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Carla Warla
Replying to @kylehyams

Can you elaborate?

Kyle Hyams
Replying to @carlawarla

🧵 Sure — say a brand team or agency defines the principles behind a visual identity. For example, Pentagram rebranded Reddit using these traits: inherently eclectic, positively different, delightfully absurd, and genuinely candid.(pentagram.com/work/reddit/st…)

Reddit — Story
Brand identity transformation for the “heart of the internet.”
Kyle Hyams
Replying to @carlawarla

Those principles are then reflected in the company's product. Color palette, typography, shape, and layout point back to those traits (a typically captured in a design system). But who does the work to translate a brand's principles into a product's visual language?

Kyle Hyams
Replying to @carlawarla

and typically captured in a design system*

Kyle Hyams
Replying to @carlawarla

I've seen it a couple different ways, and I was curious what others have experienced. 1. Design system team explores, tests, and establishes the visual language (as well as maintain the system). 2. Another team sits between brand & system, and handles explorations & concepts.

Carla Warla
Replying to @kylehyams

Agreed. There’s visionaries & overseers. Visionaries create the blueprint & steer where the brand is going. Overseers are responsible for translating the visionaries’ vision/language into plans of action. They ensure compliance on all projects prior to going live.

David Mendes
Replying to @kylehyams

As far as my experience goes, the translation of brand visual identity personality traits is owned by brand designers, who define the look & feel, in collaboration with the product design org.

David Mendes
Replying to @kylehyams

If you want people to associate your brand with playfulness, it doesn't matter whether it is communications or product – it needs to be reflected in both.

ryoanji
Replying to @kylehyams

We don’t own the product’s visual language, as that is the responsibility of the branding team in my company. However, we’ve worked hard to establish a two-way communication process, allowing us to influence its evolution, and communicate to them insights of our customers.

Jamie Sigadel
Replying to @kylehyams

This doesn't really apply to my current team but what I've seen (in bigger companies) is there's a brand team that's pretty silo'd from everyone else.. When I worked on a growth team I felt like I was in the middle, taking things from the brand side or the product side