Branding & Identity
Let's Build Your Business Brand Guide
Key Takeaways
- A brand is not a logo. It is whether you look like the same business across your sign, your truck, your website, your invoices and your Google profile.
- Most local businesses do not need a rebrand. They need consistency, because what they actually have is three logos, four fonts and whatever colors felt right in 2019.
- We build identity systems designed for where local businesses are actually seen: small on a phone, at 45 miles an hour, and on a two-inch profile photo.
- Usually paired with a website build, because that is when the inconsistency becomes impossible to ignore.
- Get in touch to scope it.
3 Markets
30 Days
Month-to-Month
Your Logo Might Not Be The Problem
The Honest Version
Most branding conversations start with a business owner who is slightly embarrassed about their logo.
Sometimes the logo is genuinely the problem. More often the logo is fine and the problem is that there are four versions of it, nobody knows which is current, the sign guy used a different blue, and the Facebook profile picture is a photo of the building from 2017.
That is not a design problem. It is a systems problem, and it is cheaper to fix.
We will tell you which one you have before you spend money on the wrong one.
Our Approach
What We Build
Logo system, not a logo
The pages that actually convert. One service, one town, one clear job per page. These are the pages your local SEO work is trying to rank.
Color palette with real specifications
Not scattered posts. Groups of related pieces that answer the full set of questions around one topic and all link back to the service page that sells it.
Typography
Cost, comparison, how-to-choose, and what-to-expect pieces. This is where buying decisions actually get made, and it is where most local businesses publish nothing.
Brand guidelines
Written the way people actually ask, which now means full questions rather than keyword fragments. These are the most quotable sections on any page.
Applications
Built around your category rather than generic small-business advice. We already do this for law firms, personal injury practices, financial advisors, RIAs and professional services.
How We Brand
Designed for how local businesses are actually seen
A brand designed on a large monitor and approved at full size will fail in the three places it matters most for a local business:
On a phone. Most of your audience will only ever see your logo at the size of a fingernail, next to your name in a search result.
At speed. A truck wrap or a road sign has about two seconds. If the name is not legible at that distance, the design failed regardless of how it looks in the presentation deck.
In a circle. Every profile photo on every platform is a circle or a small square. If your logo only works as a wide horizontal lockup, you do not have a profile image.
Maybe the logo is the problem?
When it makes sense to rebrand
Do it if: you have outgrown the name or the category, you are merging or being acquired, the current mark is genuinely unusable in the ways above, or you are undertaking a full website rebuild anyway and the identity cannot support it.
Do not do it if: business is fine and the logo just feels stale to you. You look at it every day. Your customers see it twice a year and recognizing it is worth more than improving it.
Common Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take?
Usually four to six weeks for a full identity, including revision rounds. Faster is possible and usually worse.
Do I get the source files?
Yes. Vector source files, all formats and all versions, and they are yours. No exceptions and no hostage-taking.
Can you just fix my existing logo?
Often the right answer. Redrawing a mark properly, building the missing versions and specifying the colors costs a fraction of starting over and keeps the recognition you have already built.
Do you do naming?
We will help you think through it, but if you need full naming and trademark work, we will point you to someone who does that specifically.
Will this help my SEO?
Not directly. Consistency across your listings and profiles does help, which is listings management rather than branding, though the two overlap.
Can I use this on merchandise and uniforms?
Yes, and the single-color and embroidery versions exist for exactly that.