Branded!

I was in Monterey for Darien Library’s annual meeting this year and, unfortunately, missed the official unveiling of our new logo. It was very well received, as we all expected it to be.

The logo was part of a branding exercise led by Steff Geissbuhler of C & G Partners (whose clients range from NBC and Time Warner to New York Public Library). Of all the final options presented by C & G, the one settled upon was by far my favorite. It’s supposed be reminiscent of pages in a book while recalling the fluid movement of a cresting wave–a recognition of Darien as a waterfront community (I also see it as a sailboat) and an acknowledgment of Darien Library as a dynamic and agile organization. Several days ago, Alan Gray commented that it looked a little like a “2″ — love it!

I joined Darien Library during the final phase of the logo commission, but it was a fascinating process to be a part of. Steff Geissbuhler is an incredibly creative and inspiring person who really took the time to understand us and consider our own unique cultural fingerprint.

It occurred to me that a branding exercise is not just about a logo as a deliverable, but also a rare opportunity to examine who you are as an institution, your place in the community, and your vision for the future. The result, in our case, is a graphic that is not only visually pleasing, but one that encourages meditation on the significance of “library”. Like the logo itself, different people will see different things in their hometown library.

The need for branding in libraries may not be readily apparent, yet is critical nonetheless. Branding serves a number of critical purposes.

Branding instills a clarity of purpose.

I think that, for the reasons I previously mentioned, a strong brand can serve as a constant and gentle reminder to your staff of who you are as an institution and the qualities you represent. It helps ensure that your organization continues to deliver on the promises is makes to its community and that it adheres to its core mission.

Branding creates familiarity and comfort.

Consumers are comforted by brands. Brands become part of our daily narrative and, by virtue of the fact that they are so recognizable, we implicitly begin to trust the organizations behind them. We want our users to trust us and feel comfortable using our services and interacting with our people.

Branding indicates quality and consistency.

When you brand yourself, you are holding yourself to a standard of service. The stronger the brand, the higher the standard (and vice-versa). In that sense, you are letting your patrons know that you’ve made a commitment to them and intend to stick to it. After all, a brand can just as easily become a liability if you don’t live up to your end of the bargain.

Branding facilitates communication.

Over time, a brand begins to convey the things that an institution stands for. It then only needs to be invoked in order to recall everything that is associated with it. This can be very useful in, say, fund-raising situations where sometimes you simply want your library to speak for itself.

Darien Library’s new logo is just one step in an ongoing transformation process, as will be the opening of our new library in 2009. We will always exist in a state of transformation, however, and I’m encouraged to see that represented in our young icon.