Corporate Branding: 6 Crucial Design Rules to Remember
Co-founder and creative director of leading London agency SomeOne, Simon Manchipp gives his top branding design tips |
Award-winning branding studio SomeOne recently designed a striking adaptive identity for London-based start-up advertising agency, BigEyes. The visuals feature a series of data-powered generative irises that change depending on their application and were designed in collaboration with digital artists Field. |
Here, founding partner and executive creative director at Someone, Simon Manchipp, shares six quick branding tips for corporate design… |
Rule one: |
Don’t obsess over letterheads. They’re not going to blow the client’s mind. |
Rule two: |
‘Real world’ applications win out over flat layouts every time. Get your designs into Adobe Photoshop, then get them on a bag. We’ve never had a lukewarm response to putting a brand identity on a bag. They seem to be the sure-thing application. |
![]() |
Branding agency SomeOne showed start-up advertising agency Big Eyes what its logo would like on a bag |
Rule three: |
Adobe Illustrator is not the only fruit. Mix it up – it’s amazing what you can do with generative design, for instance. |
Rule four |
We’re big fans of LiveSurface. Try your branding out on different situations and see what it looks like in the ‘real world’. |
![]() |
SomeOne’s logo for Big Eyes also makes for a great set of shelves. "With this project, we thought there was a great case for the core brand property – the eyes – to be messed with." |
Rule five |
Keep on keeping on. Sometimes you hit the jackpot first time, but often the longer you keep going the better it gets. It takes 10,000 hours to be classed as an expert in anything. Start racking them up! |
Rule six |
Don’t panic. It’s only design. We’re not making parachutes. No one’s going to die. |
![]() |
SomeOne’s branding design for Big Eyes can be applied to a range of different applications |
![]() |
SomeOne’s logo design for Big Eyes |
![]() |
Generative technology was used to create the adapative branding for Big Eyes |
![]() |
Business card designs for Big Eyes, created by SomeOne |