On how family crests relate to branding collaborative projects

There have been so many times when friends and I have gone to create things together — a gathering or a class or a publication or a clothing line — and one of the things that makes us fumble is the branding. We each have our own “brand,” and it seems odd to just make a list of all the “brands” that are involved in creating a new thing. Can you imagine a nightgown company that was released by a compilation of five different companies? It would be confusing. 

I was talking with our friend Matt recently about family crests. He told me that back in the day when crests were widely used, there was this thing that happened after a couple wed: they would each take their family mark and combine them, creating a new mark that had elements of the two they’d come from. One crest that held the energy and essence of all the people who had come together to form the new thing. 

It seemed like an answer to the brands conundrum. If, when you come together as a creative collective to make a new thing, you combine elements of all your brands, let it live as a mark rather than a word, perhaps this could be the visual representation of the ephemeral entity.