Read more
Universal Principles of Branding presents 100 concepts, theories, and guidelines that are critical for understanding brands and branding today.
*Winner of the 2023 American Graphic Design Award for Book Design from Graphic Design USA*
Richly illustrated and easy to navigate, this comprehensive reference pairs clear one-page explanations of each principle with visual examples of it applied in practice on the facing page. By considering these concepts and examples, you can learn to make more informed, and ultimately better, branding decisions.
Featured principles are as diverse as:
- Authenticity
- Social Responsibility
- World Building
- Gatekeepers
- Rituals and routine
Each principle is presented in a two-page format. The left-hand page contains a succinct definition, a full description of the principle, examples of its use, and guidelines for use. Sidenotes appear to the right of the text, and provide elaborations and references. The right-hand page contains visual examples and related graphics to support a deeper understanding of the principle.
The titles in the
Rockport Universal series offer comprehensive and authoritative information and edifying and inspiring visual examples on multidisciplinary subjects for designers, architects, engineers, students, and anyone who is interested in expanding and enriching their design knowledge.
List of contents
- Abstraction
- Anthropology / Ethnography
- Association
- Authenticity
- Bandits and robots
- Beauty, not beautification
- The Big Five
- Black box or scientific method
- Blurring
- Body of work
- Brand architecture
- Brands are a technology
- Branded Unconscious
- Campaigns
- Case studies
- Celebrities
- Character
- Comfort
- Commit to the bit
- Conflict
- Context
- Crafty creativity
- Customer journey
- Delivery
- Difference and Différance
- Digital to social strategist
- Disaggregated data
- Do no harm
- Don't fear the audit
- Ecosystem
- Engagement
- Environment/Anti-environment
- Erotics of brands
- Everybody lives in a body
- Everyone works in branding
- Flexing
- Frameworks
- Framing
- Gathering (and dividing)
- Generosity (and humility)
- Go outside your lane
- Haptics
- Hearing voices
- History and genealogy
- Heterogeneity
- How you say it
- Identity
- Influencers are a racket
- Intimacy
- Jargon (and fear)
- Jungian-ish archetypes
- Kill the Human
- Let's put on a show
- Magic and superstition
- Management
- The Master Narrative Problem
- Mystery is sexy
- Naming is knowing
- No such place as "away"
- Nostalgia
- Observation
- One ______ fallacy
- Out of Home, but in the Mind
- Parody is a sign of success
- Party people
- Permission
- Playtime
- Politics
- Professionalism second
- Relationships
- Render unto Caesar
- Repair and age
- Repetition and syncopation
- Retinal / non-retinal
- Rituals and routine
- Scoping
- Semantic infiltration
- Signals
- Skepticism
- Social Responsibility
- Standards
- Strategy
- Tag, you're it
- Take me home
- Talk to the gatekeepers
- Taste the rainbow
- Tension
- Thinking over wisdom
- Time
- Touchpoints
- Values
- Valuation
- Viruses and variants
- War Language
- Weakest link
- What if your logo was a drum pattern?
- What is the product?
- World-building
- You are not a brand
- Zany, cute and informative
About the author
Mark Kingsley got his start in the music industry, designing packages for the likes of John Coltrane, Pat Metheny, Quincy Jones, Ginger Baker, and Jewel. In 2001, his work for Blue Note Records received a Grammy nomination. Mark then transitioned into the world of corporate branding. At Landor, he was the global creative lead on the Citi account, and as executive strategy director at Collins, he developed the new global positioning for Ogilvy and helped Equinox enter the luxury hotel business. His boutique studio, Malcontent, serves independent filmmakers, global advertising firms, fintech startups, arts organizations, living legends, and Pulitzer Prize winners. Mark teaches at the School of Visual Arts Masters in Branding program and recently held the endowed Melbert B. Cary Professorship in Graphic Arts at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He is currently head of brand for the fashion brand Oumlil.
Summary
Universal Principles of Branding is a concise, visual introduction to 100 of the most fundamental elements of branding.
