Design, corporate brand design, and corporate heritage brand design: what are they? what of them?

This article scrutinises design, corporate brand design, and corporate heritage brand design, with the latter constituting the substantive focus of this paper. Whilst design is a multifaceted notion, it is intrinsic to branding, brand management, and brand recognition. The article particularises that corporate brand design is bipartite in character and encompasses corporate brand visual design and corporate brand structure design. Furthermore, the paper elucidates the importance, dimensions, and nature of corporate heritage brand design. Additionally, the article proposes that corporate heritage brand design authenticity is dependent on there being an enduring brand marque/name and a prevailing corporate brand promise, and that key corporate heritage design criteria relating to omni-temporality, institutional trait constancy, tri-generational heredity, and augmented role identity are met. The arrogated design heritage notion is explicated in this essay. This characterises the appropriation of a design heritage of another entity, with which it is associated by virtue of its augmented role identity. The article explains, in some depth, the breadth and significance of key corporate heritage design dimensions. Notably, the paper observes that discarding a much-loved corporate heritage brand design can be problematic and contentious. Importantly, the author reflects that whilst custodianship of a corporate heritage brand design inheritance is a management imperative, it is one, nevertheless, which is frequently overlooked by managers.