Sumo

When I first worked on brand guidelines, in the late 1990s, they were full of absolutes: 'always', 'never', 'must' etc. They asserted that the brand marque is to be treated with respect and restraint. And that the parameters of the guidelines document were finite; no other options were permissable. The logic was that precise consistency maximised brand recognition and said 'reliable, global and professional' because that was what consumers wanted from their brands.

Since then, as consumer expectations have changed, brand identity management has advanced. We are used to products and services changing rapidly - even launching in Beta. We want our products available all the time, ideally delivered to our door. We like personal attention, recommendations and chances to interact with companies and impact decisions as a crowd. In business, we don't wear suits and we use first names and informal speech. As a result of these, and many other social and commercial factors, we are more drawn to 'dynamic, helpful and fun' than their previous staid counterparts. As such, the best modern identities have a palette of materials, not just a logo, and a set of principles, not specific rules.

The big advantage of a flexible identity for cultural organisations is that it allows you to align your logo with multiple performances, exhibitions, venues or business streams. The easiest way to do this is to have colour options. For example, The Guardian uses their different coloured logos for distinct sections of the publication and the Southbank Centre apply their colourways and checked patterns in various permutations.

The Natural History Museum have been able to give real depth to their logo by inserting images of living things into the 'N'. The identity Sumo designed for Gallery North takes its inspiration from an architectural detail on the building which can then be recoloured, textured or cut out as relevant. Allowing the logo to be a 'container for content' as Wolff Olins put it, seems to be a growing trend with the London 2012 and Aol logos, the logo for the Museum of Art and Design and the tourism logos for New York and Melbourne.

On the spectrum from prescriptive to fluid brand management, the identity for Tate is slightly more radical, with a series of versions of the logo itself, and as they become more blurred, they are less legible - breaking one of the basic principles of traditional logo management. There don't seem to be rules governing which version is used, when, and they have various colourways. However, this all fits perfectly with an organisation which is itself groundbreaking and sometimes controversial.

What if your brand values are about being maverick? How do you apply the concepts of breaking rules and being free to logo management? For the surfing brand O'Neill, their identity consists of their name and a wave - applied so loosely that there are almost infinite variations. However, this isn't completely free reign or mismanagement; they're not creating a hotchpotch of logos, they're keeping enough recognisable elements - the reminder levers - that you still know who they are. And meanwhile they are staying true to their pioneering founder and their brand value of the 'spirit of innovation' (and giving their clothing designers plenty of scope for branded decoration in the process).

A different but also brave approach is that of the Scandinavian ferry company Viking Line, who reduce the brand to just four of the letters when they use it on merchandise, advertising, communications etc. This gives them a way of branding without using their logo. However, perhaps a pattern is a more expressive and evocative tool for this, such as the one Wordsworth Trust use in a variety of ways to add branded texture or colour.

Another significant modern shift in identity control is the acknowledgement that logos can be treated playfully and creatively. Stemming from TV idents such as MTV, BBC 2 and E4, other brands have followed suit, for example Pixar and Talk Talk. Tate and Lyle became Tate and Smile to highlight their Fair Trade efforts, replacing the logo across their packaging range. Even Warner Brothers, a corporate giant, sometimes shows a sense of humour, such as the chocolate version of their logo shown before Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. The V & A use their logo as part of straplines, giving them an ownable, cognitive and stylish approach - literally a 'brand language'!

The Google logo is the behemoth of this group; they have created countless versions of their logo and continue to 'play' with it. They edit, recolour, embellish or animate the logo as they wish, associating themselves with whatever anniversary or quirk they choose. They don't even retain all the letters since they are, according to Interbrand, in the top 10 most recognisable brands in the world. And it's certainly a popular approach - they even have fan sites like www.logoogle.com. and they are number 8 in Saatchi & Saatchi's Lovemarks list.

For a brand manager, I think this can be unnerving territory but, if done well, it can 'breathe life' into the identity, the logo itself then becoming an 'animate' touchpoint for your brand. Even if you don't take things that far, being willing to flex your identity and apply a bit of charm and expression can only say positive things about the organisation it belongs to.