Brands are living beings  

Communication is taking up more and more of our time. In fact, all of it. Everywhere. But growing numbers of brand touchpoints need more and more resources. This is where cutting-edge technologies like Frontify can help by freeing up space for creativity and pleasure in collaborating. Can’t they? An online interview with Silvan Zingg about the art of perfect collaboration. 

Brands rule our lives. Good times for branding agencies?

Sure. But at the same time, they are facing enormous challenges. Creating spectacular brand presentations is no longer enough. Brands are living beings, constantly changing and evolving. This is the time of digital platforms that can uphold brand consistency by always ensuring the latest logo design is displayed, and so on.

Is this an efficiency issue, or is it ultimately only a matter of costs?

Well, it’s always about costs somewhere. But actually, the main aim is to create smart workflows that bring people together and give them time to exercise their creativity. At the same time, customer retention has become increasingly important in recent years, and a digital solution is the right place for that—as our survey of 60 creative directors confirmed. 70 percent of them agreed that the main problem hampering productive, creative work is lack of time.

So what does the solution look like?

Let’s take the example of templates that may not be available in the best form for a campaign, or even at all. Agencies can work with their clients to devise ways of improving the situation based on a digital platform. That will generate a regular income stream, which is a crucial factor today.  

So Frontify lowers the effort involved in correction and updating. And once creative minds are freed up from tiresome organizational chores …

... we’re giving them the gift of time to work strategically and creatively instead of, say, swapping out blue headlines for black ones. Which, as most designers would agree, isn’t a task they really enjoy. Templates create freedom within a clearly defined framework. . 

Making a difference together

But what happens if those basic tasks disappear? Does it mean the highest-flying designers will be the only ones left?

Well, that’s a pretty extreme take on it. But ultimately, it will mean the end of all those time-consuming minutiae and free up space for individual creativity—and that’s precisely what modern agencies are aiming for. They don’t want to carry on playing the role of an extended workbench, doing the work that nobody in-house at the client wants to do. Quite the opposite, in fact; they want to work with their clients on making a difference. “Impact” is the great buzzword, but the real issue is about working creatively, thinking strategically, and expanding horizons. All the big questions, like: How can we elevate companies and brands to the next level? Manually designing a thousand flyers in different colors may soon drop off everyone’s list.

And documentation of all brand elements is part of the process?

It’s part of our product: brand guidelines that set out corporate identity. Those style guides used to be in book or PDF form, meaning that a whole new edition was required every time a change was made. But not any more. Digital brand guidelines also help users to select suitable artwork that fits the brand image, and to conduct consistency checks that flag up issues: Watch out, that typeface is the wrong one, that font size doesn’t fit, here are the right colors.

What about AI?

We’re investing in assistants that deliver smart results. Instead of trawling through files to find a logo, we can request, “Show me the content of the new campaign,” or “Align my text to our brand’s tone of voice.” These developments are incredibly exciting. Image analysis now allows us to predict that one specific image is likely to perform better with a specific target group than another. 

Seeking to create values

But you’re already a pretty incredible driver of acceleration, aren’t you?

Yes, I’d say so. But it’s not only about efficiency. There’s effectiveness to consider, too. We seek to create values, not just make things a bit simpler. Agencies need to make more impact with their clients, and our platform enables them to do exactly that.      

Like helping answer the question of how to align global brands to local markets?

In the past, local teams often had no say and simply adopted whatever had been decided at global level. In fact, creative artists actually presented a danger to brand consistency! Frontify can now provide a solid basis for defining global brand guidelines and using all the freedoms and options on offer to adapt them at local level. And that obviously boosts people’s motivation to actually do it.

So design helps to address people in the right way. But how does it bring them together?

That’s a really interesting question. In the global lockdown a few years ago, new standards emerged for how those communities come together, digital or analog. Personal relationships have always made up a large part of what we do, but the nature of our product means that we spend a lot of time in the digital world. Personally, I have a whole lot of digital contacts around the world, but I still want to meet the most important ones in person. It’s the only way to build a genuine partnership.      

So people who only communicate online should open themselves up to the idea of face-to-face meetings?

Absolutely. That applies to all networks that focus on creativity. We help to use them so that they deliver even more benefits all round. The art will be to navigate a middle way between online and personal interaction. In my experience, interactions and surprises are the hallmarks of vibrant, living communities. In any case, the branding industry will gain new impetus from digital tools and new support along the way from creation to implementation. This will open up a host of new opportunities, or even new business models. Because the key issue is always about solving problems and connecting people. Like our own event, Paradigms. Deliberately avoiding the topic of Frontify, we invited an array of visionaries from the branding and design industry and gave them a platform for their views that focused on inspiration, visions, and networks.

And did it work?

Yes, I think so. The discussions that resulted were an inspiration for us all. Our focus is on creating added value for all partners. We want them to progress and advance, and design is the perfect vehicle for doing just that. 

Frontify was founded in Switzerland in 2013. The technology uses digital platforms to simplify brand management. Today the SaaS company is among the leading providers of cloud-based solutions. Frontify offers user-friendly digital asset management, customizable templates, and digital style guides that enable companies to maintain brand consistency. Success stories from global clients including KIA and Lufthansa confirm benefits including improved collaboration, greater efficiency, and long-term brand integrity.