Changing times, changing signs

The spirit of a business is captured in its visual elements - its name, logo, colours, text and texture. Sometimes, it's subtle, sometimes it's strong, reflecting its emotional promises and public perceptions. This spirit of expression, this essence of philosophy, this graphic mega-representation speaks volumes about a company. How?

In the beginning is the word...

"We are not a mere logo design company. We create corporate national flags," says Raja Salman, managing director of the UAE's first 'corporate identity and strategic design company'. Aptly named Identity, it answers every need of design concepts, those of new companies seeking to establish themselves, or established companies wishing to reinvent.

Creating the 'symbols of loyalty', as Identity calls logos, fonts, colours and imagery, is not a one-step process. "A logo contains a promise of the future, while representing the past, and is the cornerstone of any corporate communications programme," says Raja, adding, "it can sometimes take as long as a year from the time the client provides an initial brief to the creation. The size of the company, its business, scale of operations, the number of employees and its existing philosophy are what determines the time that goes into the making of its identity.

"Creating an identity is more than just deciding on a typeface and throwing together a quick design for a logo. It involves analysing a company from the ground up, and entails a definition of the business, its history and goals, as well as its ethos and directions."

"Success is based on secret recipes," says Raja, "and we have ours as well. Briefly, it consists of research, more research, interviews, audits, concepts, design, creation of corporate messages and, finally, communicating these messages to various audiences.''

Identity's creations include the identities of the American Hospital, Dubai Investments, Emaar, the Rotana hotels, SOS and Dubai Department of Economic Development

And the word is made flesh...