i live in a continuous state of excitement...

Ok, the title of this post would work better if I lived in one of the 50 states in the USA, but the statement "I live in a continuous province of excitement" doesn't quite have the same ring to it. But I'm told it's true, and how do I know that, well because the Government of Saskatchewan has rebranded our fine province. We are now:



Yes, that's right, get out your permanent markers, your maps, globes and atlases, and start drawing in the exclamation point. We are a province that feels it needs to put an exclamation point on its name to tell the rest of the country, and the world, just how damn exciting we are. This is no ordinary exclamation mark, let me tell you, this is a $1.5 million dollar, I'm going to be aired on the superbowl exclamation mark. Yes the Government is spending $1.5 million of our tax dollars to reinforce how exciting this province is.

But you know what is not exciting, coroner's inquests, forest fires, or west nile virus. Now some of you may be quite surprised, becuase like me, you're a little warped, and do find these things exciting. But the Saskatchewan Government is telling you this is not true. According to this CBC report, the government has told its employees not to use the exclamation point when making announcements about topics like these.

When I went to Flak U (public relations school for those not in the know), we learned about things like this. However, the one thing we were regularly told is that you have one exclamation mark to use in your career, so choose wisely. Obviously the communications brain trust in Saskatchewan did not receive the same training. This exclamation mark now appeares everywhere.

If you've read the CBC article (what you haven't yet, go back up and read it, I link to these things for a reason), you will also see that the Government has published a 29-page book of guidelines on how to use the new rebranded logo. For those reporters out there who haven't moved over to flakdom, or those not in the communications field, this is called a visual identity policy. This is the first lesson in PR101 that I offer you.

A visual identity policy is a good thing (Megan, stop yelling NOOOOOO). It sets out how, when and where to use an organization's logo, wordmark or brand identity. In the old days, this was never much of a problem as printing was quite an elaborate and expensive process and not just anyone could do it. However, technology has changed this, with desktop publishing and free internet posting people are constantly publishing or postin documents with their own version of the logo.

For example, as the CBC noted, a visual identity policy will tell you not to stretch, distort, or in this specific case, remove the exclamation point, as demonstrated below:



The goal of a visual identity policy is to create and maintain a consistent image for all the organizations public documents. This is a good thing, it is how you build a brand. Look at some of the largest stores, corporations etc, whenever you see their logo it is always the same. You come to know and recognize it, and corporations will go a long way to protect it. In essence, properly done a visual identity policy can result in your logo actually becoming worth money. Every large organization should have one.

Opponents say that it can stifle creativity or just add a layer of bureacracy, but sometimes in this day and age, all you actually have is your name and your reputation, and a visual identity policy is one way you can try to control how they are used.