited to older children and a taller, a more streamlined appearance, and Hope’s hairstyle—she is now wearing a ponytail. They are constructed with symmetry, spacing, and line width all considered. The logotype was also updated to feel "kid-focused" yet still remain professional and credible. A "Naming Decision Tree" was also developed to guide the organization along for a more cohesive and intuitive naming architecture for future expansion and existing locations.

We also developed a comprehensive brand style guide (over 100 pages) to drive all stakeholders toward a coherent yet flexible brand identity system. Throughout the new brand platform, Hope & Will are signature features of a brand with more personality, more consistency, and more clarity while still retaining critical brand recognition.

Process- Brand Analogs & Mood Board

Process- Prototype Board

Process- Prototype Board

Process- Prototype Board

Process- Brand Color Palette Prototype

Process- Brand Style Guide Mapping

Process- Brand Style Guide Mapping

Process- Brand Style Guide Mapping

Brand Mark – Primary Lock-Up

"Hope & Will" Mark Evolution & Grid

Brand Style Guide Spread

Brand Style Guide Spread

Brand Style Guide Spreads

Brand Style Guide Applications

Brand Style Guide Swag Applications

Brand Style Guide Signage Applications

Part of my job at Matchstic is to handle incoming requests from companies interested in working with us.  There are different ways to go about this process, some that work well and some that can be time consuming and frustrating.  The classic way to approach a branding company is through sending out a mass RFP (request for proposal).  This is a process that is very tiring and cumbersome for all parties involved and often leaves everyone exhausted and the excitement of starting the project has been lost.  Because of this, we do not involve ourselves in the traditional RFP process.

In my experience, a much more efficient and effective approach is to start with an RFI (request for interview) process.  Decide which type of firm you are looking to work with (local, national, small, large, multi-disciplinary, focused, etc) and go searching for them.  Make a short list of firms that you'd like to interview in order to understand how they tick and how they will approach solving your problem.

In that interview, focus on the following items:

• Understand their philosophies and methodology.  This is the most under estimated aspect early on, but at the core of how they will work.
• What is their process? Does that seem to sit well with how to solve your problem?
• How do they structure a project team?  You want to know who they will be working with and who does the actual work.
• What are typical price ranges and timelines that they are comfortable working with?  You want to make sure those will fit with your needs.
• Do you like them?  You are about to engage in a long process, so you need to feel out how well you will work together.

After you have interviewed several firms, you have most of what you need from what you would have received in the RFP process and more.  Then you can begin the process of selecting 2-3 companies to dig deeper into understanding the project and they can give you a quote with timelines, etc.

It is tempting to jump to looking at deliverables and pricing, but you must first dig into a company's DNA to see if they are a match there first.