Get set, go!

SBHD: Brand owners are looking beyond the obvious and using subliminal elements such as colour and shape to stamp their mark on consumer consciousness. Design Week peeled away some of the layers which go towards the make-up of a brand, leaving you the task of working out what they are. Answers appear overleaf.

This company’s motor racing sponsorship gives it global exposure, but the branding has to work hard and be distinctive even as the car races by at top speeds. London consultancy Sampson Tyrrell produced a global identity management system for the lubricant specialist to help make the most effective use of a strong brand.

This brewer was reportedly the first company to use subliminal branding, with its red triangle originally on black.

This brand owner once tried to appropriate the red used on its product packaging. The strategy of identifying colour with the product, now used extensively in the brand’s ad campaigns, has proved extremely effective and the brand has retained its position as a global best-seller.

Each of the 57 varieties is visually branded by the product’s unique typeface, but some also feature this keystone device.

Which brand owns which shade of purple? And if they weren’t placed side by side could you really tell the difference?

For this drinks product, the distinctive typeface again differentiates the brand. Lewis Moberly used the initial letter to create a pub countermount.

Packaging for this own-brand broke the mould and won several awards, including the Design Business

Association’s Design Effectiveness Grand Prix, for designer Lewis Moberly. For the retailer, it outstripped sales targets by no less than 100 per cent.

Man’s best friend wasn’t featured on the old packaging, although it is a strong element of the brand. It is featured on the new Coley Porter Bell-designed packaging in this stylised form.

This newspaper’s redesign, by Pentagram partner David Hillman, has to work hard daily using branding to reinforce the values and character of the editorial.

Answers: 1. Castrol; 2. Bass; 3. Marlboro; 4. Heinz; 5. Silk Cut (left) and

Cadbury’s (right); 6. Carlsberg; 7. Boots Hosiery; 8. Dulux; 9. The Guardian.