Branding is a "bizspeak" term for creating, redefining and reinforcing a company's brand consciousness: i.e., brand development.

A brand is like a shadow: everyone in business has one whether he or she realizes it or not. Many people think the brand is all about a logo or a label. NOPE your brand is a combination of whatever logos and labels you may have, yes, but also your design style, how you market your products, how you interact with the public, your company policies, your reputation, your vision of the future, and more — in fact the totality of what the world uses to identify you. Everyone has one, yes, but the brand they are identified with is often incoherent, ill-thought-out, out-of-control or counterproductive. Or all of those at once. In sum, everything you do sends a "message"; everything you are is a "story". Effective branding is all about making sure the message you're sending is the one you want received, and your story is one you want told.

The illustration at right (conceived by Larry Light) displays The Brand at work in a business. At the base of the pyramid, broad and holding everything else up, is the practical part everyone understands, the two stripes are about the production of the product. Since this diagram was created to make a point to a prospective winery client, it is couched in those terms. For example, the basis of a winery is to make and sell wine. People like wine and if its good, the winery will likely sell more. But how much more would they sell if people were excited about the wine, and identified with it, and recognized it instantly amongst all the other wines on the shelf? The top of the pyramid is the part that's harder to understand, but this is the part that's all about becoming a part of people's lives — and all the rewards that come from that. To get a better idea of the kinds of things we think about when we're "branding", look at the following article and download, "Brand Work".

Branding may seem kind of complicated…well, IT IS kind of complicated. Effective branding is like juggling: there are a lot of spinning plates and balls and clubs to keep in the air all at once. Work on a brand spans the disciplines of graphic design, web and interactive design, strategic development, marketing and public relations. If you offer brand development to potential clients, as we do at Dreamhand, you better be prepared to discuss all this as a gestalt (fancy German word for form or shape. It is used in English to refer to a concept of 'wholeness'), which we are in fact prepared to do. When we design, we don't do it in a vacuum. No, we are thinking AS WE WORK, "how will this design further the brand?" Not to do this is to create work that may be pretty but empty, what we call "flower arranging"; it looks great today but is wilted within the week. (for more on "flower arranging", see COSTS/BENEFITS, "Why Use Designers")