Vyacheslav Shishov on the need for branding and modern trends

Vyacheslav Shishov: Fighting to be noticed is the main goal of marketing and branding, which endow the product and the company with a certain meaning and distinguish the offer among others. If we talk about the visual component, branding is a set of measures to identify this company. Each product on the market has its own visual code, which includes certain colors, a packaging design scheme, and a logo. All this allows you to bind a specific product to a specific brand. So the visual code of Apple, for example, is white packaging, technological advertising and a logo familiar to everyone.

Such a commitment to a certain style brings together all brand communications with the consumer, including the appearance of the office, packaging, website, application, advertising materials, and so on. All this allows the client to immediately identify a specific brand. It is not important for a pasta manufacturer that customers begin to purchase pasta in principle, it is necessary that they buy pasta of their brand.

With the help of marketing, companies build their own branding and concept, which is tied not only to visual code, but also to corporate values. They are expressed in the brand's reaction to general cultural events and trends related to attitudes towards socio-political phenomena, the environment and other global concepts. The Company lays down and promotes these values that are perceived by the target audience and potential customers. So it will be important for some consumers that the work culture is followed in the production process, while others prefer the purchase of goods from recycled materials.

Branding is mostly about big businesses and companies that want to promote their values, build a positive reputation and retain customers. It is important to remember here that regularly attracting new customers is much more costly than attracting a client who will stay with the brand for a long time and become permanent. For this, marketing specialists are needed who can bring into the system all the messages broadcast by the brand.

Thus, branding begins with the fact that the company identifies itself, determines its target audience and positioning in the market and, according to this, creates its own visual image, image and brand. Systematic work in this direction increases customer loyalty and turns them into permanent ones, ensuring financial success for the company.

In addition, an important factor is the construction of history around a certain product, 99.9% of which are not unique. She gives it a deeper meaning, helping clients make choices. Let me give you an example. Kashpo for flowers is not inherently an interesting commodity. However, working to create a story around him can lead to interest. It can be a special clay cough made by hand in the family pottery using old technology passed down from generation to generation. Such a purchase is more valuable than kashpo from China, which is sold at every corner in tridrogos. Such a story is created using visual and figurative techniques that work in a single system determined by marketers and art directors regarding the target audience to which the product is directed.

Vyacheslav Shishov: At the modern stage of Internet technology, IT and all points of online sales have changed a lot in terms of providing information using design. If earlier it was important for us to simply create beautiful, aesthetic packaging, now the ability to obtain a huge amount of input and a detailed analysis of the target audience gives marketers and designers a huge amount of information that must be taken into account when creating branding.

We can say that the overall business scheme has changed: from creating a unique product to creating a unique representation. This means that the very properties of the goods produced are determined by how exactly they will be sold. It is here that data on the mass user, which is collected from open sources, has a huge role.

In addition to information about the consumer, a big imprint on the design is superimposed on information about the method of selling goods: online, on retail sites, in small offline stores, and so on. The team that works to create branding, packaging design, marketing materials and related sales content does not take ideas out of thin air, but analyzes a huge amount of data on the behavior and features of the audience. The main trend is design based on objective data, rather than on the subjective vision of the designer.

If we are talking about digital design, which includes the design of digital products and systems, such as websites, applications, soft, online stores, and so on, the same method works here. The style of these digital solutions is also determined by the positioning of goods and services that will be sold with them. Here, again, the focus is on the audience data available to designers and marketers.

At the same time, in digital design, it is worth highlighting separately a trend based on the principle of intuitive perception, in which the user of a digital product should not have special skills to use it. Today it is important for the client that when downloading the application or visiting the site, it is immediately clear where to click.

In terms of historical scale, this trend originated not so long ago and is associated with the advent of a smartphone with the possibility of multitouch, which gave rise to certain habits. For each of us, it is intuitive that spreading your fingers across the screen causes the image to approach, swiping left-right leads to flipping between pages, and holding allows you to open an additional menu. Knowledge of these habits and good elaboration of application use cases are necessary to create a convenient and high-quality digital product. The correct fonts, iconography, placement of objects on the screen, the expected actions of the application on certain input gestures - all this is created taking into account the convenience for the client, on which today designers should focus as well as on the aesthetic component. An inconvenient and incomprehensible application will not be used, even if there is a solution that is ingenious in terms of design and ergonomics.

An important factor is the connection of digital design with technology. The designer of a digital product draws not just a picture, but creates a product taking into account the technical work of the gadget itself. Here the main role is played by speed and optimization, which is also associated with the design of a digital product.

Thus, at the forefront of digital design now is the convenience, speed and intuition of use, which are implemented using various techniques. This is a large living organism that is constantly changing, and the designer needs to react quickly, create new design elements that make the application more convenient.

Vyacheslav Shishov: Of course, the economy and the general business environment affect which products enter the market. Their design is determined by marketing and questions related to how the idea will be presented, implemented and sold to the client. For a competent strategy, it is important to understand your target audience, its desires, needs and habits.

On the other hand, in difficult economic conditions, the role of product packaging increases and competition increases, thereby marketers, designers and advertisers enjoy greater demand.

The problem is that product branding is a tiered, holistic system that requires an integrated approach. And finding personnel capable of providing the necessary and high-quality result at each stage of developing a brand strategy is not at all easy. Losses and frustrations of many companies are associated with this.

There are few really good specialists who can create holistic branding systems and build work schemes. In my opinion, they will always be in demand. In crisis situations, it will be difficult for those who work in one "site" or have insufficient professional competencies and experience. I would advise them to try to get into a team with a strong leader.

If we talk directly about the Russian market, here entrepreneurs want to insure themselves as much as possible, reduce costs, diversify risks and find new ways of promotion. For many companies, entering the international online market today is a matter of survival. In such a situation, the need for professional marketers, designers and advertisers increases sharply.

Vyacheslav Shishov: The development of a career in the field of digital design is interesting in itself. Such a professional path has all the signs of globalization, specialists in this field can work remotely and have the opportunity to show their creative component.

Another question is the presence of a predisposition to this area, which implies the possession of a certain aesthetic taste. Usually people go to this from childhood and try themselves in various creative activities. Therefore, a certain psychotype and desire to develop in this direction is important here.

Another, in my opinion, significant advantage of the designer's profession is that it will not be robotic soon or replaced by any neural networks. As, for example, is now happening with taxi drivers. Therefore, in the long term, creative professions are more promising, and digital design will become a growth point in the international economy for the coming years.

However, it is important for applicants to understand that a designer's career is built for a long time and requires a lot of labor, time and investment in the tools necessary for work. On the other hand, this is one of the professions in which it will be possible to monetize your skills with the greatest probability and speed.

Vyacheslav Shishov: My main advice is to grow personally, pay a lot of attention and time to self-development, improve supervision, study history. After all, design is, first of all, creativity.

It is important to consume as much information as possible about what is interesting to people and resonates with them. A good designer understands the milestones of historical development and is able to establish the relationship of general cultural phenomena with visual art. He plunges into the sphere as much as possible. This is precisely what is the determining factor for any creative person. Therefore, a beginner needs to be prepared for the fact that the absorption of a huge amount of information and continuous development plays a key role in career growth.

I would also note that for a specialist it is important to immediately try to do work at a high level, without giving yourself concessions as a beginner. Yes, this is a difficult path that requires a lot of time and does not bring much income at the start, but, in my opinion, it is the only right one. This is a profession in which you need to develop all your life.

Vyacheslav Shishov: Here it is worth understanding that the art director is not just a designer. A person in this position leads a large creative team and controls all design processes of the company. Therefore, it is important that he has HR skills in recruiting and managing personnel.

In addition, the art director should feel well the transition of eras in digital design, the change in user perception of digital products, and also understand the main trends in development in all cultural movements. Such a specialist is equally well versed in both the field of visual art and the technical part, which are now closely intertwined.

From the point of view of the Internet, we are today entering the era of WEB 3.0, which in itself dictates certain trends that give users more freedom. Their understanding will help the art director determine a certain visual component of the digital product, which is largely responsible for its quality.

I will explain my thought. We live at a time when all technologies have become as accessible as possible and are sold as a service. Accordingly, now the design and usability of applications comes to the fore and is a driver for growth and a competitive advantage. This is a historical moment in IT, you no longer need to come up with a bike, what matters is how it will be better than others. And here the design comes to the fore.

Therefore, in 2022, as well as at any other time, the art director should be as aware and seen as possible, it is important for him to understand in which direction the industry is moving and what will be popular tomorrow. It is knowledge of common cultural phenomena that should influence the decisions he made, because digital products are not created for one or two months, but cover several years. In this case, the vision of the head of design plays a key role.

If we talk about soft skills, it is important for the art director to understand the intricacies of the work of more specialists at once, including artists, photographers, videographers and other members of the design team. Its task is to collect a huge number of visual elements into a single system, understanding the technical component and behavior of users. This is a huge layer of work that requires certain leadership and organizational qualities.

Vyacheslav Shishov: Of course, you can try to make forecasts, but basically the development of the IT market and digital design will be determined by the technologies that come to it. For example, the mentioned multitouch function is now actively used by users around the world and is a masthave for digital products. Designers should consider this to meet expectations and create systems that are comfortable for people.

For a long time, VR and AR have been developing on the market, which were previously presented with rather bulky products. Now many companies are working to make virtual and augmented reality technologies more affordable. And those who succeed will revolutionize the field, as it once did with Apple and the iPhone.

Accordingly, we will soon see new sources of information input and ways to present it, such as virtual reality, stereo vision, head position sensors, reading hand movement and gestures. All this will be part of the user's everyday life, and such digital platforms will gain the same popularity as smartphones.

That is, the future of IT and digital design is closely related to mass culture and the emergence of technologies that determine innovative input systems. With the proliferation of such devices, designers will have to develop new digital product interfaces that meet their technical properties and meet customer needs.

Also, digital art is now developing at a tremendous pace. This is largely due to the emergence of NFT facilities, which brought large financial injections and investments into this area. Now digital paintings can be purchased on digital asset exchanges for millions of dollars.

As for design in general, in my opinion, in the direction of accessibility, 3D and artificial intelligence technologies will continue to develop, the content will change towards interactivity, when the user is not just an observer, but an immediate participant in the action. This will be reflected in the appearance and distribution of various voice 3D assistants.

The main forecast is the global development of the sphere, the increase in the number of specialists, the re-profiling of artists into digital designers and the emergence of new professions in digital design. Today, the potential of this direction has not been achieved at all, and it is one of the most promising in the economy, so it is ideal for realizing its career ambitions, "sums up Vyacheslav Shishov.