As those who know me will attest, I’m a little OCD about order. (Or, as my teenager says “CDO. It’s like OCD, but the letters are alphabetized. The way they should be.” We always crack up at that last part, ’cause it’s what turns the funny into hysterical.)

Point is, there’s nothing quite like a neat desk or a row of perfectly aligned socks to soothe my inner neurotic. Even a Spring cleaning can get my juices flowing with the promise of less clutter…which equates to more open space…which serves as a clean palette on which to create, well, more orderly groups of things.

This trait has been professional gold in a lot of ways. I can usually spot the tiniest imperfection. The most minute misalignment. The slightest color variation. And it’s been particularly helpful in terms of corporate identity work, where consistency is so critical to establishing the meaning and integrity of a brand.

But there are times when the consistency cops go too far—even for me. In these moments, you invariably hear a lot of talk about how any variation from ‘the system’ can cause confusion in the marketplace, disrupting the customers’ understanding of what the brand stands for, and doing irreparable damage.

paying more attention to Pantone values than customer values can have dire consequences

Folderol (I have ALWAYS wanted to use that word in some sort of meaningful context. Not sure this counts, but hey…).

That’s not to say brand consistency is bunk; just that it’s woefully misunderstood. For too many people, it means ensuring that the same logotypes, fonts and color palettes are used in precisely the way on each branded piece. And while I acknowledge the case for such consistency, I’ve also found that paying more attention to Pantone values than customer values can have dire consequences.

The real meaning of a brand is embodied in how it makes the customer feel; the extent to which it reinforces her beliefs; what she is able to see of herself or what she wants to be reflected in it.

I’ve found the best, most resonant examples of this more emotional branding approach in a couple of today’s more progressive lifestyle companies: DC Shoes and Element: two brands that rode the wave of skateboard culture into the mainstream, but still refuse to play by mainstream rules as far as branding is concerned. Logos are routinely cut off or otherwise bastardized. There are too many fonts to count. And color palette? Fuggetaboutit. For these brands, the entire spectrum is their palette and they’ll use it however they damn well please, thank you very much.

So how do they get away with it? Well, it’s got nothing to do with the fact that they’re ‘rebellious’ or ‘irreverent’ product lines that by their very nature have license to break with convention. That’s selling short the geniuses who built and continue to evolve these brands.

No, they get away with it because while they undoubtedly have a traditional set of brand standards, they refuse to allow them to limit what the brand can become.

Instead, they listen to customers and take stock of the role brands like theirs play in the culture—not just the in the marketplace.

They see that ‘innovation,’ ‘uniqueness’ and ‘edgy’ aren’t just words that belong in a Powerpoint deck, and inject them into new brand expressions.

And they recognize that the importance of consistency, while central to organizing a sock drawer, can be overestimated when it comes to branding.