What is "VI" in graphic design?

Visual Identity (hereinafter referred to as VI) of an enterprise refers to the use of graphic design and other techniques to visualize the inner temperament and market positioning of the enterprise under the guidance of the enterprise's business philosophy. As a result; it is the most direct and commonly used information platform for distinguishing, connecting and communicating between the social existence of an enterprise as an independent legal person and the economic and social environment around which it operates and survives.

Corporate Visual Image and corporate visual identity (VI) are not the same concept. The former is an inherent objective element of an enterprise. That is to say, no matter whether a company formulates its VI or not, and whether the VI it formulates is successful or not, the corporate visual image of the company still exists, and it is just a good one. It’s just a bad difference, and an excellent corporate visual image undoubtedly depends on a set of excellent corporate VI design.

The role of an excellent corporate VI design for an enterprise should be:

1. While clearly distinguishing the enterprise from other enterprises, it also establishes the obvious identity of the enterprise. Industry characteristics or other important characteristics ensure the independence and irreplaceability of the enterprise in economic activities; clarify the market positioning of the enterprise, which is an important part of the enterprise's intangible assets;

2. Communication The company's business philosophy and corporate culture promote the company in an image visual form;

3. Use its own unique visual symbol system to attract the public's attention and generate memory, so that consumers will appreciate what the company provides. The products or services generate the highest brand loyalty;

4. Improve the company's employees' sense of identification with the company and improve corporate morale.

Therefore, for a modern enterprise, the absence of VI means that its image will disappear in the vast sea of ????business, making it unclear; it means that it is a money-making machine without a soul. ; It means that its products and services have no personality, and consumers are aloof from it; it means that the team is disorganized and low morale.

The business scope of the British company Virgin includes aviation, tourism, audio and video retail, beverages, financial insurance, etc. The span is so large that it is almost irrelevant, but because the company is very successful The company has strictly implemented a unified VI system in its various business areas, which has extended its brand image very well. The good service experience you have enjoyed at the giant Virgin video store in Times Square, New York, with its flashing lights, is likely to inspire you. I had the urge to buy a can of Virgin brand cold drinks with weird flavors on the beautiful Hawaiian beach in Miyan.

Starbucks, a coffee chain founded in the 1970s and prosperous in the 1990s, is unique in its reintegrated VI design style, and the colors used in its logo design and Western fonts are very different from traditional European and American coffee shops. As a result, the company's operations in the United States have been successful, and it has also achieved considerable development in China, which does not have a coffee culture.

In fact, perhaps the best example of the role of VI design in corporate business operations is in the sports fashion industry: in many cases, whether a consumer decides to buy a set of Nike or Adidas sportswear is often Just depends on whether he or she likes Nike's hooks or Adidas' three stripes!

From a marketing perspective, the competition of goods in the 1950s and 1960s was mainly reflected in the price competition of goods; the competition of goods in the 1970s and 1980s was mainly reflected in the quality competition of goods; With the advancement of science and technology and the increasing closeness of production methods of various manufacturers, the price and quality differences between Lenovo and Golden Great Wall computers have become indistinguishable. After the 1990s, the competition of goods is mainly reflected in the competition of product design. The "product design" mentioned here includes the product's industrial design, packaging design, store promotion design, after-sales service design, etc., and all of these designs are actually based on the company's VI design, or they are all applications of VI design. or extension.

However, to use a popular saying, VI is a double-edged sword: excellent VI design can certainly help enhance the image of a company and promote its development, but a failed VI design will also inevitably It will have a negative impact on the corporate image and hinder the company from moving forward.

The failure of a VI design is often manifested in:

1. The visual positioning of the company is unclear, making people feel specious or create incorrect associations;

2. The visual effects are far from or even contrary to the business scope and philosophy of the company and even the essence of the corporate culture;

3. The designer’s graphic design skills are insufficient, and the work lacks internal logic and external appearance.

4. Too much pursuit of fashion and lack of long-term vitality;

5. Copying others and copying yourself.

Give a few examples.

Once, a foreign graphic designer friend who had just arrived in China asked if all banks in China were joint ventures, because the logo designs of several banks she had seen in China had There is a shadow of an outer circle and an inner square! While we admire this foreign colleague's sensitivity to image, we are also embarrassed by our designer's lack of inspiration.

It’s not easy for China’s banks to emerge like “Guangdong Development Bank”, which finally breaks out of Brother Kong Fang’s anomaly. However, if you take a closer look, the bank’s standard font design does not even have the six characters “Guangdong Development Bank”. He thoughtlessly used standard regular script with thin strokes, which is usually only used for text typesetting! This not only makes the relationship between the standard font design in the logo design and the circular logo on the left seriously unbalanced, but also destroys the reliable, stable and steady image that the bank should have! The logo of "Taikang Life" also has a similar problem: an originally very stable square is rotated 45 degrees and then "stands up". Does creating such an unstable intention have any influence on the characteristics of the "insurance" industry in which the company is engaged? Any positive visual help?

If we look at individual cases, the logos of "China Telecom", "China Mobile" and "China Post" can all be regarded as excellent works. However, (perhaps because they are all designed by the same design company) their extreme similarity in structure, fonts, and even colors (of the first two) makes them lose the most valuable quality in VI design at the same time. --personality. There are people who plagiarize themselves, and there are even more people who plagiarize others: There is a well-known sports shoe brand in China, and its product logo is simply a combination of the logos of Nike and Adidas!

At present, although some high-level works occasionally appear, the existence of a large number of shoddy works makes domestic VI design as a whole still a mixed bag, good and bad. There are two reasons for this situation: corporate decision-makers and designers.

From the perspective of corporate decision-makers, due to the lack of professional understanding of VI design, many corporate decision-makers do not regard it as an important aspect when planning and determining the corporate VI design system. System engineering plays a decisive role in the development of the enterprise, but it is launched in a hurry, perfunctory, or based entirely on personal tastes and likes and dislikes, giving excessive "guidance" and interference to the designer's proposal (in most cases, the designer In order to ensure that the design project is not lost and unprincipledly succumb to this kind of "guidance" and interference), it leads to the production of very unprofessional or even failed VIs, which has extremely negative consequences for the company's operations and product marketing. negative (potential) impact. It must be admitted that this impact does not seem to be obvious when our country's commodity economy is not yet fully developed (in our country's economic life, there are a large number of well-known and even successful companies and products with unsatisfactory VI systems. phenomena, such as "Yadu" humidifiers and "Wangli" security doors), but what kind of situation will it be like in the Chinese market after entering the WTO, when facing the brightly dressed foreign counterparts? Woolen cloth?

It cannot be denied that entrepreneurs, as business operators or founders, grasp the concept of the business more accurately than designers. However, in the minds of corporate decision-makers, these concepts exist in the form of text or vague text. The reason why corporate decision-makers ask designers to design is simply to visualize the corporate philosophy in text format. The work of designers is extremely professional. Entrepreneurs generally will not criticize a technical solution proposed by a technical expert, because if it is not done well, it will make people laugh; so why should they criticize a design solution?

I believe that a mature entrepreneur should be clearly aware that the design of VI is by no means dispensable or just to decorate the company. Its significance lies in converting the corporate philosophy in text format into the final form. Accurately and effectively transform it into a visual symbol system that is easy for people to recognize, remember and accept; just as there are rules for grammar, rhetoric, etc. in the text format system, the visual format system also has its own independence The rules and regulations are not a simple game that any untrained professional can play.

"Design is a beautiful thing in life." However, when I look out the window at those gray and red buildings in Beijing that have been left over from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, they are lifeless, styleless, personalityless, and useless. , I thought again that a failed design is by no means beautiful; a failed design is even worse than no design: even a failed architectural design will not be replaced by people in a short time due to the huge wealth value it carries. It was demolished and rebuilt, and the ugly design will accompany people with its ugliness for a long time, polluting people's vision and damaging people's souls. Therefore, in a sense, a bad architectural design is a mistake or even a crime in terms of social wealth and culture! Failed graphic design seems to be able to escape this crime due to the relatively low cost of its carrier and the relatively short-lived effect. However, for an enterprise that pursues sustainable development, the establishment of the VI system is undoubtedly an important part of the enterprise's intangible assets. It can also be said to be a century-old plan for this enterprise, and it cannot be changed at any time.

Therefore, an unsuccessful or poor VI design is also a crime for the company, the employees who serve the company, the shareholders of the company, the customers or consumers of the company.

This is by no means alarmist, but a serious reflection that any socially responsible intellectual should do: let us all stay away from mistakes and crimes; let our entrepreneurs and designers pursue profits At the same time, professional ethics and social responsibility can be maintained, allowing professionals to do professional things.

VI design - corporate visual identity is a problem that must be faced seriously.