Should you change or evolve your brand?

Brand is a living breathing visual language that evolves and changes as your company and the world around it changes.

Like all dead languages, if a brand is rigid stoic and not open to change it will eventually fade into obscurity.

This does not mean you should give a designer free reign. No, it means careful observation of the company, the world,  the people who interact with your brand and the communication channels and platforms they use.

The secret is to evolve the brand instead of trying to retrofit and adapt it.

A lot of the times a brand is strong enough or your designers clever enough to retrofit a brand. Sadly this is often not the case and it has led to some great brand blunders.

So do I need to change or evolve my brand?
That is often a very difficult question, but let me ask you a few questions:

1. Does your brand reflect the current values and focus of the company?
2. Does your brand reflect the current issues or conciousness of the world?
3. Does your brand inspire you? 
4. BUT More importantly, does it inspire, create confidence and pride in your target audience? 
5. Does your brand work in new media and new media channels?

So keeping all your answers to the above in mind, what do you think?

Should you make a change?

Still not sure? ok let me ask a few more questions:

1. Can your brand be transferred to different mediums and communications channels?
   
2. Can you see your brand working on Facebook?
3. How about on Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube or on one of the hundreds of popular on-line channels?
4. What about in an email or enewsletter?
5. At a tradeshow?

See where I am going with this?

At the end of the day, your brand should reflect you,  it should resonate with your target audience and be usable across multiple channels and formats.

The "You can't rush perfection" fallacy

I had a conversation recently in regards to a creative image, where I was told "you can't rush perfection" and it reminded me of a long standing argument in my creative circle.

To me perfection is totally subjective and is something that can never be achieved. True perfection can only be created by the creator of that perfection.  Ok that sounds a bit of a mouth full but let me try to explain.

If I create an image or painting or movie, I will work at it till I can stand back and say "it's perfect" (which often is never). The first person I show it to will then say "but why is the little red line skew" or "your perspective of the hand is wrong" or "what is it?".

 In their subjective view it is not perfect but suffers from a number of flaws. Thus leading them to form opinions that often clash with the opinions of the creator.

Ok so let me bring it back to the "you can't rush perfection" fallacy.  My biggest flaw with the statement is that you can never reach perfection, all you can do is reach a stage where if creates a desired emotion.

After all, all art and life is about the creation and flow of emotion, and that to is subjective.