JKR

Introduction – why bother?

“Iconic design” – it’s an expression that’s frequently and somewhat optimistically flung around in client briefings and creative presentations. Genuinely iconic work (and it’s relatively rare) can make brands rich and famous. Iconic brands are not necessarily the best products, they just feel like they are; their design creates a saliency and distinctiveness that helps them stand apart from the competition.

Such brands have a definite sense of what they are about, so bold steps look like natural evolutions:

Conversely, brands that lack a distinctive point of view always struggle to evolve in a compelling direction, and they tend to putter along in the middle of the road:

But designers and agencies can’t tell you what will make a design iconic (if they could, they’d be emailing you the answer from their private island. If they promise you they can, don’t trust them). Similarly the best planning and research can’t quantify it. Only success over time tells us if a brand possesses that elusive “something” which separates iconic brands from the common herd. What follows are simply some observations on the ingredients all iconic designs tend to share (although we can only speculate upon the definitive recipe for successfully blending these ingredients).

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