Designing brand identity written by branding expert Alina Wheeler is already up to a second edition (2006). The book is updated with new practices and case studies. The book’s subtitle immediately clarifies any misconceptions about the main title - A complete guide to creating, building and maintaining strong brands. Wheeler summarizes best herself what she does for a living:

My business is managing perception
My service is strategic imagination
My passion is brand identity

Book Info

Designing Brand Identity: A Complete Guide to Creating, Building, and Maintaining Strong Brands, 2nd Edition by Alina Wheeler

• ISBN: 978-0-471-74684-3
• Book details: Hardcover, 288 pages
• Publisher: Whiley
• Release date: April 2006
• Buy? Amazon UK | Amazon US

Summary

The book is divided in three main sections: Perception, Process and Practice. In Perception, Wheeler unfolds the difference between brands and brand identity, who creates brand identities and importantly why invest in them and most important how can we make them effective. Wheeler points out that we have to see the full picture of branding ahead …

design excellence is a given, but

… there are more intrinsic criteria to pursue. And each one of these critiria get discussed in detail. Interesting to note is the complete review on brand marks and the chapter on naming and taglines.

Brands are dissected, analyzed, compared and get discussed throughout the entire book. And that is where it gets interesting. What I would call brand identities and their subliminal messages.

The second part of the book Process tries to answer the following question:

“Why does it take so long?” and addresses collaboration and decision making.

Designing brand identity is a multiphased process where research, strategy, design, creative solutions are logical steps to follow. Very interesting is how visual design (eg color, typography, language) get discussed related to business standards, positioning, strategy and marketing. Every phase is explained from start to finish with colorful diagrams, insightful quotes and points from real-world people.

The last part of the book Practise is packed with case studies. Memorable is the case study the Island of the Bahamas brand which goes amazingly well on T-shirts, websites, posters, coffee-cups and anything else really.
Further we see examples of Amazon.com, FedEx, Superman (!!) and many other brands that tell their stories.

Who should read the book?

Not only designers will benefit from reading this book, but also business men, advertisers or anyone related to the process of branding. You can best define this book as a workbook, a guide. The book could improve your skills to communicate brand identity with clients.

Criticism

Wheeler is no graphic designer. She gained insight and experience through working with design teams. The book is no design book. This book is no showcase of the best brands of all times. The load of information can look daunting at first.

Conclusion

The author has both an authoritative and engaging voice. I do believe the book is very readable and a lot of thought went into balancing the content, and the real-world examples and quotes support the theoretical outlines very well. The book has been researched very meticulously. Information is detailed and accurate. The book’s content is accessible and easier to digest, in contrast to most business talk that tends to be very abstract to follow and overly boring. You could read this book from start to finish in one go but you could also pick up any random chapter in the book as well.

Sidenote

To design the look and feel of a website, a corporate logo or a T-shirt to promote your blog & business on a web conference are inherently part of brand identity.

Matt Davies, graphic designer and branding enthusiast already brought to fadtastic his insight about branding in these well-written branding related articles: What’s so super about supermarket logos and the revived Mc Donald’s brand. I hope I have sparkled your intrest in branding as well with doing this book review.

Share This

↑ Jump up to the comment form

The posts Brand Identity: What’s Your Threat Level? | Small Business Marketing & Branding, BBC Radio / Brand Portfolio Brought Into Line, Brand Review: Identity for Celebrity / Kate Moss, ReviewMe Launched, Get Reviewed at fadtastic, are related to this post.

Or why not take time out to find out about the author of the post.