OK, so you’ll have to work out whether this list is chicken-and-egg; based only on my biased opinion of brands because they are the ones I have come to trust most out of those I use on a day-to-day basis, or whether I am attracted them on a day to day basis because they are great brands.
Transport For London
The quintessential transport brand. I love the level of detail exercised by the designers at TfL as they constantly keep the bar as high if not higher than similar organisation. It always amazes me how much money and time is injected into making you feel like you are being looked after. Even the temporary signage is finished immaculately.
Living in an area where public transport has suffered tremendously from a lack of cohesion until recently, London’s beautifully simple signage, typography, subtle individuality (the slight differences in the application of the logo at each Underground station) and seamless link between all forms of travel just oozes the best of what can be achieved with great design.
I’ve travelled on some pretty impressive, heavily funded public transport in a number of countries in recent years, and nowhere have I found anything that rivals this London classic.
BBC
In my mind the BBC still manages to maintain a record of getting it right. It’s not even down to the individual details in their design output – as recently I wrote – but in the overall feeling that the brand exudes in total.
The BBC has managed to remain without external advertising for over 80 years now, and the auxilliary benefit of this (especially in this market/advertising led world) is that it remains solely responsible for it’s own image. It’s level of self-checking is higher than probably any other media organisation in the world, and so the brand is bolstered by a feeling of superiority over the competition, worldwide.
It’s not that other broadcasters haven’t achieved something spectacular with their identity. Channel 4 has generated an outstanding brand – but the BBC remains like solid granite and consistently successfully manages to stay up-to-date without damaging it’s overall image of credibility.
Virgin
Virgin’s proliferation of business interests doesn’t seem to dilute it’s highly individual style (what other company is bold enough to choose a sexually-related phrase as it’s identity, and write only in white on red?).
Admittedly, some of the enterprises listed on the Virgin Website seem a little bit like the usual resources were not allocated, but on the whole this has got to be one of the most instantly recognisable cross-branding exercises known.
Virgin’s strongest coups are made in media advertisments both print and screen. They were one of the first to start using ‘speak to me’ style language and have continued to provide laterally-generated solutions that aren’t always the most successful, and aren’t always the most obvious, but generally are eye catching.
Even though Virgin Trains is a by-word for inefficiency, and Virgin Mobile always looked like the runt of the pack, overall they manage to maintain a very strong identity across the field.
Current.tv
The youngest of my choices, Current is a magazine channel bringing the best of what YouTube style journalism could bring to the screen and pushing the envelope in creative broadcasting.
Although most people don’t necesserily know what Current is, or recognise the brand, I still think it’s amorphous nature (apart from the logo, very little remains similar from one ident to the next) makes it one of the most interesting and devious ones about – especially in traditional screen media.
I’m not entirely sure the channel has got it quite right throughout. The young and often clumsy presenting sometimes look like the pioneering style of Channel 4’s T4 gone wrong, but it’s the combination of new approaches of mixing media with technology, and showcasing raw, highly creative talent that give it a feel good factor.
The Guardian
I’m not a regular newspaper junkie anymore, and never have been a devoted Guardian reader (though I rarely read any other). The thing is though, out of all the newspapers, The Guardian seems to have made the transition from traditional-to-modern broadsheet without sacrificing integrity or layout.
The introduction of the miniature Times and Independent were great moves, but I don’t think it had anywhere near the level of impact that refreshed Guardian had on making a broadsheet digestible.
Firstly, the new typography is stunning, and the use of colour, space and layout makes this still supersized paper a joy to open up. Until the design refresh, I couldn’t have really told the difference between many of these papers. The Times maybe slipped a couple of extra columns to every page, and The Independent had some very large percentages in a serif font splashed across the front, but it was the bold strap of colour and highly readable type that really made me sit up and notice that one paper was now leading the eye-catchability war.
Politically of course the Guardian represents a certain route, but with or without a political motive, this paper delivers the news in the most affable way of all the heavy-texters.
Overview
There are of course many other brands I put up as contenders for the five spaces I have filled here, but I think I’ll revisit this sometime in the future and add some more then. If you have suggestions for brands that really impress, I’d like to hear about them.