Meet the Expert
Lindon Leader
Principal and Founder, Leader Creative
- 35 years experience in strategic branding, logo design and identity management with major international branding consultancies and as owner/principal of Leader Creative.
- Clients have include FedEx, Hawaiian Airlines, Walt Disney Company, the NCAA, Motorola, Cigna, Ryder Systems, GlobeCast, and Hanley Wood.
- Recipient of the 2014 5th Annual Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Award and a Fellow of the Disruptor Foundation.
- Leader's work is included in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution, and his FedEx logo was cited in the May 2003 Rolling Stone magazine twenty-fifth anniversary issue as one of the eight best American identities of the preceding twenty-five years.
- Design director for the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, 1983-84.
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Brand Strategy and Corporate Identity Design
Principal and Founder, Leader Creative
Common Problems
- Companies often lack appreciation of the value of corporate identity.
In smaller markets, logo design and implementation are usually developed by advertising agencies that have at best merely average skills in this area. Typically, there is little discussion of what the company is trying to communicate or who the target audience is. Often, a client lacks appreciation that an identity system includes language, imagery, look and feel, tone and manner – all-important tools in amplifying whatever reasons drives the need for the identity change or renewal.
- A company has changed its name because the name no longer reflects the company's positioning.
- A name change in practice signals the birth of a new company, necessitating all of the same steps as a startup in defining and communicating a corporate identity. Since the personality of the company is changing with the new brand, significant characteristics of the company are altered. While aspects of the existing company will undoubtedly carry over, the name change is accompanied by new strategy and a new focus on existing and potential customers, thereby necessitating a new corporate identity.
- The existing logo communicates few, if any positioning cues.
- Most likely the company chose a logo based on personal appeal rather than objective rationale. Believing identity conversion is about simply rubberstamping the logo on existing company materials, the company missed the opportunity to signal change through good design.
- The company logo has become dated and is inconsistent with strategic marketing objectives.
- While some iconic logos live on for decades and have earned considerable equity, other logos that served well in the past no longer are relevant in today's marketplace. Some companies can update their logos in incremental stages to remain current (think Betty Crocker, whose iconic homemaker logo is now in its ninth iteration), while other outdated logos just need to be scrapped and a new approach developed.
- Two companies merge and a new identity must be forged.
- In a typical merger, significant cultural differences exist. The two companies invariably have different approaches to managing a company. An identity change is an opportunity to meld the two organizations together to the desired degree as well as signaling to employees and the marketplace that this is the new company going forward.
Brand Strategy and Corporate Identity Design:
Common Problems
Expert Topic