Sobre la identidad visual en Soluble

Probably due to its exposure, because it's almost always front and center, or because in many cases it's the primary impact we receive, a brand's visual identity tends to be the edge that hoards all the spotlight—the one that bears the pressure of knowing it supports every glance and judgment.

The reality is that if the brand were a film, the visual identity would be that famous, recognized actress collaborating in a supporting role, ceding the real leading part to other characters in the story.

Still, this relevance demands special attention, requires expert professionals to develop it, and constitutes a key cog that fits perfectly into the complex mechanism of a brand.

Visual Identity at Soluble

At Soluble, these specialists live by the principle we follow when hiring: exceptionally talented people in their field who understand that their discipline alone isn't enough to achieve the impact we seek as a company.

In this specific case, mastering the rules of composition, color, and typography isn't enough—it's crucial to understand business, strategy, innovation, technology, and many other things that at first glance seem to have little to do with graphic design.

The objective of visual identity

The objective of a company like ours when we work with a brand is to generate a specific brand image—a mental one—a favorable idea in the minds of the different people who will interact with that brand. A perception that translates into credibility, trust, and choice.

The problem is that brand image (not to be confused with visual identity, no matter how much we use imagery to construct it) cannot be directly modeled. We can't go person to person telling them what they should think about us, answering questions and dismantling wrong or unfavorable perceptions.

The only mechanism we have to shape brand image is by working through brand identity: all those perceptible aspects of the company (tangible or not) that will serve to project a certain image.

Within this brand identity, we find intangible elements (behaviors, rituals, etc.) and tangible ones: sonic, verbal, olfactory, and also visual.

Therefore, with visual identity it's important that we work to effectively project what will allow us to project the image we want to achieve in the minds of those who see us.

The role of strategy

To accomplish this ambitious objective, we need to ensure that all those perceptible levers are aligned in their function and contribute to a single goal. Otherwise, we can fall into inconsistencies, inefficiencies, and worse, credibility failures.

Every effort toward coherence across touchpoints needs a common denominator, a shared point of reference that ensures all parts are coherent with one another. That beacon on the horizon is Brand Strategy.

Visual identity, like everything else, must serve the strategy, where the brand's fundamental principles are captured. There we'll find very useful tools that will narrow down to a manageable size the infinite world of visual possibilities for shaping a brand.

Positioning and territory, for example, will help us understand the universe we need to belong to, but within which we must differentiate and be recognizable. The pillars will give us clues about what things matter to communicate more or less explicitly, and personality will be the tool we use to nuance the tone of the solution.

Brand personality applies almost directly to the choice of typefaces, colors, or photographic style.

The bridge between strategy and visual

There are no magic recipes or fail-safe formulas, but there are tools that make the visual design team's work much easier.

Our foolproof duo: Concept and Context. With a capital letter, both.

The Concept is that idea that will connect strategy with the entire visual universe we'll need to develop. Something like a dense cloud of information and meaning that will collapse to form our brand visual system. The Context is what will allow us to expand the concept's meanings to connect ideas.

Maybe it's easier to explain with an example.

Let's look at our work for Quaderno.

Quaderno is a fintech with a SaaS to automatically manage sales tax across the internet. Imagine the pain of manually handling tax payments in different countries, with different rules, percentages… Plus, their team is predisposition made flesh. Always helpful and solution-oriented.

All of this was captured in the strategy under the idea of "Peace of mind" as brand territory. Making the difficult easy and stripping density from a world as complex and unappealing as tax obligations in internet sales.

Well, from here starts the answer to the visual identity. We looked for what other everyday elements we could define the same way, with that "Peace of mind". In what other moments do we experience a break, an oasis in a desert of dense information.

And we arrived at the comic strips found in financial newspapers. That will be our Concept. They're an oasis of peace amid dense and harsh information. They connect directly with the emotional, with humor, with the human. They explain complex current concepts in an engaging and accessible way. Perfect fit.

From here on, it's a matter of revisiting the concept again and again to answer all the project's needs and reformulate the context so each element works in its new role. So we chose the typefaces (drawn from press and comic strips), the colors (drawn from salmon press), and we made the decision that Quaderno should have a mascot to help us make the product more accessible (our beloved Qoodle).

A good visual identity

A good visual identity is one that does its job effectively and stands solid and efficient over the years. A good visual identity is sustainable over time and in management. A good visual identity is not the one with the most awards or the one that's trendiest or gets copied the most.

For Soluble, moreover, a good visual identity is a two-way street. It's the master answer to that subtle and fragile balance between subtlety and evidence. A good visual identity must allow you, in a more or less immediate way, to make the reverse journey from the one we took in designing it.

If you see Quaderno's visual identity, to stick with our example, without having known the explanation beforehand, are you able to see everything we've told you?