If you don’t know what La Biennale is, well, neither did I. But one of our clients, architect Joji Minatogawa, mentioned it this summer. It was really cool to hear about this convergence of really new and varied art in one location.
And not just any location–a city of canals, lovely architecture, history, and beautiful light. So I decided to veer a bit from a planned Scandinavia tour to study modern graphic design, and trek south to Italy, too.
Not bad.
Of course once you get it into your head that you’re going somewhere you start conjuring up every tidbit you’ve heard or read about a place. Venice… the only thing surfacing was ‘Death in Venice’ by Thomas Mann. Ah… the melancholy, the despair, the stuff of that space you go into when you read Albert Camus’ ‘The Stranger.’ I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Death in Venice. Death in Venice. Woe! Hopelessness! That terrifically terrible scene at the end of ‘Apocalypse Now~!’ No wonder no one sat next to me on the plane.
Wait, sorry! This is Design Kompany’s blog and not Dipika Kohli’s personal travelogue. That’s for Out of the Blue. So I’ll get back in gear.
La Biennale keeps it clean and simple
We are all about keeping your brand message clean, simple, and consistent. So I wanted to share some examples of how to apply a logo across a variety of media, as they did at La Biennale. I actually put in a call to the press folks over there to find out who did the logo and how thick their brand standards manual is, but no answer.
What I found was that La Biennale is one of biggest international collections of right-here, right-now art. Apparently it’s evolved quite a bit since its start in 1895. According to Wikipedia:
The first Biennale was held in 1895; during the first editions, decorative arts played an important role. The event became more and more international in the first decades of the 20th century: from 1907 on, several countries started installing national pavilions at the exhibition.
After World War I, the Biennale showed increasing interest in innovative traditions in modern art. Between the two World Wars, many important modern artists had their work exhibited there. –Wikipedia.org on ‘Venice Biennale’
This year, they had 76 artists showing, representing 42 countries.
This was an old city of Europe sharing a collection of the world’s newest art. The curator was an American for the first time in the festival’s history, Yale’s art dean Robert Storr.
Notes from the field
Being at La Biennale was like going through the New York Museum of Modern Art thirty times in a row, but with every room different from the one before. And really intriguing stuff.
This was not the First Thursday Art Walk in Pioneer Square.
As you guys know, Design Kompany takes a lot of notes on identity design*, so I couldn’t help but get excited about how well the designers for the Biennale’s posters, signage and brochures applied their brand. This is the logo.
The top-right corner consistency on placement of this logo throughout the festival was cool to see. Very comforting to know what you can expect. Your eye subconsciously “sees” the brand, and doesn’t even have to process it. You just know it’s part of La Biennale, and that alone suggests it must be worthwhile.
A good case study for DK to report back to our customers as we gear up to brand new companies in 2008. More about Design Kompany’s approach to graphic design. Note the consistent logo placement on these examples I saved…
This painting really popped and had a lot of color. The piece was huge–the length of a 25′ room, I think.
This is the website header. You know where they’ll put the logo.
This is the tag line for La Biennale. I love the emotional tug of “Think with the Senses.” Mmm.
This is a square flyer I found kicking around. Note the top right corner logo placement. Also how they went with the line art version, so that the red block wouldn’t compete with the nice contours and tones of the image.
I love taking photos with my manual Minolta X-375. Even if it’s grainy. I especially like taking photos of buildings. And clouds.
A CD jacket has the logo in the top right corner.
Even the labels for the CD press kits had the same placement. This is what they mean when they say “down to the last detail.”
A press release has the logo on it, upper right.
See what I mean about how they kept it straightforward, holding to standards that make everything conform?
The power of consistency
A UK company called Walnut Media did some research on the topic of the importance of brand consistency.
They write: “According to Al Ries and Laura Ries, co-authors of ‘The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding,’ the most frequently violated law of branding is consistency.
“Markets may change, but brands shouldn’t… They may be bent slightly or given a new slant, but their essential characteristics (once those characteristics are firmly planted in the mind) should never be changed.”
I tried to go to the source to get this info from Ries and Ries, but they just had a bunch of stuff about themselves. But I guess we should pay attention–R&R charge $30,000 + hotel and travel costs for a full-day consultation! Wowee.
*In fact, the only reason DK was at the Biennale or Europe in general was to study up on contemporary design. See Notes from Europe. Next up, my full-on book about design inspirations from Europe, Out of the Blue.
Sketching Out of the Blue
Design Kompany’s New York graffiti report
San Francisco art show
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