Alina Wheeler gave brand identity a process.

Alina Wheeler was an American graphic designer, brand consultant and author. According to Wikipedia, she was born on 14 October 1948, graduated from the Philadelphia College of Arts in 1970, co-founded the design firm Katz Wheeler in Philadelphia around 1980, served on AIGA's national board from 1991 to 1994 and became an AIGA Fellow in 1999. She died on 5 December 2023, aged 75.

She is best known for Designing Brand Identity, first published in 2003. A sixth edition came out in 2024, co-authored with Rob Meyerson, who took on stewardship of the book. PRINT magazine marked the book's legacy that year.

What is Designing Brand Identity?

It is a working guide, not a theory book. Publisher materials describe a three-part structure: brand fundamentals, process basics and case studies, with checklists, tools and diagrams throughout. The sixth edition adds material on artificial intelligence, virtual reality, social justice and evidence-based marketing, and more than 50 new case studies. Sources give the subtitle in two different ways, so I have left it out.

My take

This is opinion, from someone who builds identities for a living. What I value most in the book's approach is the order. Identity is a process with steps, and the steps run in a sequence. You decide what the brand stands for before you draw anything.

Too many founders do it backwards. They commission a logo, then try to discover a brand to fit it. Wheeler's tradition says the opposite: the thinking comes first and the design carries it.

That is the same order as the Brand Growth OS™. Clarify comes before Construct, and Connect only works if the identity is consistent in every place a buyer meets you. A set of guidelines is how a brand survives contact with a hundred different hands.

Three questions before you commission an identity

• Can you say what the brand stands for in one sentence? If not, stop. A designer cannot draw a position you have not decided.
• Who will use the identity without you in the room? Write the rules for them, not for yourself.
• Where will it appear first? Plan the first ten touchpoints before the launch, not after.

The Brand Guidelines Template is a free place to start the rules, and the Positioning Statement Builder covers the first question.

Sources

Wikipedia: Alina Wheeler · PRINT: The enduring legacy of Designing Brand Identity · Wiley: Designing Brand Identity, 6th edition. See all brand voices · About Mike Bruce.