Presented by Brandpad: how to systemise a brand, featuring Pentagram, How&How and Studio Blackburn

Welcome back to The Finishing Line, presented in collaboration with the digital brand guidelines platform Brandpad. Over the course of six articles, we’ll be talking to creative industry leaders about what is often seen as one of the most challenging, fiddly, frustrating and complicated elements of brand design: getting it over the line. In this second entry into the series, we’ll be exploring a notion that brand designers are faced with time and time again: systemisation. Identity systems can make or break a brand, decisively bound to themes of consistency, accessibility and, inevitably, longevity. “Before we design anything we need to understand how the brand is experienced by customers,” Pentagram Partner Luke Powell tells us, “where it lives, how it functions and what its future is,” asking the necessary questions to find a project’s true context. “Answers to these questions enable us to map out and identify where consistency will create the most impact,” he adds, discussing how his team at Pentagram ensure consistency across a brand’s identity system. “This also shows us how to build the system so that consistency is not only embedded in the work we produce but is also easy for the client to maintain,” Powell continues, cementing a bullet-proof strategic and conceptual base before even touching the aesthetic attributes. That being said, when it comes to systemised brand visuals, the questions don’t stop there. “When our team builds brand systems,” Design Director at How&How Luke Scott tells us, “we’re constantly asking the question: how do we make sure that following this system is easier than not following it?” detailing the thinking that takes place at the London, LA and Lisbon-based creative agency. “If a brand system or set of brand guidelines presents a barrier to creating work,” he suggests, “chances are it’ll get thrown out and teams will just revert to going off script,” as a result opting to follow limited, set key principles to ensure building or implementing the system is as effortless as possible. “For us, the key to consistency is to make compliance the path of least resistance,” he notes, “all humans are the same and we all want to achieve the maximum amount with the least amount of effort,” naturally leaning towards aesthetics, procedures and processes that maximise efficiency.