Brand & identity design
A brand is a system, not a logo
Most of what gets called a brand is a logo file and a colour somebody liked. That holds up until there is a website, a proposal template, a van, a trade stand and three people making slides — at which point the missing system shows as everything looking slightly different. We build the system, and we build it knowing it has to work on a screen first.
- Deliverable
- A system and rules, not just files
- Typical timeline
- 2–3 weeks
- Colour
- Every pairing checked to WCAG 2.2 AA
- Starting at
- $1,600
The problem
Everything looks slightly different everywhere
The logo has four versions and nobody is sure which is current. The blue on the website is not the blue on the invoice. Two people are using two typefaces, because the real one was never licensed for documents. Every new piece of collateral becomes a small design project, because there is no system to apply.
That inconsistency reads as a smaller, less careful company than you are. It is also expensive in a way that never appears on an invoice: every proposal, deck and landing page costs somebody an hour of re-deciding things that should have been decided once.
Signs there is no system
- The logo exists as a JPG with a white box around it and nobody can find the original
- Nobody can state the brand colours in hex, only roughly
- Headings on the site use a font that is not on anyone’s laptop
- Your proposal, your website and your social profiles look like three companies
- A designer asked you for brand guidelines and you sent them the website
- The identity was made for print a decade ago and has been squeezed onto screens since
What is included
What you end up owning
Files and rules. The rules are the part that keeps the files useful after we leave.
Positioning and voice
Week 1- A one-page statement of what you do, who for, and what you are not
- The three or four things you want a stranger to remember
- Voice guidance written as before-and-after sentences from your own material
- A vocabulary list: the words you use, and the ones you have retired
- Proof points — the specifics you are allowed to claim, with their sources
The core identity
Weeks 2–3- A primary logo plus the variants a real business needs: horizontal, stacked, icon-only, single-colour, reversed
- Clear-space and minimum-size rules, tested at the sizes you actually use
- A type system — display and body — with licensed web and desktop equivalents
- A colour palette with every text-and-background pairing checked to WCAG 2.2 AA
- Editable vector source files, in accounts and licences held in your name
The system in use
Weeks 3–4- Component direction for buttons, cards, forms and tables, so the website inherits the brand instead of reinterpreting it
- Photography and illustration direction, with real examples of right and wrong
- Icon rules, down to stroke weight and corner treatment
- A spacing and layout scale the website and the documents share
- Favicon, app icon, social avatars and open-graph templates at the correct dimensions
Guidelines and handover
Weeks 4–5- A usage document short enough that people will actually read it
- Export sets for web, print, embroidery and signage suppliers
- Templates for the two or three documents you produce most often
- A walkthrough for whoever makes things internally
- A written note on what to revisit in a year — and what to leave alone
How we work
What we will not do
None of these is a provocation. Each one is a practice that has cost somebody money.
No logo contests
Crowdsourcing a mark gets you something drawn by a person who never spoke to your customers, usually derived from whatever is currently fashionable, with no system behind it. You can buy that cheaply. You cannot build a website on it.
- No stock-mark marketplaces
- No bidding platforms or speculative pitches
- Nothing used whose origin we cannot show you
No forty concepts
Volume is a way of avoiding a decision. Presenting dozens of options hands the judgement you are paying for back to you, and the one chosen tends to be the most familiar rather than the most right.
- Two directions, each with a written rationale
- Each shown in real application, never on a grey square
- One revision round inside the schedule, not sold as an extra
No colour we cannot set text in
A palette that fails contrast is a palette your website cannot use, which is how brands end up with an official colour that appears nowhere. We check every text-and-background pairing against WCAG 2.2 AA while choosing, which occasionally means darkening a shade before anyone falls in love with it.
- Every pairing checked at the moment of choosing, not at build
- A documented darker variant for anything that has to carry text
- Non-text contrast considered for icons, borders and focus rings
No typeface you are not licensed for
An identity built on a display font with no web licence, or on a desktop licence your team cannot install, decays into substitute fonts across every document within a year. Licensing is part of the design decision rather than an administrative afterthought.
- Web and desktop licensing confirmed before a typeface is proposed
- Licences bought in your name, never held by us
- A documented fallback stack for email and documents
No guidelines nobody opens
A sixty-page brand bible is a document that gets ignored and then contradicted. The useful version is short, specific, and written for the person making a slide at five o’clock on a Friday.
- Short enough to read in one sitting
- Rules stated as this-not-that, with real examples of both
- Published where your team already looks, not emailed once
No rebrand we do not believe in
If the identity is fine and the problem is the website, the positioning or the sales process, we will say so and quote for the thing that is actually wrong. A rebrand is an expensive way to feel like progress is happening.
- We will recommend a refresh over a rebrand wherever it fits
- We will decline a project where the brief does not match the problem
- We will say when your current logo is better than what a change would get you
Our process
How we get to one good answer
Not forty concepts. Two directions, each argued for, then one taken all the way through.
Understand needs
Interview the people who sell
Your founders, your salespeople and ideally two customers. What do you actually say on a call, what do buyers compare you against, and what did they nearly choose instead? That conversation decides more than any mood board.
You get: Positioning brief and competitor visual landscape
Strategize
Agree the territory before the visuals
We write down what the identity has to do — look established, look specialist, look approachable, survive on a van — and what it must not do. Agreeing that on paper is what prevents the “can we see it in green” loop.
You get: A written creative territory and success criteria
Create & build
Two directions, one chosen, then built out
Two genuinely different routes, each shown applied to a real homepage and a real document rather than floating on a grey square. You choose one, and we build the system around it.
You get: Chosen direction, full system and source files
Optimize & grow
Roll it out and hold the line
Applied to the site, the templates and the profiles, then a check a few weeks later on how it is actually being used. Systems drift wherever they are inconvenient, and that is a design problem worth fixing rather than a discipline problem.
You get: Rollout, guidelines, and a post-rollout review
Honest scoping
When a rebrand is worth the money
Worth doing if
- You are about to build a website and there is no system to build it from
- The company has outgrown an identity made when it was one person
- You are merging, renaming, or adding a line that does not fit the current brand
- Several people make collateral and all of it looks different
- You are selling to larger customers who read inconsistency as risk
Not worth it if
- Sales are the problem and the brand is a more comfortable thing to work on instead
- You want a new logo because you are bored of the current one and it is still working
- Nobody internally can make a final decision; brand projects die in committee
- The real issue is that the site is slow or unfindable — that is a different service and a cheaper one
- You need it in two weeks for a trade show. We would rather do a focused refresh honestly than a full identity badly
One more thing. A refresh — keeping the logo, fixing the type, the colour and the system around it — is often the right answer and costs considerably less than a rebrand. We will tell you when that is the case, including when it means a smaller invoice.
Questions
Before you ask us
The things people ask about Brand & Identity Design before they get in touch. If yours is not here, ask directly — you will get a straight answer rather than a brochure.
Ask a questionHow is this different from just buying a logo?
A logo is one asset. What makes a brand usable is everything around it: the variants for real situations, clear-space and minimum-size rules, a licensed type system, a palette that passes contrast, component and layout direction, voice, and a short document telling your team how to apply it. Without that, every new piece of collateral becomes a fresh design decision made by whoever is nearest.
Do I need a new brand before a new website?
You need a system the website can be built from. Sometimes that means a full identity project first. Often it means a focused refresh — tightening the type, fixing the colour so it passes contrast, defining spacing and component rules — run as the first phase of the web project. We would usually rather do the smaller version and spend the rest of the budget on the site itself.
How many concepts do we see?
Two, each genuinely different, each with a written argument for why it is right, and each shown applied to a real homepage and a real document. One revision round is in the schedule. If neither direction is right, that is a failure in the brief stage and we go back to that rather than producing a third and a fourth.
Will the brand work in print as well as on screen?
Yes, and we design screen-first because that is where most people will meet you. The print consequences are handled explicitly: single-colour and reversed logo versions, minimum sizes tested at the sizes signage and embroidery actually need, and a colour specification that includes print equivalents rather than leaving a supplier to guess.
Who owns the files and the fonts?
You own the files, including the editable vector sources, and typeface licences are purchased in your name. There is nothing you have to keep paying us to use, and another designer can pick the system up without calling us first.
What does brand identity design cost?
A full identity starts at $1,600, and a refresh of an existing one is less. The range depends on how many applications you need designed and whether document templates and collateral are in scope. We quote after the positioning conversation, because that is what determines how much work the identity has to do.
Show us the four logo files
Send whatever you have — the logo, the website, a proposal, a photo of the van. We will tell you honestly whether you need a rebrand, a refresh, or simply a set of rules written down.