What makes a brand functional?
And how do you know if yours fits the definition?
A functional brand is one that communicates accurately, can be applied consistently, and stands out within its category. The measure of a brand’s functionality is a balance between consistency and flexibility. It needs to be consistent enough to be recognizable, but flexible enough to work across channels. The ideal brand is built as a system that can scale, so that future growth fits into the system without requiring a complete overhaul.
If that description feels overwhelming, there’s good news: These are all characteristics that can be tested, predicted, and improved, even before a brand launches.
How are dysfunctional brands created?
Brand designers don’t always have to work inside the brands they create and that can give them a skewed perspective of what a brand really needs. They can make “Bluesky” design decisions about the brand and never have to reconcile those decisions with actual application needs. Examples of this include things like creating a color palette that lacks color combinations that meet minimum contrast requirements for legibility, or recommending brand colors that fall outside the gamut of standard printing.
Evaluating Brand Function
So how do you know if a brand will be functional when it moves out of the hypothetical world of brand design and into the real world of brand application?
To answer this question, Ravenwood Design Group has developed a series of diagnostic tests that we use to begin every new brand engagement. This diagnostic phase allows us to evaluate a brand’s functionality so that it can be strengthened before a significant investment is made in traditional design work.
The diagnostic results in a report that answers questions, identifies opportunities, diagnoses needs, and provides a recommendation on where and how to strengthen a brand’s function. Going through this process with a brand before any traditional work starts enables these issues to be addressed on a systemic level, and encoded into the brand moving forward. In a practical sense it means that if we identify and solve issues in the brand now, the next 5 designers you hire won’t have to waste time addressing the same problem again and again. Your brand gets stronger and your team moves faster.
What We Test
The list below gives an overview of the categories explored in the diagnostic framework. These are questions that evaluate a brand’s ability to survive the demands of real-world application.
Clarity
Is the category accurately communicated?
Does the brand align visually with its positioning?
Are there any gaps in perception between the brand and its audience?
Distinction
How recognizable is the brand, especially within its category?
Is there a definable brand language?
Can the brand be recalled easily?
Can the brand be described in simple terms?
System Integrity
Is the brand applied the same way across mediums?
Does it maintain integrity across scale?
Are the brand assets cohesive and well-defined?
Practical concerns
Do the brand colors enable legible contrast combinations?
Are the fonts legible across a variety of scales and rendering methods?
Can the colors be accurately reproduced across production methods?
Growth
Does the brand architecture strategically facilitate expansion?
Is the color palette comprehensive enough to work for the brand’s next chapter?
Does the toolkit contain enough variety to support a brand that’s larger than it is today?
Usability
Are the brand guidelines easy to understand and follow?
Are new applications easy to imagine?
Is it clear how to develop new on-brand assets such as photography?
Are the brand assets easy for relevant team members to locate and use?
Synthesizing the Results
Each of these questions can uncover insights about a brand’s functionality, and taken together those insights can inform how we move a brand from being something that looks nice as a concept, to something that is functional in practice: easy for audiences to understand, easy for your team to use, and built to withstand future growth.
This process is core to the work we do, and if you’d like to learn more or see a demonstration please get in touch.