Redesigning Identity: Graphic Design Strategies for Success [Hardcover]

Catharine Fishel (Author)

Book Description

Series: Graphic Design | Publication Date: January 2000

Image is king.

And visual identity is its signature. How do top firms redesign this graphic signature without losing ground? Open these pages and explore twenty-five graphic redesign projects from an international group of designers: Take a state-of-the-industry look at identity programs that modernize, reposition, define, and spell renewed success.

Thirty profiles trace the process of redesigning a company’s graphic identity: before-and-after examples, false starts, sketches, processes, and finished works of design from South Africa, Mexico, Hong Kong, England, Korea, Italy, Norway, China, and the United States.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

A good branding identity must cross over all of a companys divisionspublic relations, advertising, legal, whatever. Thats why its so electrifiedan identi-ty has to represent a lot of values. But a company can be kind of schizophrenic about what it wants to communicate because of this.

"Graphic designers have to become jour-nalists for the client. We report on what they represent, ask tough questions and then create a dialogue that can become memorialized in the identitys content. The content might be latent, not really obvious to anyone. But the brand comes to symbolize those qualities.

"Think of creating a new identity as if you are planning an experience for someone, just as a director might plan out a movie. What do you want them to experience? After you agree on that, you can start the writing and the casting."

Ron MirieIIo,
from chapter one, "Repositioning"

About the Author

Catharine Fishel runs Catharine & Sons, a full-service editorial company that specializes in working with designers and related industries. The editor of Dynamic Graphics magazine, she frequently writes for Step-By-Step Graphics, PRINT, DesignNet, and other trade publications. She is author of Paper Graphics and Minimal Graphics.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Rockport Publishers (January 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1564966240
• ISBN-13: 978-1564966247
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #825,595 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Something out of the standards, January 3, 2001

By 

Lorenzo Colloreta "TheLazyDesigner" (Pistoia, pt Italy) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Redesigning Identity: Graphic Design Strategies for Success (Hardcover)

Finally a different book. This is a book about graphic design concepts and restyling, success stories and marketing strategies. It embraces productions from around the world, with a nice spot on mockups, preliminary studies, skecthes drawn on the edge of newspapers... A nice way to learn when and where big ideas for big companies can come from. A singular book, worths its price.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Identity design an essential corporate resource, December 13, 2003

By 

Martin Gaffney, Designworks Dublin (Dublin, Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Redesigning Identity: Graphic Design Strategies for Success (Hardcover)

Redesigning Identity
Reviewed by Martin Gaffney

With its well-illustrated identity case studies, Catharine Fishel's Redesigning Identity reinforces the importance of identity design as an essential corporate resource during times of strategic change. The multitude of reasons for redesigning identities is neatly categorized into five types of business scenarios that make up the chapters of the book: repositioning, modernizing, managing change, promoting growth, and starting over. Each chapter contains five cases, augmented by step-by-step outlines to illustrate the development of identity designs. Redesigning Identity offers revealing descriptions of designers' experiences. In each case, we are given real-life, behind-the-scenes insight into the before, middle' and after of each redesign. This approach gives the reader a sense of expectation and of surprise as the new design is revealed in each case.

The book's main premise is that an identity-regardless of why it is being changed-should be a reflection of a company's inner self. The companies featured will be familiar to designers the world over, and some of their design briefs will seem just as familiar-for instance, Polaroid's order for the redesign of its electronic imaging identity: Rework this, but don't change a thing! The diversity and challenge of identity design are revealed through the case studies, which include examples of both large and small enterprises and international as well as regional design consultants. Landor's work for Canadian Airlines, for instance, maintains the visual equity of CA's old identity while repositioning the airline with a dynamic visual identity that helps attract savvy business travelers. The work of design firm Dogstar for recruitment company Heavy Talent is shown with extensive background sketches providing a reminder of the craft of design-something all too often forgotten in the computerized design world of today. Other well-researched and amply illustrated examples include Coca-Cola, Steel Reserve Lager, Eagle Star, China Youth Press, and Nando's restaurants.

I am sure that this book will offer young designers useful guidelines for the identity design process and provide more experienced consultants with reminders of best practices for identity design. For design creatives, design managers, marketing managers, and others, Fishel's entertaining and informative book is an excellent view of identity design.

6 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Strategie, April 5, 2000

By 

elena - See all my reviews

This review is from: Redesigning Identity: Graphic Design Strategies for Success (Hardcover)

The most powerful visual help and communicational graphics for your own business. It focus on the best examples of logos and letterheads design, it's a great tool for research and for viewing what's going on on identity design. Check it out and keep your own identity