International Corporate Identity 1 - Hardcover

Behind the visual identity of the much-commented-on golden arches of McDonald's, as well as Coca-Cola's ubiquitous red-and-white logo, lies a host of management consultants, corporate brand experts, and design firms specializing in bringing an institution or product to life. This is the story of more than 80 such products, told in part by well-respected designer Wally Olins. More than just utilizing pretty colors and interesting type placed exactly so on anything from a sheet of paper to an actual airplane, creating a visual identity these days is a long, studied process, consisting of research, marketing, and strategy, in addition to graphic design. Not all the illustrated case histories, selected by Olins from a field of more than 300 entries, include problem-solution statements, but enough contain some information so that even novices can understand the intricacies of the process. Barbara Jacobs