100 Principles of Branding

12.06.21

1. Branding is the practice of defining an organisation’s visual behaviour.

2. To look outward with clarity, brands must first find clarity inside.

3. First we create, then evaluate

3. Brands are built through the branding-compound effect

4. A brand’s authenticity is translated successfully when the brand communicates externally in honesty with what it believes internally.

5. We exist to future-proof our client’s brand

6. All work is progress — do the work. There is no substitute for hard work.

7. Build the right team — people create ideas. The right people create the right ideas.

8. Work on the right projects — we only take on projects that we know are the right fit. When we submit a proposal, we know we’re the best fit for the project. We know that by being the best fit for every project, a bad agency will try and be a great fit for every RFP they get, and in doing so, become unfit for any project.

9. A company needs both direction and momentum to build an audience.

10. Fame ≠ craft

11. Feelings are more powerful than facts — there are 6 billion truths, our job is to communicate a feeling, to envelop the company or product in a context that transcends language.

12. Creativity is not magic.

13. Brands are like people — everyone wants to be heard, but very few are understood.

14. A strong brand is the result of purpose and consistency.

14. Good branding requires harmony between strategy and creativity

15. Without a purpose, a brand is meaningless

16. A good brand is no substitute for a bad product

17. Design is the agency of change

18. Protect a brand’s equity, as if your life depends on it — a brand is built over time.

19. The concept of identity is complex — identity is a collage of concepts such as history and context, visual expression, personality, behaviour and values.

20. Timeless brands are created from consistency and clarity — brand equity is built over years of hundreds of individual interactions a consumer has with a brand. Our process puts consistency and clarity at the heart of the branding process.

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About the author, Adam

Adam is the design director of BrandCraft. BrandCraft is a branding and design consultancy based in Hong Kong. We specialise in branding, visual identity, corporate identity and rebranding.

Adam is a branding consultant and has worked with clients in the UK, USA, Hong Kong, Tokyo, South Korea and China. He has had self-initiated art and design projects exhibited at various galleries and museums including the Victoria & Albert Museum of Art and Design and regularly writes about branding and design theory.