Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Anatomy of a Corporate Identity

As a graphic and website design company, Red Dream Studios is often charged with creating most, if not all components of a Coporate Identity. This begins with finding the most effective way to brand one's company. Designing a corporate logo is one of the most challenging aspects of our work, as it involves creating an image for someone who you've most likely just met, or have spoken to only briefly over the telephone.

How does one convey the essence of the company or person when that person has had years of experience being who they are?

This time around, Red Dream Studios was fortunate enough to work with Michael Greenspan Films, the film company spearheaded by the award-winning Los Angeles-based director, Michael Greenspan. Michael is a one of my first friends, so having known him for about 30 years, the task of creating a new image for him wasn't necessarily as daunting as with some other clients. But the pressure was there to knock his socks off...

Michael, much like the films he creates, is bold, classical, yet simple. He knows what he wants. So the idea behind designing his identity was to convey a prestigious film company, harkening to the glory days of the silver screen. And of course, it had to be simple.



From a pure graphic design sense, the logo comprises all the elements: contrast in both colour and font, and simpicity. The contrast is used to draw attention to Michael's name and what he does. "greenspan" is brighter and bolder than either the "michael" or "films". We also chose to use an all lowercase style that is more stylistic and contemporary.

The business card is all black, which in itself makes a statement. With minial text, you can't help but read what's written there. We also opted for a double-sided card in order to minimize the amount of copy you'd see when looking at any given side. In order to immediately distinguish Michael's venture as a film company, we subtly added a stock photo of some film on the front side.

For more information, visit us at Red Dream Studios.