The Best 10 Brands, Products & Designs In The World… Probably; Part Two

5. LEGO

Every brand likes to say that they have strong values, but that often comes down to some words in a PDF document that hasn’t been looked at in a good few years. Lego is a great example of a brand that does the opposite and embraces its philosophy to great success. From their products, to their engagement with their community, everything follows the values of ‘good quality play'. The name Lego means “I put together” in Latin, a simple name for a simple product. What Lego so cleverly tapped into is the simple truth that kids and adults love to design and build with bricks-  we’re hard-wired to do it.

4. The Helvetica font

Love it or hate it, you can’t deny that Helvetica changed design and, thanks to being used for everything from global identities to public signage, the world would look very different today without it. It’s also one of the few typefaces that has a distinct brand identity, even if that identity goes unnoticed.

We wouldn’t go as far as some and argue that Helvetica is the only choice when it comes to typefaces, but it’s a tool in our box that we wouldn’t like to do without. We don’t have a set-in stone visual identity for our agency, we sometimes use handwriting on craft paper, if not we just revert to Helvetica.

3.  Audi R8 V10 ad

We’re definitely not petrol-heads but this ad almost makes us think we could be. Most car ads are a variation of the same thing. Very few dare to be different. It’s simple. Just a car in a room. It’s authentic and honest; there is no dressing up the truth (in fact the car is dressed down), no beautiful models that you’re supposed to aspire to be, no fancy landscapes to make the car look better (though we do love landscapes), no silly humour, no voiceover about how the car is supposed to make you feel. This is it, take it or leave it.

2. Airbnb

You can say it looks like a vagina, or a pair of testicles, a pair of breasts; say what you will, what Design Studio did with Airbnb’s logo is the kind of thing that we always strive to do on any logo we design. They’ve managed to take several ideas that make up the brand DNA and condense them into one simple symbol. Haters will hate, but it’s a very elegant piece of design.

1. James Bond

Too many brands stop with a logo, website, packaging and some print material. A great brand has a look, a smell, a sound, a feel, a behaviour, a tone of voice, way of moving. It’s both timeless and set in stone, yet capable of evolving at the same time. Whether you like it or dislike it, the James Bond franchise is a great example of this. We can point at anything, or listen to anything, and in a split second say whether it’s ‘Bond-ey’ or not.

Whatever the touchpoint, the brand guidelines are instinctive and ingrained. You don’t need brand guidelines to tell you what they are. That’s strong branding. It’s a helpful reminder that a logo means very little, and to think of your brand as a whole person. We all have names and characters, but we don’t walk around with personal logos tattooed to our skin.