it's early but this is what I'm thinking so far...

My passion is branding and identity design. Although as we all know this subject is massive. my initial thoughts were to look at the parts of design, which must come together in order to create a whole identity and then take one (e.g. packaging or logo) and analyse that... Then i realised that i want to learn something more than that so i thought of possibly comparing some existing brands by looking into every aspect from what they do, through what their subliminal messages are and what is their voice to how honest or commercial they are. But again i was nat fully satisfied with this topic so i tried to thing what it really is that i want to gain for myself from this research and what i can learn to really help me if i wanted to create a succesfull brand? 

PROCESS is the answer... i think... What i know for know is that i would really like to know how for instance a large design firm like brand instinct goes about creating a whole new identity. What are the methods and their process? How do they come up with a strategy? and what is the strategy? I would then like to compare this process with one of a single freelance designer and see how it differs... Throughout this i would of course like to analise some of their outcomes. finally i want to come up with my own planned process (a blue print), based on my findings, which i would follow everytime I'm designing an identity...

Well, this is what i'm thinking so far, but there are still other ideas in my mind, which are yet to be explored.

If i go ahead with this subject these are some of the research methods, which i'll use:

Internet: overall looking at brands/designers, and finally the webpage of the chosen group.

Books: there are hundreds, some of the ones i'll definatelly look at are: 

some for background info: Essentials of visual communication - bo bergstrom, graphic design a new history - stephen J. Eskilson

some specifically for branding: Which i need to get

Interviews: i wuld like interviews to be somewhat a crucial part of my research since i am planning to base it on the designers personal process of designing a brand... I'm worried though that they wont want to tell me... we shall see...

For now that is it!

thanks. 

Marta