Knowing the Enemy

I’ve had a few clients insist that they have developed a new and fresh idea for their company, that it’s never been done before.  I know that they are lying.  Fifty years ago, this statement may have been true, when new technology was flourishing and imaginations were running wild.  Today, sadly enough, it has all been done.  The trick is finding a new way to do what has already been done – take an existing idea and improve it.

Knowing the enemy is a bit different and more difficult than knowing the client.  Usually, knowing the client simply involves asking for information.  Knowing the enemy is searching for information, and I’m going to help you figure out where to search.

First – USE Google! Google is currently the largest search engine on the internet.  With such a vast index of websites, it would be downright dumb to not look for similar companies on Google.  For example, if I had a client that wanted a web 2.0 logo for an economic development company, I would simply go to Google and search for “urban economic development” or “city growth planning.”  The first four or five results on any Google search will be typically be the largest competitors in any given market (other than the ever-present Wikipedia result) or similar companies that may not be threatening.

Now that Google has been used, take a few peeks around each website and take notes about how seamless they are.  Is every page completely different or are they consistent in the basic elements?  I’m hoping that they are consistent, or they’ve probably spent thousands of dollars on a website that was poorly designed.  The most important part here is to take notes on everything from the color scheme to the logo, the text used and the article headers.  This is an examination of the competition.

During your detective work, keep an eye out for a link that says something along the lines of “Corporate Identity” or “Design Guidelines.”  If you can find a link that says “Corporate Identity Design Guidelines” then you’re definitely in business.  These lengthy PDF documents contain every last detail about how a logo design is supposed to be used, and how any other element in any given design is supposed to be used.  This includes, but is not limited to, web design, brochure design, business card design, billboard design, advertising design, vehicle design, etc.

Corporate identity manuals are the essence of a company image.  Designers slave over these books to cover as many graphic possibilities as they can imagine, and typically get paid very well for doing so.  Reading through any company’s identity manual is usually very enlightening as to how everything fits together, and it’s worth taking notes on these as well.  Sometimes it’s difficult or impossible to find these manuals though.

If you can’t find any manual for a given company, take a look around the internet (via Google Image Search) for older company logos.  If you can see how a logo was redesigned, you can typically harvest some information about when and how the market changed.

Knowing the enemy is essentially doing your research on market trends based on the competition.  As with knowing the client, it’s important to make a big sketchy file filled with notes and information.  Organize the information floating around in your head, then move on to the final step of your research – Targeting the Audience.

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