Branding: It’s not just the typeface

23 May 07

With it being Helvetica’s 50th birthday this year, there has been a larger than normal amount of discussion regarding the most versatile of typefaces. Most of discussion and commentary has been positive, and in admiration of Helvetica’s versatility, but there has also been some criticisms. One of the more common criticisms being that Helvetica is so versatile and so ubiquitous; that in many ways it fails to make an impression. Whilst I personally do not support this line of argument, it becomes increasingly more valid in the area of branding and identity, where the goal is often to distinguish a brand from others. This area alone could easily produce a series of articles, but for the purpose of this article I wish to highlight the importance of colour (along with the choice of typeface) in corporate branding.

Let’s start with a practical example as shown in image on the left. I would like you to simply look at the image and tell me what brand you think this is? I am willing to bet that most UK readers (and a handful of non-UK readers) can instantly recognise this identity as that of the telecommunications company Orange. The reason I am highlighting the branding used by Orange, is because, for all intensive purposes, in terms of the typeface used the branding does not stand out in any way. Numerous corporate identities have used the Helvetica family, and many of them have faded into oblivion; but Orange manages to make its use of Helvetica into a brand, simply by the colour scheme applied.

In many ways branding orange seems inherently simple, I can imagine the pitch right now; “right guys and girls, our company is called Orange, how should we brand it? “Maybe we should make everything orange!” brilliant! But orange has taken this further than many other companies. Orange utilises only two different weights of Helvetica, which it applies to most of its marketing: For branding purposes (as shown above) Orange uses Helvetica 75 Bold, with white type set on an orange background (ff6600 to be exact). For its other marketing (mainly for the body copy of a promotion) Orange uses Helvetica 35 Thin, which, due to the orange used; can be applied on both white and black backgrounds with equal success (shown below).

The relative success of the use of colour in branding Orange is more apparent when you compare it to similar identities. For example the English retailer Marks & Spencer’s currently uses Helvetica on a black background to much less effect (noted: M&S does use Helvetica 25 Ultra Light however ) showing just how important colour is when creating a brand.

(I feel it worth noting at this point that I am not in any way against the Marks & Spencer’s branding, I am just using it to highlight what I believe is a more effective use of colour by Orange)

Well that’s it for now! Just a short article that is by no means been a “how to” guide, it simply aims to show that whilst the choice of typeface and logo seem to make up the largest part of branding, colour is also of great significance, and one that should be taken very seriously.