The Object of Graphic Design

Design is about the whole, not the parts. If you wear your $2,500 Armani suit with the wrong pair of shoes, you are apt to be remembered for the shoes and not the suit. Inconsistency raises doubt, and doubt makes people wary. This might not matter much if customers didn't have alternatives, but customers do. And they know it.

So, it isn't enough for a company to have a great logo, if the communications effort isn't carried out across the full spectrum of the company's interaction with its marketplaces—from how the telephone is answered to corporate identity; branding; packaging; print materials; advertising; Internet, intranet, interactive multimedia and Web-related communications; and environmental graphics.

The "swoosh" didn't make Nike a successful company. Nike made the "swoosh" an iconic reflection of a carefully orchestrated approach to the marketplace. (For better or worse, the marketplace is now deluged with "swoosh"-like shapes identifying companies ranging from sportswear to software. It's the frame of reference for what many think of when visualizing the word "mark.") It's unlikely the "swoosh" would be so memorable had it stayed confined to, say, hangtags on shoes.

November 2007