Brand Brilliance
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Author: Fiona Humberstone
Publisher: Copper Beech Press
Year Published: 2017
Dimensions: 8.5”x10.75”
Pages: 272
Fiona Humberstones’s manifesto, Brand Brilliance takes readers on the journey of discovering their company’s brand, and making it stronger and more recognizable. This book focuses on three major topics: strategy and aesthetics, building a website, and marketing. This is where Humberstone guides readers on bridging the gap between their audiences’ needs and their brands' messages.
This book contains a lot of information that covers a large range of subjects that many people might not realize go into a brand. It talks about audiences, muses, and consumer profiles to help develop who the brand serves, photography and styling that can be used in print, web, and social media, different forms of marketing towards audiences, and how to build a lasting, positive impression. Although these factors are recognizable to most designers with experience in branding, a lot of people who are starting to run their businesses might not. Which makes sense that this book includes all of this information, because its target audience is for the individual without design or branding experience. Humberstone reserves discussing logo design, choosing display typefaces, and color psychology for her other book, Style Your Brand. This is great because it allots her more room to discuss these other vital aspects of branding.
One great aspect of Brand Brilliance is it includes a large section on product photography and styling. Most books that touch on this subject either delve into the mechanics of photography or advise to take inspiration from favorite photographers. But this book discusses the principles of styling. Humberstone describes the process of planning photos, setting the stage, and breaks down different moods based on seasons to help give novices some inspiration.
Side note: Humberstone loves breaking down moods into seasons. There is a different mood each season evokes, and she categorizes color, photo styling, and even language and writing into each season. Although this seems odd from a design aspect, it is undoubtedly useful for people who are more focused on running their businesses than they are their aesthetics, but do need something that is cohesive and feels substantial.
She also includes examples of great product shots and analyses as to why they’re great shots, along as how they could be used in promotional and marketing materials. Despite the amount of the information in this section, it is important to note that this is not a lesson on traditional photography. Although she does discuss using natural lighting over yellow, artificial lighting, use of grid, and rule of thirds, it is catered towards photographing to convey the lifestyle of the brand instead of capturing more artistic and representative photography. All of the photography in this book is not powerful, striking, or bold, but it doesn’t need to be. The purpose of the photography is to sell.
Another great aspect of this book is the amount of marketing insight. Humberstone dedicates a large portion of this book to helping people write and create marketing collateral that is appropriate for their business. She delves into the basics of writing well-structured and eye-catching copy, to researching audience profiles to ensure that their needs are being met, and she briefly discusses some general layout design tips from color restraint to white space. Although this book does include information for the non-designer to gain a better understanding about print design, Humberstone does mention, multiple times, that sometimes it is best to hire a designer to get the job done.
Despite this book being targeted towards female entrepreneurs, it really is a great resource for anyone who is interested in the aspects of branding outside of logo design. Brand Brilliance is the perfect resource to use alongside other branding books like Alina Wheelers, Designing Brand Identity. Using this book alongside others that delve into the physicality of brand will ensure that the reader is well-rounded when it comes to branding. This book is also perfect for people who need a little more advice about product photography, useful marketing tactics, and general web design, and for people who are busy and don’t have time to read lengthy books. Although this book sits at around 270 pages, the amount of white space on each page results in fast reading.