- Before you can draw the first line,
or imagine the first concept to represent a client,
you're going to engage them in a merciless conversation
to learn as much about their business
or organization as they're willing to share.
And then, you press them even harder
to make sure you squeeze their every brand desire
till the well is dry.
This is where the design process starts,
and it's what makes a strong brand project
a thing of functional beauty.
And as valuable as the insights
and objectives are that your client has shared,
it usually takes that second rinse cycle
when they discover alternate ways to share information
that's not so scripted and rehearsed.
It helps move them beyond the buzzwords
that tend to fit every client.
One of those buzzwords
that I'd like to extinguish is synergy.
Nothing against a synergy,
but as a word, it's been so overexposed
that we've forgotten the potential
of multiplying collaborative efforts.
But if a client's brand needs to demonstrate
the whole is greater than the sum of its parts,
I suspect this chapter on the elements
will leave you well-prepared.
This trend we call mergers
is an elegant solution that truly resonates,
since each of us have witnessed
it since being a child, even you.
Because each of us has at some point stared
through a window pane covered with rain drops
from a shower, or seen the dew
on a bottle for an iced drink.
And there it is, a droplet
with just the right gravity starts
to trickle down the glass merging with the next
and then the next,
until it creates a rivulet of water that races down
swallowing every drop in its path.
There's a random nature about this,
but also an inevitability
that every drop adds to the power of the whole.
Magnetism draws these elements together,
and what was once a linear chain of two
or three drops can churn its way into an eventual torrent.
These logos demonstrate the multiplied strength
of those that have joined in the effort,
as well as the individual beads prepared
to join in the movement.
Presto, we have synergy.
And as I encourage you
to imagine how this trend might evolve,
don't limit this collection of droplets
to be driven by the natural laws of gravity.
Maybe the unions are angular or obscured.
Maybe the droplets join hands in a circle,
or maybe these droplets become more natural in appearance,
but still brandish the same storyline.
A building drop used in any
of these scenarios stands resolute on its own
in a perfect dome.
It's completely self-sufficient, but at intense proximity,
only a fraction away from becoming
a part of something larger.
These logos represent strength in numbers, collaboration,
or magnification of capability.
They demonstrate an ease of blending
at that mercurial ability to react.
Most of these logos demonstrate this process
with a chain of unions captured at the second in time
when the merger occurs,
just like snapshots taken at the perfect moment
to best engage the consumer's imagination.