What is Your Style?

“Does anyone have an illustrator they would recommend?” This question, along with a request for a photographer, is one I often encounter on community boards. Building from your Story Plan you need to consider, What do you want people to feel when they read this story? How can we tell it in a way that is unique to our institution?

Storytelling is a powerful way to engage people with your community—whether it is introducing them through enrollment communications or keeping them informed with the alumni magazine. This is a brand narrative. 

Leverage Your Brand Guidelines

We are all familiar with a Brand Identity Guide. After this is locked in, the next stage is creating a Visual Storytelling Guide: a framework that expands the Brand Identity to consider how to embody voice and tone through the style and direction of imagery, variations of color and type, and the inclusion of motion and sound to bring the voice of your institution to life.

This begins with reviewing the typography and color palettes, which set the tone of different communications. Do you want the piece to be bold or subtle? Casual or formal? In considering the alumni magazine, how much do you want your publication to lean into the brand colors? Will you have a heavy handed approach or a touch of brand color? How will the secondary palette be used? 

We typically filter the overall palette, which tends to be a rainbow, and select a portion of the palette to reinforce the journalistic feeling a magazine should have. We also discourage color picking from imagery. Create a color palette and stick to it. This will reinforce the visual identity long-term.

Art Director, Melissa Wells, Bowdoin College shares her approach to color: “Bowdoin has an extensive color palette that was developed as part of the College’s rebrand in 2017. Our location in Maine is such a big part of Bowdoin’s identity and what makes us unique, and so when we were developing the palette, we wanted to take inspiration from our natural surroundings. The palette contains multiple shades of the grays, browns, blues, and greens that are so prevalent in the Maine landscape, along with a few brighter colors. We really wanted the palette to have enough variety, from subdued to brighter, so we would have colors appropriate for needs from formal to fun. Our official colors are black and white, so those almost always have the largest visual presence along with a limited selection of secondary colors from the palette as needed.

When I am working on the magazine, I select colors from the palette based on the art and also look at an overall balance of color in the issue. I try to use it sparingly within the features to let the photography and illustrations shine. I often provide our palette to illustrators and ask them to work with it when it is possible and appropriate. 

When I am designing a marketing piece, I might approach it differently by selecting colors that represent the theme of the piece. For example, an invitation to a formal event might be entirely black and white, or it might be mostly black and white with one of our more subdued grays. A Reunion piece that is meant to be fun might bring in more of the brighter colors, but black and white are always key.”

This same approach can be applied when selecting fonts. Is the piece formal or casual? 

Consider the Visual Approach

Type and color are just two elements to consider for the brand identity. Having a defined approach to photography and illustration differentiates your publication. Typically the brand guidelines are created with a focus on enrollment, including the direction for photography. Just like considering how you will use type and color you need to consider the approach for photography. Do you want portraits to feel serious or playful? Subjects looking at the camera or off into the distance? How important is the environment? Visuals are a powerful element of storytelling—defining direction is imperative.

An element that is almost always missing in a Brand Guideline but imperative for a Storytelling Guide is illustration. Including illustration as an aspect of visual storytelling expands the guidelines—who are the illustrators that have the right style for your institution? Curating a selection of illustrators for their approach and style sets a visual direction as a starting point.  

Jodie Hein, artist representative at RappArt, has over 30 years of experience in the creative world helping clients filter through the talent to source the style and personality that works best for their vision. She notes, “While art can be subjective, elements in art, technical skill, composition, and use of color can all support a brand identity.” 

Having a library of approved artists also can help to keep the review of sketches and finals objective. I find that many people bring their personal aesthetic to a story when it comes to illustration. They respond to the color and representation of people instead of focusing on the visual story. For this reason getting approval on how illustration will be incorporated into communications is important for future review.

Don’t Forget About Motion and Sound

Interacting with content in the digital environment means that your brand also needs to consider motion and sound. When we recently redesigned Helix, the magazine for Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, we explored how the motion of the logo, reveal of elements in social media, and the music would accompany the work.

Creative Director, Chris St. Cyr shares, “Most of the time I look to the visual elements of the project to lead me to the audio and motion solutions. In the case of Helix, the logo being set vertically is a reference to the structure of DNA so it made sense to choreograph the letterforms to rotate in a way that enhanced that visual connection.

In an era of constant messages, brand storytelling fosters a stronger bond between your organization and its community.