I had a conversation with a potential client recently who referred to a book called Branding for Nonprofits by DK Holland. Because I’m kind of a brandaholic and because there is precious little written about branding in the nonprofit space, I thought I would pick it up hoping for some new fodder. I was disappointed. The book pays very little attention to how to develop a compelling story for an organization. It mostly focuses on how to build a process around creating a visual identity for organizations or what we would call EXPRESSION. For those of you who are familiar with our 3-strand process, you’ll quickly realize the missing STORY and CULTURE pieces.
Speaking of three however, I did like the quote at the beginning of her book: “Cowboys all know you can’t brand nothin’ till you tie three of its legs together, slam it to the ground, and sedate it (Bart Cosby, brand designer). Sometimes it really feels that way. Also the back of the book has some nice examples of creative guidelines and graphic standards.
So, I liked the beginning and the end…but not much in between.