Our company (and, in fact, the entire group) is about to undergo the LONG overdue task of updating our brand. In case you hadn’t noticed, 76design’s online persona is rather dated and in dire need of a serious revamp. It’s fallen out of sync in the last couple years and should be brought back in line with the company it’s supposed to be representing.

Being a business that is built on, living and breathing the web, it makes sense that a lot of our efforts in rebranding will be mostly focused there. Of course there are other aspects to the process but the bulk of our work will be online. Consolidating a body of corporate sites and blogs into a coherent structure that gives each appendage enough latitude to maintin its own (visual) voice is no small task. It’s going to be a challenge and I’m looking forward it.

That’s why this recent article on A List Apart by Erin Kissane really piqued my interest. As we move forward with the rebranding, as a designer it’s easy for me to get mired in the visual stuff - the fonts, the colours, the aesthetics… the eye candy. I’m not discounting the design-y side of it - anybody worth their salt in communications knows that packaging and presentation is of utmost importance. We just have to keep in mind what it is that we’re packaging. Design is all about presenting things - be it a product, a service, or a client - in the best light. It’s about cutting through the clutter and giving a voice to something that can’t speak - communicating on a very low-level with the end user. Design has the power to evoke strong emotions and reactions. It’s a powerful tool. Kind of like He-Man’s Sword of Power.

When we’re put in the spot of the client and it’s our own message that we need to communicate, it’s a tricky task. In her article, Kissane offers some valuable advice to anybody who’s trying to market themselves on the web. Your website is a robot. The challenge is to build the robot in such a way that it’s a pleasure (or at least as painless as possible) for your customers to deal with. Understand why people are coming to your site and give them the information they need. Make your site human - give it a personality with a confident voice that talks about the real humans that make up your organization. Include photos and quotes. Drop the salesman routine - there are other ways to tell people how great you are. Rather than just saying you’re great, prove it. Talk about the awards and accolades you’ve received. That’s real stuff. Seems like common sense, but as the article mentions there are many big organizations that just aren’t getting it.

Thanks to Erin for reminding me how much easier it is to do my job when the product you’re packaging is great to begin with.