The lecture this week focused on visual identity and how history has shaped the development of brands and advertisements.

We started the lecture off with Greek signature seals which were clay emblems used to indent into pottery. Then we looked at the 12^th century onward at heraldic designs (coat of arms) used during the medieval times that noted certain status and property of the nobility. This was followed by the printer’s marks during the 15^th Century, and finally into the 1820’s when branding was used to mark cattle. The mass production of the 1820’s gave rise to the realization of brand transference, trademarking and brands being used as a symbol of quality rather than ownership.

Next we had an in depth look at Coca Cola and their use of the brand. This was a rather fun part of the lecture for me, as with during my previous years at university doing a Marketing Major, the Coca Cola marketing campaigns were always a favourite of mine to use and discuss because of how well they are able to use the brand in their campaigns.

Lastly we looked at a Typeface Designer named Milton Glaser, the designer of the iconic I ❤ N.Y. It was from this that society learnt to replace words with symbols – the rise of emojis! I have a few more comments on this and his second design titled It’s not warming it’s dying. A campaign to re-brand climate change and the role that design can play that I will save for a separate post.

The tutorial this week was very interesting as we had additional discussions with questions that each group had to come up with. One topic we covered in detail was how persuasively advertisements are able to manipulate you into wanting a product that you don’t need. I have been trying to instill the notion of minimalism in myself, but even with having that mindset – to eliminate anything that does not add value to your life, or anything that has no meaning to you – I still get distracted by advertisements in magazines. This will happen when I am waiting for a take-away order, for example, and I will grab a magazine to pass the time. Yet I still find myself thinking that I like that shirt or this pair of shorts and I need to remind myself that I don’t need it.

We ended the tutorial with a re-branding task where we had to pick a scenario and re-brand the product accordingly. Ours was regarding pet food packaging that looked too much like a kids chocolate biscuit snack and was also being stocked in the confectionery isle. My group decided that we should change the packaging entirely so as to avoid all confusion from colour to flavour. This was to ensure that it more distinctly resembled that of dog food and was clearly labelled so.