Brands dressed up to mimic theater.
By: Raphaël Couderc
Tags: Theatre, Graphic Design, Branding Strategy, Template, Branding

Brands dressed up to mimic theater.

The two-step production of theater is an endless source of inspiration for marketers desiring to refresh their Brand guidelines rollout. raphaël couderc Nov 23, 2021·5 min read

William Shakespeare, faced with a decisive choice.

Foreword.

Before we start anything, remind us that a theatrical text is not the finalized work in itself but solely a working tool. And the quest to be reached is the performance itself, the moment comedians interpret this text on a stage. The narratives take shape. For this reason, a theatrical text differs from a novel, which usually tries to please its reader. The reader is not significant in the theater. Nobody tries to flatter him. It is the spectator who is important: he does not have the text in front of him. He will only see what the author wants him to see, understand, and feel, expressly or implicitly.

There are no characters in the theater, strictly speaking. The character exists, ultimately in the eyes and ears of the spectator. The profound reality of theater is a text on one side and a comedian on the other. The comedian carries the text, and this duality leads to the appearance of the character.

The difference between a one-time and a two-time Art.

For many reasons, it seems interesting to confront my experience of producing branding materials with the theater. Unlike other expressions of art, the theater is an original phenomenon. We name it a two-timer or a two-step art. First, a speech is delivered, in the sense of a word which will leave the script, and secondly, a word is incarnated on stage by someone else than the author.

Yes, the theater is one of the rare arts with a two-step execution. You have other forms of arts where the work is done at the end of the accomplishment by the artist, and this is what we will define as a single-step execution: literature, for instance. The endeavor is over when the writer has finished his story. A similar proposition applies to painting. The painter produces his sketch. His work exists as soon as he withdraws from the canvas. It is a Single-step. Period.

In the theater, the first step is the writing of the theater play, in the sense of libretto. You are just halfway through your masterpiece. The main characteristic feature of a theater play is that it will need countless comedians and directors to articulate the initial story and make this a mandatory second step. Another two-time art is music. The composer lays notes on his musical stave as a first step, but its execution by an orchestra is needed. This critical part is called interpretation. (this is the second step)

These couple of arts, theater, and music, are the only ones defined by Playing and Interpreting. It counts. Precisely, the interpretation is the transition from the first to the second time. And this is definitely what brand guidelines are related to and how they should perform.

The guideline’s purpose is to fit on the stage, not just on the page.

It is an obvious point that comms directors tend to forget in their relationship with their brand Tales. In their guidelines’ daily surveillance, they often use text alone and skip the complexity of the stage, meaning the rollout campaign across internal and external channels.

So, the corporate communications directors wrote its brand guidelines, made up of graphic identity, color palette, templates of all kinds, and everything. At this very moment, it is only a piece of fabric, a bunch of slides to be honest, despite the massive volume of hours to process it. Some of my counterparts consider their task completed at this phase. Anyone who has ever launched a brand kit knows how difficult it is to rule best practices across all departments during the second step. May I say here guidelines are not the exclusive property of comms teams? Anyone use them, anytime.

my prototype of a new branding identity for a global consulting firm

By the way, who branding guidelines are dedicated to? To people involved in the acting, colleagues and stakeholders included! To make your Brand comes out of the PowerPoint, go live, cast a leadership team of publicly exposed comedians (Managing Directors, Business developers, Public Affairs, Marcomms…) and friendly clients (clients are part of your success) The game starts here. Considering guidelines achieved by just sending it through the intranet is a weak Play (My apologies. I want to prevent your inbox from rotten tomatoes.) The guideline’s purpose is to fit on the stage, not just on the page.

The more text, the less free comedians. The more slides, the less creative.

You have theatrical pieces that have a great literary value and a poor theatrical value. And vice versa, you have a theater piece that is bland from a literature standpoint but leaves a lot of space for the acting and suggests improvised body movements. It’s a bit like the gap you find between classical and modern theater. In the first one, there is a substantial holding of the text, on the other side, in modern theater, you can read dialogs that sound like platitudes. However, look beneath the surface. It’s written in a way that allows the comedian to deploy on stage bold incarnation. That’s where the difficulty lies.

The analogy explains that guidelines scare those who don’t have an aesthetic sensibility, don’t understand how to adapt, or constrain users with Powerpoint templates that overwhelm their speech. Apple’s world-famous keynotes or TED conferences show that it is the actor on stage who takes the light. A well-known rule. The guidelines then boil down to just a few regulations, allowing creativity to express itself on stage without betraying the core principles of the graphic identity. Here, the guidelines serve the speech, not the other way around. The profound reality of Brand identity is a template on one side and a spokesperson on the other. The spokesperson carries the message, and this duality leads to the appearance of the Brand.

And the crowd goes wild. Now, reviewing your brand guidelines too many restrictions and very few operational samples, how much space is there for your expression?

About Raphaël Couderc

10 years of proven track record in marketing and communications activities backed by a business school master’s degree and a world cup level athletic career. Read more: about.me/raphaelcouderc

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