modern8 eNews: June 2002

NIC, the world's largest provider of Web-enabled government services, has engaged modern8 to conduct a comprehensive branding overhaul. NIC is helping transform the relationships between government and the communities it serves by providing convenient online government services that make life easier for businesses and citizens.

New Logo Concepts

Existing branding for NIC is fragmented and doesn't reflect business objectives in a targeted positioning strategy. modern8 has applied the principles of Perception Branding™ to unify the core brand though all fronts and establish the strongest possible position in the customer's mind. Perception Branding™ is a proprietary visual process that defines a brand's persona as an emotionally charged platform for developing brand-design solutions.

Proposed Business Card

The NIC brand overhaul is still in progress. Phases 1 through 3, Discovery, Distillation and Depiction are complete. Design and Deployment are now underway. Shown is the existing NIC identity together with three proposed concepts and possible branding applications in a business card and web site.

Website Concept with new Identity

Justin Milo, long distance employee while attending school at the University of Chicago, has returned for the summer to add his programming and artistic talents face-to-face. / Kellie Ungricht, formerly an intern from the University of Utah, was hired as a designer following her recent graduation from the Graphic Design Department.

Branding is an often used, but often-misunderstood term in marketing circles. Branding is not advertising, not a catchy name and logo, not expressed through any one medium. Branding can be, however, a defining element that often separates success from insignificance in the marketplace.

Perception Branding™ has been developed by modern8 as a strategic business tool used to gain competitive advantage. On June 20, Randall Smith, modern8 creative director, spoke to the University of Utah School of Business on the subject. From that occasion, a White Paper on Perception Branding™ has been developed and is available as a free download in PDF format. www.modern8.com/whitepaper.pdf Randall is available for speaking engagements to Business and Professional Associations on the topic of branding. An interactive presentation, used by Randall when speaking, is viewable at www.modern8.com/branding/

Anyone in the design businesses will acknowledge that tradeshow deadlines seem to drive the completion of a lot of projects. Such was the case when Insight Eyeworks recently asked modern8 to design not only tradeshow graphics, but product identities and retail product displays as well. Insight Eyeworks, who imports and distributes eyewear nationwide, is a company for whom we have provided services dating back to the 1980's.

The uniquely packaged product is targeted at reading glass wearers with an interest in fashion and style. The branding was created to clearly position the eyewear against the traditional product category, often considered stodgy and boring. Youthful models, upbeat graphics and the product logo (known internally as the "snowboarder" option) created booth and retail displays that distinguished the company from the competition.