How We Design a Brand

How a project runs

Every project moves through four stages. The brief establishes what the company is and what the mark has to do. Directions present a small number of genuinely different answers, in context and argued for. Refinement narrows to one and draws it properly. Delivery hands over the files, the rules, and the ownership in writing.

The order does not change and no stage is skipped. Each stage is only possible because the one before it settled something. Concepts drawn before the brief is understood are guesses dressed as options, and refinement without a chosen direction is redecorating.

Throughout, you are talking to the person drawing the work. The studio is small on purpose. Briefs and reviews happen over email, which suits working across time zones and leaves every decision written down.

Stage one: the brief

A brief is a conversation, not a form. Bring the name, what the company does, who it is for, where the mark will be used first, and anything already fixed. Then expect questions until the studio understands the business as well as you do.

Most of what makes a mark right is decided here, before anything is drawn. Have this ready before you write.

The name, spelled and capitalised exactly as it should appearEssential
What the company does, in one sentence a stranger would understandEssential
Who it is for, and who it is not forEssential
Where the mark will live first: website, app icon, packaging, signageEssential
Whoever has final say on the work, named at the startEssential
Constraints already fixed: a colour you cannot drop, a market with rulesIf any
Two or three brands you admire, with a sentence on whyHelpful
Two or three you dislike, which is usually more revealingHelpful

If you cannot answer all of that yet, write anyway. A brief gets easier the moment you stop describing the design and describe the company instead. Then replace adjectives with comparisons. Modern, clean and premium mean something different to everyone who reads them, while “closer to this, further from that, and here is why” means one thing, and the work can be measured against it later.

Scope is settled here too, since a single mark and a full system are different projects. If you are unsure which you need, the difference between a logo and a brand identity is worth reading first; the shape of each is set out on logo design and brand identity.

Stage two: directions

A direction is a mark plus an argument. Each one is shown at the size it will actually be used, in one colour as well as full, beside the things it will sit next to. Then it is explained: what it is doing, which part of the brief it answers, and what it deliberately gives up.

You will not be sent a contact sheet of thumbnails. A grid of options quietly moves the hardest part of the job onto you: picking a winner without being told what any of them is for. How different they are matters more than how many there are. Two directions that differ only in the weight of a stroke are one direction shown twice, and thirty is only possible if very little thinking went into any of them. That is most of what separates a $5 logo from a $5,000 one.

What is asked of you here is an honest reaction. A polite one helps nobody. “I do not know why, but no” is useful: it is the start of finding out which part of the brief was never settled.

Stage four: delivery

Everything arrives in one organised package: vector masters and every export you are likely to need, named so someone who was not in the project can still find what they are looking for.

The rules travel with the artwork, because artwork without rules drifts within a year. Clearspace, minimum size, which version goes where, what not to do. Enough that the next person to touch the brand does not have to guess. Where a full system follows the mark, that document grows into proper brand guidelines.

Ownership of the final work transfers to you in writing on final payment, source files included. Nothing in the handover is conditional on staying with the studio; you leave with the editable originals, which is the only version of ownership that means anything. Finished work is collected at the studio portfolio (opens in a new tab).

How long it takes

There is no honest single number, because the length is set by the project. A specific timeline is given with your quote, worked out from the brief. If you have a date that cannot move, say so in the first email so we can tell you whether it is possible.

Four things determine it, roughly in order of weight:

Scope: one mark, or a mark plus colour, typography, layout and the guidelines around them.
How many people have to agree. One founder is fast. A board is not.
How quickly reviews come back. Clients underestimate this one most often, and control it most easily.
Whether anything is waiting on it: a launch, a print run, a stand already booked.

Across the industry, considered identity work from an independent studio takes weeks, and a system takes longer than a single mark. Anything promising a finished identity in 48 hours is selling something else: a template, a generator output, or a drawing made before anyone asked what the company does. That can be a sensible purchase. It is not this one.

We would sooner decline a deadline than accept one and quietly remove the parts of the process that make the work worth having. Cost is settled the same way, and answered further on the questions page.

Common questions

How long does logo design take?

There is no honest single number. The length is set by the project: how wide the scope is, how many people have to agree, and how quickly reviews come back.

Across the industry, considered work from an independent studio takes weeks. We give you a specific timeline with the quote, worked out from your brief. If you have a date that cannot move, say so in your first email and we will tell you whether it is possible.

How many rounds of revisions do I get?

Refinement is a stage of the project, and its scope is fixed in the quote before work starts. It is not a metered allowance, and we do not sell rounds as an upsell.

What matters more than a count is that each round is focused: it arrives with a note saying what changed and why. Refinement should narrow towards one answer, not wander between several.

What happens if I don’t like any of the concepts?

You say so, and we find out why. A flat rejection almost always points back to something in the brief that was never settled. Usually a question we failed to ask, or an answer that changed while the work was underway. We reopen that, and draw again.

Directions are argued for precisely so that a no is informative: if you can say which part is wrong, the next set is not a fresh guess.

What do I need to give you before we start?

The name written exactly as it should appear, what the company does in one sentence a stranger would understand, who it is for, where the mark will be used first, and anything already fixed: a colour you cannot drop, a market with rules, a decision-maker who has final say.

Examples of brands you admire and brands you dislike, with reasons, are worth more than a page of adjectives. You do not need a finished brief; the rest is what the questions are for.

How much of my time will the project take?

Less than most founders expect, and concentrated in a few places: one proper conversation at the brief, one review when directions are presented, and one review per refinement round. Between those points nothing is required of you.

The single thing that costs you time is feedback arriving in pieces from several people over several days. Gathering it into one reply is the largest favour you can do the schedule.

All questions about working with us

Four stages, the same every time.