Professional Design Services
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To carry out VI planning and design, it is essential to grasp the basic principles of unity, differentiation, nationality, and effectiveness.
I. Unity
In order to achieve consistency and coherence in the external communication of a corporate image, unified design and mass communication should be applied. A perfect visual integration design can personalize, clarify, and organize information and recognition. It unifies various forms of media images, creating a unified corporate philosophy and visual image that can be stored and communicated. This can concentrate and strengthen the corporate image, making information dissemination more rapid and effective, leaving a strong impression and influence on the general public.
For the various elements of corporate identity, from corporate philosophy to visual elements, standardization should be applied. The same design standards should be used for external communication, adhering to long-term consistent application without easy changes.
To achieve unity and implement standardized guidance in VI design, simplification, unification, series, combination, and generalization methods must be used for comprehensive corporate image reshaping.
Simplification: Refine the design content so that the organizational system can be as clear and concise as possible while meeting promotional needs, optimizing the system structure. For example, in the VI system, the combination structure of constituent elements must be simplified to facilitate standard implementation.
Unification: To ensure consistent information transmission and ease of acceptance by the general public, factors that are not unified between the brand and the corporate image should be adjusted. Brand, company name, and trademark name should be as unified as possible to leave a single auditory and visual impression. For instance, the Beijing Niu Lan Shan Wine Factory's Huadeng brand Beijing Chun wine has an extremely inconsistent factory name, trademark, and product name, making it difficult to remember during advertisements on Central Radio Station. If these three were unified, the information would be simpler and more focused, greatly enhancing its communication effect.
Series: Reasonably plan and arrange the parameters, forms, dimensions, and structures of the combined elements of the design object. For example, handle advertising and packaging systems in the corporate image strategy in a series manner, giving them a family-like characteristic and a distinct sense of recognition.
Combination: Combine basic design elements into units with strong versatility. In the VI basic system, combining logos, standard fonts, or symbolic graphics, corporate shapes, etc., into different form units can be flexibly applied to different application systems. Some prohibited combination specifications can also be defined to ensure the consistency of communication.
Generalization: Design must have good adaptability. For example, a logo should not produce visual deviations when scaled up or down. The proportion between lines must be appropriate; if too dense, they may merge when reduced. Ensure excellent recognition effects whether large enough for outdoor advertising or small enough for business cards.
The application of the principle of unity allows the general public to have a unified and complete understanding of a specific corporate image. There will be no obstacles in identification due to inconsistencies in the identifying elements of the corporate image, enhancing the power of image communication.
II. Differentiation
A corporate image must be personalized and unique to gain public recognition, so the principle of differentiation is very important.
Differentiation first manifests in the distinction between different industries. Because in the minds of the general public, enterprises and institutions in different industries each have their own industry-specific image characteristics. For example, the image characteristics of cosmetics companies and mechanical industrial enterprises should be vastly different. When designing, it is necessary to highlight the industry features so that it has a different image feature from other industries, facilitating identification and recognition. Secondly, it is necessary to highlight differences with other enterprises in the same industry to stand out uniquely.
Japan's five world-renowned major brand electrical appliance companies—Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba, Sanyo, and Hitachi—all have distinct and highly individualized corporate images, effectively gaining consumer recognition and standing out uniquely in the fiercely competitive global home appliance market.
III. Nationality
The shaping and communication of a corporate image should be based on different national cultures. Many American and Japanese enterprises' rise and success are fundamentally driven by national culture. American corporate culture research experts Terrence E. Deal and Allan Kennedy pointed out: "A strong culture is almost the driving force behind the continuous success of American enterprises." The world-famous "McDonald's" and "KFC" have unique corporate images that showcase the fast-food culture of the American lifestyle.
To create a Chinese corporate image that can rank among the best in the world, it is necessary to promote the advantages of Chinese national culture. The brilliant Chinese national culture is an inexhaustible source for us, with many essences worth absorbing to help us create a distinctive Chinese corporate image.
IV. Effectiveness
Effectiveness refers to the ability of a VI plan designed and planned by an enterprise to be effectively implemented. VI is problem-solving science, not just a decorative element for enterprises. Therefore, operability and ease of operation are very important issues.
For a VI plan to be effective and play a role in establishing a good corporate image, its planning and design must be based on the actual situation of the enterprise and its position in the market. When implementing a corporate image strategy, an accurate image positioning must be established, followed by development planning based on this positioning. In this regard, the institutions or individuals assisting the enterprise in introducing the VI plan bear important responsibilities. Everything must be practical and should not cater to unrealistic mindsets of enterprise leaders. During my assistance in introducing a VI plan to a company whose products had just shown a good trend in market information but lacked substantial strength, the second time I met the enterprise leader proposed overly blindly optimistic plans and ideas such as entering the top few companies nationwide within five years. If we satisfied the entrepreneur's abnormal mindset to build the framework of the corporate image strategy, its effectiveness would be seriously questioned. In fact, a year later, the company fell into a deep trough due to marketing mistakes.
When preparing to introduce a VI plan, whether an enterprise can choose a truly capable institution or individual for planning and design is also crucial for the effectiveness of the VI plan. VI planning and design is a necessary soft investment for enterprise development, a very complex and time-consuming system project that requires considerable funding. When discussing the VI strategy with a dairy product enterprise, I gained the approval of the enterprise leadership, but due to a huge gap in budget, we failed to cooperate. Later, the enterprise hired an advertising company at a very low cost, and the resulting logo, mascot, and other corporate image elements were of very poor quality, making their effectiveness questionable.
To ensure the effectiveness of the VI plan, an important factor is that the enterprise management has good modern business awareness, some understanding of the corporate image strategy, and respect for the opinions and suggestions of professional VI design institutions or experts. Without sufficient investment, it is impossible to find high-level institutions and individuals with real capabilities. Moreover, the promotion of the VI strategy in the later stage requires enormous costs. If the enterprise leadership does not have a clear understanding of the necessity of introducing the VI plan and cannot persist in its implementation, the earlier planning and design solutions will lose their effectiveness and become worthless.