Bill Haig, PhD
degrees of branding
September 2007

     In a way, what we decide to do in our professional lives is a form of branding. By choosing a career we are telling the world who we are, what we do, and how much our services are worth. Also, as with most brands, we as people grow, mature, and change with the times. Dr. Bill Haig knows this first-hand. His journey to a career running a branding company is an interesting one, both from a professional and educational standpoint.

     Dr. Bill Haig holds a Ph.D. in Logo Design and Branding from Southern Cross University in Australia. For many in the branding business, this is unusual because the industry isn’t typically populated by individuals who hold a doctorate degree in any service of branding. According to Dr. Haig, this needs to change.

     
“The problem is that most employers, including clients as employers, don't really care about a Ph.D. in logo design and branding. I have always had to educate as I go along in this business world… My Ph.D. was backed with research and conclusions that are actionable relative to how a logo is designed, or a brand is managed. These expertise skills have a direct benefit to business.”

     Dr. Haig’s eventual introduction to the branding profession began with a career in advertising, where he could apply the psychology and communication skills he learned as an undergraduate and graduate student to “basic concepts in motivation and perception” in advertising strategies. From there, he segued to a job working in packaging design for clients such as Michelob Beer and Pepsi, and then logo design where his breakout job came from working with his mentor, Saul Bass.

     Saul Bass (1920-1996) is an Academy Award-winning filmmaker and a graphic designer best known for his logo designs for AT&T, United Airlines, United Way, Girl Scouts of America, and many others. The relationship with Saul Bass ultimately helped Dr. Haig develop what he would later call credibility-based logo design, a philosophy he continued to foster throughout 10 years of branding work at a transportation company in Hawaii. He explains, “I look at logos as persuasion tools rather than artwork per se. The basic idea is that logos which represent companies should project the company’s credibility traits.” He would later expand this philosophy to credibility-based logo design and branding, and build his own branding company on its reasoning. According to Dr. Haig, “Successful branding is planning, creating, and implementing unique company credibility traits in all company marketing communication in a consistent manner… all touch points become an opportunity for marketing communication, even how someone answers the phone.”

     Though those work experiences continue to influence his views and beliefs on branding, Dr. Haig also stresses the importance of a formal education to a branding career. “By far the biggest challenge is the education of branding practitioners—from logo designers to branding management folks. Branding is a communication business. I may be prejudiced, but education must start with teaching the basics of communication and if I were to make a big suggestion teaching psychology and communication persuasion courses. For that matter, many universities do not even have courses in branding at either the undergraduate or graduate level.”

     Indeed, in a world where students can receive degrees in a seemingly endless variety of disciplines, the branding industry remains underrepresented, if not completely ignored—or, perhaps, misunderstood—by higher education. Dr. Haig explains, “Less than one Ph.D. in design, not even logo design, is graduated each year from all the US universities. The leader is the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology. They have graduated 12 Ph.D.s in design since 1992.”

     There are, of course, as many different roads to branding careers as there are branding professionals. But as the industry continues to grow and proliferate it will be interesting to see if universities and business programs begin to capitalize on the opportunity to supply the branding business with an academically accredited workforce. It will also be interesting to see how such students of branding are welcomed and acclimated into an industry that has traditionally drawn talent and inspiration from a variety of disciplines, from starving artists to business types.

     Regardless, differentiation is key to successful branding, and by earning a Ph.D. in logo design, Dr. Haig has certainly separated himself from the competition.

     Dr. Bill Haig, Ph.D., is the author of The Power of Logos: How to Create Effective Company Logos and is CEO of Haig Branding. He can be reached via his website, www.powerlogos.com.