Although the background for this article might already be a little outdated and torn apart (the Showtime quarrel) for so many words have been spilled over it, the underlaying concern might be of some significant interest. The dramacy behind that mentioned affair surely wasn't an interestfight between two incomprehensable opinions of parties. Indeed we had two parties, both with the goal to keep their interests alive, only the topic was of seemingly minour importance: The name of a release became drastic factor for a battle.

The question could now be why ACBS and the rest of Ram Jam felt the urge to order a namechange for Showtime when they found what Darkage did under the name wasn't appropriate? Why couldn't they just find that the release isn't what they wanted but pointing on that they have nothing more with it to do? Similar questions could be put up for Kaosmaster and the Darkage members.

Names are said to be empty wordshells, but if they really are, why the energy put into discussion like that? The answer is easily to be found: Names are one major factor of identification, comparable to logos.

What is Corporate Identity?

In the Scene seemingly few people seemingly have ever cared for a Corporate Design (CD) or Corporate Identity (CI). CD hereby means a commonly shared design for a group and their releases, as part of an CI, which defines the major output which the viewer immediately identifies as release from that particular group.

Many words about something quite simple. Just think of a Mc Donalds restaurant in Japan. Can you think how it looks like? What about one in Brazil? Correctly. It doesn't matter where you are in this world, the Mc Donalds restaurants look the same - everywhere.

Or Mercedes-Benz. have a look at http://mercedes-benz.com/ and compare it with any offcial local homepage related to MB - they all look the same. So do the TV-commercials, flyers and brochures. Not only the legendary MB-star, also the fonts (a font family of three types called Corporate btw.), the colours (R223, G223, B223; R000, G000, B000; R000, G000, B000) and the picture design are standardized. The style- and webguides from MB are all made by the commercial agency MEX in Munich/Germany and are strict to the last dot.



CD/CI in the Scene

Groups often have a symbol/logo which is part of each of their releases. E.g. Anarchy with the classic anarchist symbol or partially Scoopex with the pentagram which rather classifies Antibyte productions then the group itself. Still that doesn't make a CD.

One group which early had a complete CI has been Andromeda. Their productions always had the same line of design. Not that the design looked the same repeatedly, but at that time, one look was enough and you knew it without having seen any groups logo - this was Andromeda design. Fashionable low-satiated colours, hi-res display, clear geometrical shapes, upright rounded large fonts. Straight and strict and indeniable Andromeda. Even the legendary Nexus7 demo followed the same concept, although it was meant to leave a much darker impression than the releases before.

Other groups can easily be identified due a particular tone, but often this is only achieved by the typical style of one graphician (Lazure, Made, Facet). This doesn't create a CD as there is no special attitude behind it and could aswell be changed as soon as the personal stylish appetite of the artist changes - e.g. due a cubists phase.


CD/CI a Solution for Demos?

The strongly individualist DemoScene usually gets in an uproar as soon as one just mentions the word "standards" (cp. Retro#2; answer to Retro#1 review in Gen#25b). CD/CI, however, means to standardise around everything, not just the groupname. So can CD/CI be an alternative for this Scene?


Counterquestion: Why not?

- Most groups have a non-substitutable groupname (Scoopex since a decade now).

- Many groups feature a symbol/logo (see above).

- Many coders tend to use always the same fonts, so this could aswell be a set standard for an entire group.

- To standardise whole sets of colours in fact goes beyond the extreme, but a tendency in colour choice can be identified already in LED demos.

- Most groups feature a certain style of music in all their releases, e.g. MC/TRSI with pompeous orchestral- sounds; Haujobb with their Big Beat Electronica.


A combination of the factors could lead to what Andromeda introduced to the Scene, but what got forgotten over the times again. Remains the question if this is something adorable?

Critics could point out that the releases would look too onesided and in the long term boring. If taken a strict CI like in the case of McDonalds and MB, surely. It could become the end of this Scene as individuality is a major factor. Yet to construct a CD in a way that fullfils the given tasks of identification by preserving individuality could aswell be a task of its own. The major pluspoint for a creative CD is that from a psychologists view there can be no doubt that the perception of a positively marked pattern from formerly known demos in a new release will add an unconscious bonus to the overall positive effect of the new production within the viewer.

This is also why so many prominent hits in the charts especially from casted popgroups sound so much the same - the success of the first release works for the success of the following releases, if known patterns are inserted.


Summing Up

If the whole discussion of this topic is relevant or redundant might be a matter of choice, but the background is made clear hereby. A commonly identifiable CD/CI surely helps for future success, but also is troublesome if new members demand new adaptions. Moreover to find a corporativly accepted CD/CI is not so easy afterall.

Yet once it is found, it surely can help out a positive effect and in case of Andromeda surely works for good chartpositionings.

Still one thing remains factual: Even the best CD/CI doesn't make a bad demo good.