Touchpoints are any way in which users come into contact with your brand. The is really an infinite amount of different touchpoints and an infinite amount of ways in which you can utilise said touchpoints. Making sure each touchpoint of your brand is properly considered and designed can help build an emotional connection with your user, as they will be constantly finding new ways to view your brand. To help me understand this concept, I set myself a similar task to last week to find examples of various types of touchpoints I thought worked really well and that I thought could be an inspiration for my project.
Motion can be used in various ways in branding, whether that be in fully animated adverts, or as a way to utilise your logomark in interesting ways. This second way is seen throughout the Channel 4 brand to great effect. The shapes that make up the “4” fall freely around the screen which adds an interesting dynamism to what are otherwise just informative screens. I think the way the shapes feel like physical objects and conform to gravity is really effective as the weight behind the object helps to encapsulate the brand's boldness. The consistency between the typographical elements also works really well as it creates uniformity and recognisability while still allowing the shapes to move freely. I also think the way the shapes can be used to form new shapes is a really interesting concept and I want to explore how this concept could be integrated into my own project, as my logo is made up of similar simple shapes.
Branded merchandise can work well at building a stronger connection with your user. I found an example of branded merchandise I really like as part of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The logo itself plays off the idea of the viewer's eyes, and the fact this is the 55th year of KKVIFF and works well on its own, but I think it really works well on merchandise when turned into a repeating pattern. It creates a much more recognisable and unique visual motif and is much more striking on merchandise than just the singular logo would be. I think this use of a repeating pattern is really effective and I want to explore this option in my own project.
Having branded stationary can help show the professionalism of the brand and create a more engaging user experience when users receive letters or paper-based information. I liked this example of business cards from Turf, which utilises a typographic approach on one side, and a simple embossed pattern on the other. I really like this simplicity and help the brand be identified by more than just its logo by using the pattern. It’s similar to the merchandise I looked at earlier, and think this approach of using a pattern as a key identifier of the brand could work really well in my own project.
Advertising can help grow your brand and having this touchpoint designed correctly can be incredibly important as it can often be the first touchpoint users come into contact with. I like this example from Ortto, which uses a consistent set of shapes and colours throughout different advertisements, which helps to identify the brand at a glance. This consistency could work really well in my brand and possibly combine in some way with the Channel 4 style of using the same shapes.