jpoindexter /brand — Brand Identity Dispatcher
Router for the brand-identity-skills family — 12 reference skills distilled from Alina Wheeler & Rob Meyerson, Designing Brand Identity (6th ed., Wiley 2024). Don't design a brand from memory: route to the 2–4 skills whose scope matches the task, load them, and apply their frameworks.
How to use
- Read the task. Identify which stage(s) and concern(s) it touches using the routing table.
- Load the matched skills (2–4 — cast slightly wide, discard after reading). If the task spans the whole engagement, load
managing-the-processfirst as the spine. - Apply the combined frameworks. Where two overlap, the more specific stage skill wins.
- Name which skills you applied.
Routing table
| Task signal | Load |
|---|---|
| "what is a brand / brand vs branding", vocabulary, brand architecture, why invest, stakeholders, brand experience | brand-fundamentals |
| Judge/critique/defend an identity; acceptance criteria; "is this any good"; rubric | brand-ideals |
| Choose a logo/mark type (wordmark, pictorial, abstract, emblem, dynamic); name a company/product; tagline; character | brand-elements (naming also → clarifying-strategy) |
| AI, sustainability, social justice, social media, mobile, big data, licensing, certification, crisis, personal brand | brand-dynamics |
| Refresh/evolve/overhaul an EXISTING brand; brandmark or packaging redesign; renaming | brand-redesign |
| Plan/run the whole initiative; timeline, cost, "why so long", collaboration, IP/trademark, measuring success | managing-the-process |
| Phase 1 — audits (marketing, competitive, verbal), interviews, market/usability research, problem definition, findings | conducting-research |
| Phase 2 — positioning, brand brief, big idea, narrowing focus, naming strategy, trademark screening | clarifying-strategy |
| Phase 3 — the visual/sensory system: look & feel, color, typography, iconography, sound, testing marks in application | designing-identity |
| Phase 4 — apply identity across touchpoints: website, collateral, packaging, signage, environments, uniforms, vehicles | creating-touchpoints |
| Phase 5 — launch, brand guidelines, brand books, brand champions, governance, online brand center | managing-brand-assets |
| "show me a real precedent", pattern that worked, cite a case (Airbnb, Chobani, LEGO, Deloitte…) | brand-case-studies |
The 5-phase spine
Most build/rebrand requests run the universal process in order. If the task is "create a brand identity" end to end, sequence:
- conducting-research — understand before designing
- clarifying-strategy — decide meaning, positioning, name
- designing-identity — build the visual/sensory system
- creating-touchpoints — apply it everywhere
- managing-brand-assets — launch and sustain it
managing-the-process orchestrates all five; brand-fundamentals, brand-ideals, brand-elements, brand-dynamics are cross-cutting references; brand-redesign and brand-case-studies inform any stage.
Common mistakes
- Jumping to logo design before research + strategy — load
conducting-researchandclarifying-strategyfirst. - Loading all 12 — the point is to route to the 2–4 that fit. Cast slightly wide, then discard.
- Designing from memory — these skills carry the book's exact frameworks (the 9 ideals, the mark taxonomy, the 5 phases). Read them; don't paraphrase from recall.
Source: Wheeler & Meyerson, Designing Brand Identity (6th ed., Wiley 2024).