[IGDA_indies] indie brand identity

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Tom Spilman wrote:
> Brian Hook wrote:
> > Tom Spilman wrote:
> > >
> > > Maybe some sort of logo
> > > program sort of like the ASP (http://www.asp-shareware.org)?
> >
> > You sort of make your own counter-argument -- who, seriously,
> > today knows or cares about the ASP?
>
>  They do have a website aimed at consumers at
> http://www.asp-shareware.com.

Their aim is poor.  If the goal is to capture consumer eyeballs, their
site *sucks*.  I guess they haven't heard about eye candy.  I was going
to say it feels like a government website, but then I realized that the
US government actually tries to make their homepages reasonably slick!

A difficulty in creating an Indie brand identity, is what if the people
creating the brand identity suck at it?  Then we wouldn't even want to
be labeled Indie, for fear of taint.  Making good brands is non-trivial,
let alone in a volunteer context.

I went up half the learning curve about that with the Python crowd.  We
were capable of getting good graphic artists + web designers, people who
had done logo stuff professionally.  We had solid businesspeople to
articulate strategy.  We came up with a rationale for the brand we were
trying to create; to summarize, we wanted to reach Suits first and
foremost.  Within our working group, we even achieved consensus on goals
and logo submissions.  We got a logo and website mockup together:
http://www.pollenation.net/assets/public/python-main-oct05.png

What we were utterly unable to do, is convince the Python Software
Foundation to take action.  They were a bunch of techies and didn't have
any vision for trying to sell to Suits.  Nor talent / good critical
skills for graphical design, frankly.  They just sat back and said, "No
group will get their effort officially blessed.  We'll just sit back and
deign to consider whomever provides us a complete product, with veto
very likely since we aren't on board with anyone."

So if I ever face this kind of scenario again, first the Decisionmaker
has to be identified, and that person has to be brought on board at the
outset.  If done under IGDA auspices, that's the IGDA board.  And then
we get into resource / Gatekeeper questions about supporting an Indie
marketing campaign.


Cheers,                     www.indiegamedesign.com
Brandon Van Every           Seattle, WA

When no one else sells courage, supply and demand take hold.