The big blog

“Brand” is the word at Big these days. Of course, you could argue that, since Big is a marketing firm, “brand” is always the word. Or should be. That’s certainly the position that many agencies would take, based on their brand-ad-nauseum self-promotion. Still, regardless of the central and ongoing importance of branding in everything we do, I’m referring here not to our company philosophy or business approach, but instead to the current trend of our projects. Things seem to come and go in cycles, and here lately what is cycling through our shop are lots of branding jobs, for clients both new and existing.

Part of our process for these projects is to talk with our clients about precisely what a brand is—and what it is not. For instance, a logo is not a brand, though the development of an original logo is often an extension of the branding work we do. And a logo, done right, somehow visually conveys the essence of its associated brand.

Which brings us to a fun little exercise we came across, a reminder of just how intertwined logos and brands are, and how embedded the synthesis can be in our collective mind. What we found is an online game, and to be precise, its subject is not actually company logos, but rather company mascots, which as a quick visual signifier function in much the same way as logos. In any case, the idea is this: you’re presented with 36 company mascots, and you have 7 minutes to identify as many as possible. Here’s the link. Let us know how you do.