scrap pad

defining visual identity

When someone says something will be "printed in pantones xxx and xxx," do they mean that everything-everything will be in those two colors? Blue and gold text, that is? While trying to answer that question, I ran accross this fascinating document: University of Bath - Visual Identity. Fascinating because it's an exacting and very objective definition of a visual identity, and also because it's trying to communicate logo and type design choices through a set of rules, entirely without the reasoning behind those choices (it's an objective definition). Design is science! At least it looks like it, when they use millimeters (what is this mixing millimeters and points, though? weird, even though it's appropriate for the stuff being measured).