What’s the difference between brand design and campaign design? The quick answer is longevity.

Brand Design

Brands are created to build equity, which can take years. Standards such as logo use, fonts, messaging and colors are defined to maintain a fluid look from stationery to website to packaging. Brand elements will change and evolve along with the company, product or person they represent and will generally stay true to core elements. This is also where the tagline lives.The Nike brand image seen here shows the very basic elements of the corporate brand. By keeping the colors black and white there is flexibility in adding other colors when promoting sub-brands. The font choice is straight forward and will never go out of style. The Nike swoosh is already an icon with years of brand equity behind it. I can’t tell you how many clients have asked me to brand them like Nike.

Campaign Design

Campaigns support the brand and are designed for short-term. They usually include a call-to-action and are intended to inspire or inform. Above all, campaigns should stay true to the core message and values of the brand, but there is a lot of room to play with design and copy. This is a good place to explore a relevant trend, try some colors that complement the standard palette or feature a specific product or service in a fresh way. The tagline may be part of a campaign but the headline will be the star.

This Nike campaign image shows the brand in action with the consistent “swoosh” icon use and clean, easy to read fonts. Because the corporate brand is simple, they have the flexibility to be creative with sub-brands. You can see the creativity in these ads promoting everything from custom ballet slippers to soccer gear. The bold language in the smaller brands also support the Nike signature tagline – “Just do it.”

The Takeaway

Every designed piece should stay true to the brand identity with a dash of creative freedom for sub-brands and campaign designs.