Graphic designer of corporate images
Description
The graphic designer of corporate images is responsible for designing all the elements that make it possible to create or modify the image of a company or institution. These elements range from the company's corporate signs (symbol, logo and colours) to all the graphic, digital and physical mediums that the company needs to communicate or convey its image, whether it is for internal staff or for different audiences outside the company, such as clients, partner suppliers, public administration, press, etc. Examples of corporate image mediums are the company stationery, the printed commercial mediums (catalogues, rates, etc.), digital or audiovisual elements (website, CD, DVD, videos), as well as the materials for the workers (uniform, vehicles, etc.) and the promotional materials. These graphic elements, together with the communication carried out by the company (advertising and public relations) and its performance in the market, will create the company's identity. The company's corporate image, its communication and its performance in the market will finally create its corporate identity.
Tasks
- Analyse the company and its current image.
Any programme for creating a corporate image requires a phase for researching and analysing the company's current image, not only with regard to the design (design analysis) but also to the company's intangible values such as, for example, its positioning. It is necessary to know whether the project is to create a new image (launch of a new company), re-design an image (an update) or radically change the existing image (due to a change of activity, merger, etc).
Before starting their task, the designer must have a clear and defined idea of the image to be created in the normally-prepared briefing, by the company's marketing or communications director or by general management itself. The following must be determined and described: the corporate culture, the company's image for the workers, its external image and the one desired by management, what image the competition conveys and which are the possible differentiating values. - Design one or more graphic proposals (preliminary plans and plans).
Based on the project's briefing, the designer proposes several creative options for the company's corporate signs, their application to different administrative mediums and some examples, as well as what the basic commercial mediums will look like, such as catalogues.
Once the most appropriate creative option has been selected, they carry it out in all the company's communication items.
Subsequently, once all the elements are approved, the professional, personally or with a graphic pre-production technician, prepares the material in order to carry out the production tests. - Coordinate the pre-production and production of the project with the suppliers.
Supervise, by themself or together with the pre-production technician, the preparation of the final material for the production of the different mediums of the image. - Create the corporate image manual.
The creation of a corporate image requires the creation of a manual. Nonetheless, it is not always created, although it is recommended that a short manual be drawn up so that the company has some defined rules and guidelines on how to create any graphic communications element. This way, the identity that has been created is not lost.
This is an important point since, often, after corporate projects are carried out, poor internal management of the company's image and communications can distort this image. - Manage the reaction with the client.
Depending on the company's structure, the graphic designer will have a relationship with the client in order to obtain the commission, define the design's briefing, present the preliminary plans and design project, and monitor the production.
