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Design

Communication design: an identity system and its rationale

One task. The student designs a visual identity for a named organisation, applies it across a set of items, and writes up the reasoning so another designer could work from it. Five things to mark, each described at four levels.

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How to read this

What you are looking at

A scorecard lists what you are marking. For each item, it describes what the work looks like at four levels.

The descriptions say what is on the page, not how the marker felt. So two teachers marking the same work look for the same things.

Students get this with the brief, before they start. Nobody is marked against something they were not shown.

1
Not yet competent
2
Developing
3
Competent
4
Strong

The same four levels are used on every scorecard here. A 3 means the same thing wherever you see it.

The scorecard

What gets marked, and what good work looks like

5 things to mark. Each one scored on its own, from 1 to 4.

  1. 1 of 5

    Strategic fit

    Whether the identity answers the brief for this organisation rather than a generic one.

    1 Not yet competent
    The rationale describes the organisation in terms that would fit any organisation in the sector. Nothing in the identity would need to change if the client were replaced with a different one.
    2 Developing
    A specific position is identified in the rationale, but the design does not follow from it. The audience, the sector conventions, and the constraints are described and then are not used to decide anything.
    3 Competent
    The rationale states who the identity addresses, what it has to do, and where it will be seen, and each of the main design decisions is traceable to one of those. Where the identity departs from the conventions of its sector, the reason is given.
    4 Strong
    As competent, and the rationale states what the identity deliberately does not do, and names a direction that was tested and set aside, together with the reason for setting it aside.

  2. 2 of 5

    The mark and the wordmark

    Construction, drawing quality, and behaviour at the sizes and in the contexts of use.

    1 Not yet competent
    The mark is drawn with inconsistent weights, uneven curves, or unresolved joins, and is presented at one size only. The wordmark is typed rather than set, with no adjustment to spacing or fit.
    2 Developing
    Construction is even and the drawing is clean, but the mark loses its distinguishing feature below a certain size and no small size version has been made. Letter spacing in the wordmark is untouched at display size, where it is most visible.
    3 Competent
    The mark holds its silhouette at the smallest stated size and in one colour. Optical corrections have been made where geometry alone would read incorrectly. The wordmark is spaced, and redrawn where the typeface needed it, and the relationship between mark and wordmark is fixed and specified.
    4 Strong
    As competent, and the system carries a considered set of variants for the contexts it will meet, with a stated threshold at which each variant is used rather than the choice being left to preference.

  3. 3 of 5

    Typography and colour as a system

    Whether the supporting elements form a system with stated rules, rather than a set of individual choices.

    1 Not yet competent
    Typefaces and colours are selected without stated reason and are used inconsistently across the items shown. There is no hierarchy, or the hierarchy changes from one item to the next.
    2 Developing
    The palette and the type selection are consistent but undefined. Sizes, weights, and spacing are set by eye on each item, and colours are shown as swatches with no values and no assigned roles.
    3 Competent
    The typeface selection is stated with the role it plays at each level of hierarchy, and a type scale is defined. Colours are given with values for the media in use and are assigned to roles rather than to individual items. Text and background pairings meet a stated contrast requirement.
    4 Strong
    As competent, and the system holds under pressure. It is shown working on a dense item such as a form or a table, and on a constrained one such as a small label, without new rules being invented for either.

  4. 4 of 5

    Application across the system

    Whether the identity works consistently across items with different constraints.

    1 Not yet competent
    The items shown are the ones that flatter the mark, presented at a single scale and mostly on plain backgrounds. Items with real constraints are absent from the set.
    2 Developing
    A range of items is shown, but each is treated as a separate composition. The same problem is solved in two different ways in two places, with no reason given for the difference.
    3 Competent
    The set includes at least one item that constrains the identity, such as a small format, single colour reproduction, or a fixed template. The same rules can be seen operating in each item, and the identity is recognisable across all of them.
    4 Strong
    As competent, and the set covers the range the organisation actually needs, including items that will be produced by people who are not designers, with the rules stated in a form those people could follow.

  5. 5 of 5

    The rationale as a document

    Whether the written rationale explains decisions, and whether another designer could apply the system from it.

    1 Not yet competent
    The rationale describes what the identity looks like and asserts qualities such as modern or approachable without evidence. Nothing in it could be used to reproduce the identity.
    2 Developing
    The rationale explains the thinking behind the main mark but leaves the rest of the system undocumented. Measurements, colour values, and clear space appear in the visuals and are not stated anywhere in the text.
    3 Competent
    Each significant decision is explained with the reason it was taken. Clear space, minimum sizes, colour values, type sizes, and incorrect uses are specified in a form another designer could follow without asking a question.
    4 Strong
    As competent, and the document separates the rules that must be held from the ones that may be interpreted, so the system can be extended to items nobody anticipated without losing coherence.

Setting the task

Notes for the teacher who sets this

What this is for

The identity and the write up are handed in together and marked as one piece of work.

An identity nobody can explain, and a write up with nothing behind it, fail for the same reason.

Before you set it

Name a real kind of organisation. Give it a position, a budget level, and a list of the items the identity has to work on.

Include at least one item with real constraints. The fourth criterion depends on it.

State the smallest size the mark has to survive, and how it will be printed or produced.

Marking group work

Ask the group to record who made which decision, inside the write up.

The first and fifth criteria can then be applied to each student. The other three apply to the submission as a whole.

What it does not cover

Illustration as a separate skill, motion, interface design, and artwork prepared for a specific printing process.

An identity that scores well here may still need work before it goes to print.

Make it yours

Take this, change it, or write your own

This scorecard is free to use, adapt, and build on, including commercially. The one condition is credit to the original.

Most teachers will change something. Reword a level, drop a criterion, add one of your own. Give your version its own number so the two are never confused.

The software does not know what subject you teach. It reads a scorecard and a brief, whatever they are about. These four are a starting point so nobody begins from a blank page. They are not a list of what ReadyHo covers.

Machine readable file: /rubrics/identity-system-and-rationale.json. Holds the criteria, the four levels, the version, and the licence, for loading into your own system.

Cite it as: ReadyHo rubric library. Communication design: an identity system and its rationale, version 0.1. https://readyho.com/rubrics/identity-system-and-rationale. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.

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Get started

ReadyHo is free and open source. Start with one course, or run it across your departments.

Your teachers set the project and keep the final say on every mark. A first draft score and comments come back in minutes. Then a working professional from industry checks the finished work and puts their name to it.

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Other scorecards published so far

Four so far, in law, architecture, and design, because those were written first. A scorecard for any other subject is written the same way and runs the same way.