Corporate visual image and corporate visual image recognition (VI) are not the same concept. The former is the inherent objective existence factor of the enterprise, that is, whether the enterprise has formulated its own VI, whether VI is successful or not, and the corporate visual image of the enterprise exists, which is only the difference between good and bad, and an excellent corporate visual image undoubtedly depends on a set of excellent corporate VI design.
The function of an excellent enterprise VI design to the enterprise should be:
1. While clearly distinguishing this enterprise from other enterprises, establish its obvious industry characteristics or other important characteristics to ensure its independence and irreplaceability in economic activities; Defining the market positioning of enterprises is an important part of intangible assets of enterprises;
2, convey the business philosophy and corporate culture of the enterprise, and publicize the enterprise in the visual form of image;
3. Attract the public's attention and generate memories with its own unique visual symbol system, so that consumers can have the highest brand loyalty to the products or services provided by enterprises;
4. Improve employees' sense of identity with the enterprise and enhance enterprise morale.
Therefore, without VI, for a modern enterprise, it means that its image will disappear in the vast sea of business, making it difficult to distinguish; It means that it is a soulless money-making machine; It means that its products and services have no personality, and consumers are indifferent to them; It means that the team collapses and morale is low.
The business scope of British Virgin Company includes aviation, tourism, audio-visual retail, beverages, financial insurance and so on, and the span is almost irrelevant. However, due to the successful implementation of the unified VI system in all commercial fields, the brand image has been well extended. The good service experience that you enjoyed in the giant Virgin video store in Times Square, new york, may prompt you to buy a record listening to Virgil on the beautiful Hawaiian beach.
Starbucks, a coffee chain which was founded in 1970s and flourished in 1990s, is unique in its re-integrated VI design style. The colors and western fonts used in its logo design are quite different from those used in traditional coffee shops in Europe and America. As a result, its operation in the United States is very successful, and it has made great progress in China without coffee culture.
In fact, the best example of the effect of VI design on the business operation of enterprises may be in the sports fashion industry: in many cases, a consumer's decision to buy a set of Nike or Adidas sportswear often depends only on whether he or she likes the hook of Nike or the three lines of Adidas!
From the perspective of marketing, the competition of commodities in 1950s and 1960s was mainly reflected in the price competition of commodities. The commodity competition in the 1970s and 1980s was mainly reflected in the quality competition of commodities. With the progress of science and technology, the production methods of various production enterprises are getting closer and closer, and the difference between Lenovo and Golden Great Wall Computer in price and quality is almost indistinguishable. The competition of post-90s products is mainly reflected in the competition of product design. The "product design" here includes industrial design, packaging design, store promotion design and after-sales service design, and these designs are actually based on VI design of enterprises, or the application or extension of VI design.
However, in layman's terms, VI is a double-edged sword: excellent VI design can certainly help to enhance the image and promote the development of enterprises, while failed VI design will certainly bring negative impact on the corporate image and hinder the by going up one flight of stairs of enterprises.
The failure of VI design is usually manifested in:
1. The corporate visual positioning is vague, which makes people feel specious or have incorrect associations;
2. Visual effects are far from or even run counter to the business scope, concept and even essence of corporate culture;
3. The designer's graphic design skill is insufficient, and the work lacks internal logic and external aesthetic feeling;
4. Too much pursuit of fashion and lack of long-term vitality;
5. Copy others and copy yourself.
Give a few examples.
Once, a foreign graphic designer friend who just came to China asked if all banks in China were joint ventures, because the logo of several banks she met in China all had excircles! While we admire this foreign colleague's sensitivity to image, we are also embarrassed by our designer's lack of inspiration.
It is difficult for a bank like "Guangfa Bank" to appear in China, and finally it jumped out of Kong Fangxiong. We can take a closer look. The standard font design of the bank "Guangdong Development Bank" actually uses the standard regular script fine strokes that are usually only used in text typesetting! This not only makes the relationship between the standard font design in logo design and the circular logo on the left seriously unbalanced, but also makes the reliable, steady and prudent image that banks should hold disappear! The logo of Taikang Life Insurance has a similar problem: after rotating a very stable square for 45 degrees, it creates such an unstable intention. Is there any positive visual help for the characteristics of the insurance industry the company is engaged in?
As far as individual cases are concerned, logos of China Telecom, China Mobile and China Post can all be regarded as excellent works. However, (perhaps because they are all made by the same design company) they are very similar in structure, font and even color, which makes them lose the most precious quality in VI design-personality. Some copied from themselves, and many copied from others: there is a well-known sports shoes brand in China, and its product logo is simply a combination of Nike and Adidas logos!
At present, although there are some high-level works occasionally, the existence of a large number of shoddy works makes the domestic VI design as a whole still mixed. There are two reasons for this situation: enterprise decision makers and designers.
From the perspective of enterprise decision makers, due to the lack of professional understanding of VI design, many enterprise decision makers do not regard it as a systematic project that plays an important role in the development of enterprises when planning and determining the VI design system of enterprises, but are eager to get on the horse, perfunctory, or rely entirely on personal tastes and likes and dislikes, and excessively "guide" and interfere with the designer's proposal (in most cases, in order to ensure that the design project is not lost, In principle, succumbing to this "guidance" and interference leads to VI being very unprofessional or even failing, which has a very negative (potential) impact on the operation of enterprises and the marketing of products. It must be admitted that this influence is not obvious when the commodity economy in China has not been fully developed (in the economic life of China, there are many well-known and even successful enterprises and products whose VI systems are not satisfactory, such as "Du Ya" humidifier and "Wang Li" security door). However, after China's entry into WTO, what kind of situation will it be in the face of foreign counterparts who are dressed up beautifully?
It is undeniable that entrepreneurs, as the operators or founders of enterprises, have a more accurate grasp of the concept of enterprises than designers. However, in the minds of enterprise decision makers, these ideas exist in the form of text or fuzzy text. The reason why the decision-making level of the enterprise wants to invite designers to design is nothing more than to visualize the enterprise concept in the form of words. Designers work very professionally. Entrepreneurs generally don't tell a technical plan put forward by a technical expert, because doing it badly will make people laugh; Then why judge a design?
I think a mature entrepreneur should clearly realize that the design of VI is by no means dispensable or whitewash the enterprise, but its significance lies in transforming the enterprise concept in the form of words into a visual symbol system that is easy to be recognized, remembered and accepted by people. Just like the rules of grammar and rhetoric in the text format system, the visual format system also has its own independent rules and norms, which is not a simple game that any untrained professional can play.
Design is a beautiful thing in life. However, when looking out the window at the gray-red buildings left in Beijing from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, I thought that a failed design was by no means beautiful. A failed design is worse than no design: even a failed architectural design, because of its huge wealth value, people will not tear it down and rebuild it in a short time, while ugly design will accompany people for a long time with its ugliness, polluting people's vision and damaging people's hearts. Therefore, in a sense, a bad architectural design is a mistake or even a crime of social wealth and culture! The failed graphic design, because the carrier is relatively low and the influence time is relatively short, seems to be able to escape this crime. However, for an enterprise pursuing sustainable development, the establishment of VI system is undoubtedly an important part of the intangible assets of the enterprise, and it can also be called a century-old plan of this enterprise, changing its course. Therefore, an unsuccessful or bad VI design is also a crime for this enterprise, for employees who serve this enterprise, for shareholders of this enterprise, and for customers or consumers of this enterprise.
This is by no means an alarmist, but a serious thought that any intellectual with social responsibility should carry out: let us all stay away from mistakes and crimes; Let our entrepreneurs and designers maintain professional ethics and social responsibility while pursuing interests, and let professional people do professional things.
VI design-a problem that must be seriously faced in corporate visual image recognition.