Under the X-ray: Corporate id design in local agencies
Illustration by Admin I
Under the X-ray: Corporate id design in local agencies
By Admin H : Being an advertising graduate / unemployed interviewee for a while, made me go for free internships at more than 1 reputable agency in town. whether the firm is specialized in webdesign or advertising, creating corporate identities was a task that they always do and made it seem like peanuts. Having dealt with logos back in university, i strongly faced the fact that the process is something really hard to go through, and reaching a good outcome can come after a huge amount of time and effort (or after calling Admin I for help, awh i miss those days!)
So being that multitasking intern, I was asked to do logos (even though I’m not a graphic design grad) and learned the ideal way of creating a corporate identity from those agencies’ perspective.. a ‘LONG” process that could take up to 1 hour!!!
“Do you see this logo!? Well we take this one, that other one, and yes we add a bit of that too.. What about using the colors of that 4th logo here… Okay that’s it.. great.. Amazing!! Now we’ve got ourselves a decent logo! Any tips of how to make it sexier?! It just isn’t screaming to me yet… how about checking logopond or open some dusty book“
I really felt awkward and ignorant to some extent that made me even lose time thinking about how to make a logo “sexy” and add the “lala effect” to it or why the hell are they using words like “nice” and “coolness” and “cute” to describe a logo!!… I was really shocked to see those works going online and onto campaigns, lacking the very basic characteristics of a successful design.. (I even used display fonts and got accepted! A design crime, I know!)
It seems that in the end, big names can be very mediocre in dealing with such an important subject matter.. such a trend, such a lack of quality work and originality!
This approach to designing corporate identities does not take into consideration what the company does, how it does it, etc. This is not what graphic designers are usually taught to do…but ofcourse, as usual, Lebanese ad agencies breed wanna play the role of ad men and graphic designers simultaneously… sucking up more money, giving less attention to aesthetics and refinement which is clearly seen, in those ads that we are bombarded with everyday in city streets…
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