We visited Bridge Hall primary school, which is about to replace its WW2 era buildings with shiny new ones and need a new identity to go with it. The visit was fun, and informative - my partner is a primary school teacher, so now I have more idea of what she talks about. However, after staring at the list of requirements to be crammed, if possible, into the new logo, I had a revelation.
I wasn't interested at all.
There's a quote, supposedly attributable to an executive of the Coca – Cola company, which says:
"If Coca-Cola were to lose all of its production-related assets in a
disaster, the company would survive. By contrast, if all consumers were
to have a sudden lapse of memory and forget everything related to
Coca-Cola, the company would go out of business."
This makes it seem quite sexy. Coke is, after all, just a soft drink. But, by some kind of magic, it has transcended the reality to become an icon, a dream, a symbol of freedom. At that level, yeah, it looks exciting.
But at humdrum, everyday level, you are often 'gilding a turd'. You are tasked with making something inherently dull appear interesting. On top of that you are lumbered with mountains of nonsense that the client wants including in the design. And when you've done it - they don't like it. They say 'Can you just put this in? And take this out?' So you do. And they still don't like it.
(Until you get a reputation, that is. Then you can say 'I know best. This is brilliant branding, the best you're gonna get. If you don't like it it's your funeral, but either way you owe me £££'s'.)
I've tried to read many books on the subject, but I end up re – reading pages over and over again, vainly attempting to absorb the message. So it's not something I'm going to be concentrating on.
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