The Story

I was going to write this blog about how I rented and watched this movie based solely on the design of the DVD sleeve:

Then I started thinking about Berlin Alexanderplatz, a different film I recently bought as a gift for someone and how great that cover was:

Both DVDs are produced by Criterion Collection, a private company that releases “important classic and contemporary films”. I was going to write about how Criterion Collection has such good branding. For example, you can instantly tell it’s them by the graphic design on any one of their DVD sleeves:

Just out of interest, I googled “criterion collection graphic design” and found On Five, Criterion Collection’s official blog, which includes a post by their designer on how he came up with the design for Berlin Alexanderplatz. I read it and was completely blown away. So many revisions. So many people chiming in on how to get the most brilliant finished product possible. So much time spent analyzing the meaning of the film and historical accuracy. This movie, by the way, is 15 hours long and the designer - as well as every other person that influenced design - was a total expert on the film.

Who would do that much intense research for one little printed piece? The answer is simple, really. There is no such thing as one little printed piece. Everything with your brand’s name on it carries the weight of your brand identity, be it good or bad. The naked eye might not instantly recognize it, but the hours of research and hard work (or lack thereof) will show in everything that represents your brand.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 at 11:04 am and is filed under Other, Kick Ass Ideas & Musings, Branding, Graphic Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.