01
Identity & design
The visible systemLogotype, symbol, colour, typography, imagery and the layout logic that holds them together. It has to work at sixteen pixels and on a forty-foot hoarding.
Build.
Define ends with one decision. Build is where that decision becomes something a customer can recognise, a team can produce and a machine can reproduce, without anybody having to be told what it meant.
The brand ecosystem
One identity. Several hundred places it has to hold.
A brand is not a logo. It is the same decision, made visible again and again, by people who were not in the room when it was made. Build is where that becomes possible.
LogotypeSymbolColour systemTypographyPhotographyIllustrationPackagingLabelsCartonsSignageWayfindingVehicle liveryWebsiteProduct UIApp icon
EmailNewslettersSocial profilesCampaign filmsKey visuals
Unified brand identity
Every one of them, recognisably yours.
42 of them on this page alone
Out of homePrintTrade standsMerchandisePitch decks
ProposalsInvoicesContractsAnnual reportInvestor deckCareers pageJob advertsUniformsOffice interiorsReceptionLanyardsPresentationsTemplatesIcon libraryMotionSoundBrandCode file
Key challenges
What usually goes wrong.
None of these are design problems. They are all problems of a system built without the people who have to use it.
- 01The system is beautiful and nobody uses it.
- 02Every partner interprets it differently.
- 03It works in the presentation and fails in production.
- 04Nobody can find the file.
The deliverables
What actually gets made.
Five bodies of work, run together rather than in sequence, so the words and the design agree with each other. Not every engagement needs all five.
02
Verbal identity
How it soundsTone of voice, naming, and the words the brand refuses to use, written so a writer, an agency and a language model all land in the same place.
03
Packaging
The most-held piece of the brandFor most consumer businesses this is not a touchpoint, it is the brand. Structure, graphics, range logic and artwork built for the production line.
04
Campaigns
Carrying the position into the marketThe platform and the work that takes the position out of the document and into the places people actually encounter it.
05
Digital experiences
Built on the brand, not dressed in itWebsite, product interface and platforms, built from the brand system rather than styled to look like it afterwards.
In the work
Built to hold, at scale.
Each of these had to work across dozens of touchpoints and several countries. That is the test.
Who it has to work for
An identity is not only for customers.
Most identity work is judged on how it looks to a buyer. It has to hold for five more audiences than that, at the same time.
CustomersYour teamsPartners & agenciesInvestors & boardsThe publicMachines & AI
What you leave with
A system, not a folder.
Six things leave with you. Every one of them is built to be used by somebody who was not in the room.
BuildOne brand,
everywhere. 01Identity system02Verbal identity and naming03Applied touchpoints04Brand guidelines05Asset library and artwork06BrandCode file
everywhere. 01Identity system02Verbal identity and naming03Applied touchpoints04Brand guidelines05Asset library and artwork06BrandCode file
How it runs
Fourteen weeks, typically.
Run by the same senior people who resolved the position. Build sits inside a Mission Project or a Strategic Programme.
W2W4W6W8W10W12W14
Design system
Identity, colour, type, imagery and the layout logic, resolved as a system rather than a set of files.
Verbal system
Tone of voice, naming and vocabulary, written alongside the design so the two agree.
Application
The priority touchpoints designed for real: packaging, site, campaign, the documents the business actually sends.
Guidelines and handover
Guidelines, asset libraries and a BrandCode file, handed to the teams and partners who will use them.
Investment
Scoped per SOW, against the touchpoints you actually need.
Build is delivered inside a Mission Project or a Strategic Programme, and priced with it rather than separately.
