BRANDBOOK
TNGD22: Corporate identity and branding. By Nadine Baumann and Vicky Trouerbach.
THE PLACE WHERE OSCAR WILDE AND PAULO COELHO WOULD MEET This brand book is all about the place where Oscar Wilde and Paulo Coelho would meet: The Wilde Alchemist. The Wilde Alchemist is the first international bookshop in Utrecht, in the Netherlands. This document serves the purpose to inform everyone who works with the brand, be it the purpose of informing employees in the shop or staff at advertising agencies, about how to present The Wilde Alchemist according to its underlying brand concept. In the following, the basic brand principles, the major design elements and the use of these will be described.
TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. GENERAL INFORMATION 1.1 The idea behind the brand 1.2 The vision 1.3 The mission 1.4 The values 1.5 The target group 1.6 The competitors 2. BRAND ELEMENTS 2.1 The logo 2.2 The typography 2.3 The colours and texture 2.4 The imagery 2.5 The tone of voice 3. INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE 3.1 The use of the logo 3.2 The use of typography 3.3 The use of colours and texture 3.4 The use of imagery 3.5 The use of tone of voice
to brand s y e k e h “T are selfs s e c c u s rency, a p s n a r t , definition ity and authentic bility.“ accounta
g
inwarin a M n o m i S
“ If one cannot enjoy reading a
book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.� - Oscar Wilde -
CHAPTER ONE: GENERAL INFORMATION 1.1 THE IDEA BEHIND THE BRAND Books and the stories they contain have fascinated people since the beginning of their existence. Books enable people to travel to unknown places, to experience extraordinary adventures and even to feel like another person. Books are doors into other worlds. Unfortunately, these doors get opened less and less in our nowadays digital dominated world. It is a magical moment, when you sit down with a hot cup of tea, open a book and the first page immediately pulls you right into the story. This magical feeling certainly does not occur, while you read the newest bestseller on your tablet in the sticky subway on your way to work. The Wilde Alchemist, Utrecht’s international bookshop, will bring back this magical feeling to its customers by showing them the value of the book as a traditional good, which still has an important place in our modern world. As an international bookshop, The Wilde Alchemist sells a careful selection of books from all over the world in their original language. Apart from that unique collection, The Wilde Alchemist has a pay-per-minute reading corner in its shop. In this comfortable, cosy area the book-loving customers can find a selection of books as well as tea, coffee and snacks. Here, they can read, have a hot drink, take a break and relax. Everything is for free; they only pay the time they spend there. Additionally, The Wilde Alchemist provides a platform for the book lover community by offering weekly book clubs, readings and other bookrelated events. The name of the international bookshop is the first brand element, which represents the concept to the stakeholders. The name literally makes the bookshop the place where Oscar Wilde and Paulo Coelho meet as they both contribute to the name. The first part of the name originates from Oscar Wilde’s last name and the second part arises from the title of one of Paulo Coelho’s most successful books, The Alchemist. Both the author and the book are examples for literature, which conquered the whole world combining traditional and modern literature, as well as different languages, genres and different attitudes to literature. Therefore, these two elements are a perfect representation of an international bookshop, which tries to capture traditional as well as modern literature from all over the world. The name deliberately plays with the fact that people might get confused at first supposing a spelling mistake because of the additional e. The name will be explained repeatedly in different channels like the website to make people understand the concept behind it, which, in the long term, will make them remember the name and the shop.
1.2 THE VISION
1.5 THE TARGET GROUP
The Wilde Alchemist wants to be the bookshop that unites people who appreciate books from all over the world and by helping them to share and live their love for books together.
The target group of The Wilde Alchemist is deliberately broad. With its vision and mission the shop, its products and its services target everyone who likes to read and who is interested in other languages. These psychographic elements are the only important aspects defining the target group. Age or other demographic factors are not taken into account as all that matters for the future customers of The Wilde Alchemist is that they share the same feeling about the importance and the value of books. .
1.3 THE MISION The Wilde Alchemist offers books in different languages as well as a pay-per-minute-reading corner and events like book clubs and readings to make people appreciate books by showing them their value in the shop itself as well as with the other services.
1.4 THE VALUES Inspiring The value inspiring relates to the vision of the international bookshop. Literature has always inspired people and has always showed them different perspectives. The Wilde Alchemist wants to adopt that aspect for its shop in general and provide people with literature that will be a great source of inspiration to them. Intellectual The value intellectual relates also to the vision and to the value inspiring as well. Reading and intellect and a better understanding of the world have always been aspects which influenced each other. By encouraging people to read, The Wilde Alchemist wants to broaden their horizon. The shop also wants its customers to experiment and to read books in foreign languages to challenge their intellect. Accessible The value accessible roots in two aspects. Books are normally often not available in their original language, so The Wilde Alchemist provides its customers with a special good and makes literature in more than ten different languages accessible. The pay-per-minute reading corner increases the accessibility to these books even more, as customers can read in this corner as much as they want and they have the possibility to look into a lot of different books at the same time.
1.6 THE COMPETITORS The Wilde Alchemist’s target group will be attracted to the shop, because it clearly differs from the competition. As mentioned in the beginning, The Wilde Alchemist is Utrecht’s first international bookshop. Most of the bookshops in Utrecht are commercial bookstore chains, which only sell foreign literature in English, French and sometimes Spanish. The Wilde Alchemist offers more than ten language sections and with its new concept of a pay-per-minute reading corner as well as a strong identity focusing on the value of books it creates an atmosphere of inspiration and community. This atmosphere and the variety of international books are not offered by the big bookstores, which creates a unique selling proposition for The Wilde Alchemist making it possible to successfully establish the shop in Utrecht’s bookselling market.
“By encouraging people to read, The Wilde Alchemist wants to broaden their horizon.�
“ The simple things are also the
most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them.� - Paulo Coelho -
CHAPTER TWO: BASIC ELEMENTS 2.1 THE LOGO The Wilde Alchemist’s logo is a very important brand element. The logo consists of two parts which represent the shop’s identity. The first element is the circle with the capital letters W and A, that resembles a wax seal. This resemblance creates a more traditional feeling and is supposed to represent the past of literature. Using the geometric form of a circle it also implies that literature is a whole world on its own, which constantly develops and that will always be around to offer inspiration. The second part of the logo is The Wilde Alchemist in lower case underneath the circle. This more modern element builds a counterpart to the circle, but also completes the logo in itself. The logo is simple and clear, but still embraces and combines a traditional and modern approach being, therefore, a good visualization of the name The Wilde Alchemist and its attempt to represent traditional and modern literature from all over the world.
2.2 THE TYPOGRAPHY The two fonts to represent The Wilde Alchemist’s identity are Avenir and Didot italic. Again, the same underlying concept can be found of having two elements contrasting but also complementing each other. Didot italic as a serif font adds to the more traditional appearance of the brand, whereas Avenir as a sans serif font contributes to the more modern part. Both were chosen to represent literature as a whole, from traditional to modern, from different genres and from all over the world. Apart from the atmosphere and the mood they are transporting, the fonts allow for different usages because of their characteristics and used together they form a great contrast, which enables the highlighting of certain aspects.
AVENIR
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 1234567890 abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwqyx 1234567890 The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.
Didot italic ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 1234567890 abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwqyx 1234567890 The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.
2.3 THE COLOURS AND TEXTURES The blue, purple and orange on the right give The Wilde Alchemist’s identity colour. The colours blue and purple can be seen as calming, relaxing and cool. This goes well with the atmosphere in the shop, which tries to be a place where people can come to to relax and to read. Blue and purple are also the more modern colours in this scheme representing current and modern literature. In contrast to the both, orange is a much warmer colour, which can also be seen as more traditional standing for past literature. The colours work nicely alone, but a combination of them is also harmonious and enables to highlight and contrast aspects. Besides the colours, the texture is a very important design element. To represent The Wilde Alchemist’s identity the paper texture, which also serves as a background to this brand book, is used. This texture transports the feeling of a book page very nicely. Plain white background would seem very cold and clean, whereas this texture creates a warm atmosphere.
BLUE: C : 67% M: 7% Y : 29% K: 0%
R: 71 G: 180 B: 184
#47b4b8
R: 118 G: 96 B: 169
#7660a9
PURPLE: C : 62% M: 71% Y : 0% K: 0%
ORANGE: C : 8% M: 51% Y : 100% K: 1%
R: 229 G: 142 B: 36
#e58e24
2.4 THE IMAGERY The Wilde Alchemist’s identity will mainly be visualized with illustrations. Working with illustrations gives the bookshop an unusual appearance, which will catch the customer’s attention and, in the long term, become a symbol of the brand. Illustrations are a new and modern approach, but as they often work with well-known and traditional signs, they are easy to capture and understand. Using illustration also gives The Wilde Alchemist’s design a clear and structured approach, while focusing on one major element at a time. Working mainly with illustrations does not mean that photographs are not used at all. In some cases, they are needed to transport a certain atmosphere or feeling and also simply to display important things. Photographs of any aspects of The Wilde Alchemist are also kept clear and simple with one element in the focus.
2.5 THE TONE OF VOICE As a bookshop, where everything is about reading, The Wilde Alchemist puts a focus on text in its communication. The tone of voice is very important to create an inspiring and intellectual atmosphere. Sophisticated humour and the concept of storytelling are used to represent The Wilde Alchemist’s identity. Humour is mainly used to attract the customer’s attention and to educate people in a gentle manner. Storytelling keeps the customer’s attention on the topic and makes it possible for him to relate to a certain situation. The Wilde Alchemist works with daily life situations to create a little story with a humoristic element, which will, like the illustrations, establish the brand in people’s mind in the long term. The texts are well-written in a sophisticated and smart way to cater to the values inspiring and intellectual.
“Sophisticated humour and the concept of storytelling are used to represent The Wilde Alchemist’s identity.”
“ Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.”
- Oscar Wilde -
CHAPTER THREE: INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE 3.1 THE USE OF THE LOGO The Wilde Alchemist’s logo should be mainly used in white on coloured background (blue, purple and orange). Where no coloured background is possible, the logo can also be used in black. Since the logo has a harsher appearance in black, the use in white on a blue, purple or orange background should be the first choice. The logo can be used in different variations, which can be seen on this page. The most general usage should be the circle with the lower case name underneath it. In special cases, like for stamps and bookmarks, only the circle can be used. A combination with the website URL is also possible. This can be used on posters, flyers or other communication material. The lower case name should neither be on top of the circle nor on the left or right side of it. The logo should also only be used in either black or white, but not in colour. The colour of the logo has to be wisely chosen and attention to contrast has to paid, which means that the white logo cannot be used on the paper texture. The logo can be increased in size without any limitations, but it should not be used smaller than 5 cm in length. It should also be positioned mainly in the middle of any material rather than on one side.
5x
6,5x
x 15x
3.2 THE USE OF TYPOGRAPHY The fonts Avenir and Didot italic serve different purposes. Some rules apply for both of them. They can be increased in size without any limitations, but should never be used smaller than six point and they should be in either black or white, but in no colour. Avenir should not be used in italic and it should normally be applied to headlines, short information like addresses or event dates or for text that should be highlighted. Didot should only be used in italic and for continuous text, slogans and quotes. There should never be only one font in use as the usage of both of them gives the possibility to highlight and contrast aspects.
3.3 THE USE OF COLOURS The usage of the colours blue, purple and orange depends strongly on the context, but generally it can be said that they should serve as a background colour to the logo and to campaign material. There should always be only one colour covering the whole surface. In some cases, a different colour for the front and back side can be chosen. The colours should be evenly used, no colour is supposed to be the main colour of The Wilde Alchemist. The designed materials should work on all three coloured backgrounds, but general influences like seasons should be taken into account. Orange for example can be used more often in the summer as it is a warmer colour. There can also be exceptions, like using the colour green as a background for Christmas advertisements. What is important here is that the feeling of the brand should still be the same. The paper texture should always be used as background, either on its own, or as an underlying structure for the colours. A plain white background or the colours without the paper texture are never used. The paper texture is mostly used when a coloured background would be too disturbing, like for longer texts.
THE TITEL
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THE TITLE
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Also you should not use Avenir italic Or Didot non-italic
3.4 THE USE OF IMAGERY Illustrations for The Wilde Alchemist should be either drawn or sketched and they should be only used in white or black on one of the coloured backgrounds. When the illustrations are used on the paper texture, the illustrations should be in black. The illustrations should be used for any communication material whatsoever and there should always be only one illustration in the centre. Additionally, the illustrations should work with well-known symbols to ensure that customers understand the meaning. Photographs can be used, when illustrations fail to present The Wilde Alchemist accordingly. This can be the case on the website, in social media channels and in reports about the shop. The photographs should always show a relation to books being rather medium shots than long shots. If possible, the photographs should be structured meaning the focus should rather be on one or a few elements.
3.5 THE USE OF TONE OF VOICE The texts used to communicate the brand The Wilde Alchemist should have a specific tone of voice. The style should be inspiring and intellectual and the elements humour and storytelling should be used where applicable. Sophisticated humour not black or inappropriate humour should make a good point. On top of that, everyday life situations should be picked while using storytelling. It is crucial that the target group can relate to the texts. An example for tone of voice is for example the slogan “The place where Oscar Wilde and Paulo Coelho would meet” but also the following description from the advertisement for children’s books: “Bedtime stories do not only open the door into a fantastic world of all kinds of extraordinary adventures. As a convenient side effect your children might leave the groceries in peace next time in hope to be read another story. The Wilde Alchemist, Utrecht’s international bookshop, offers you a wide range of children’s books from all over the world. In our more than ten language sections you can choose between classics like Moby Dick and The little Prince and current bestsellers. Of course, we cannot take responsibility for the ideas our children might get from the stories. “