Visual identity: being recognised before being read
Does your logo say what you do, or only that you exist?
Visual identity work designs the logo of a brand or a service, or takes over the one that already exists. We start from your values and the codes of your sector, we explore what your competitors do, and only then do we draw. It is the first thing your users perceive.
When visual identity work is called for
We are rarely called in to change a logo, more often for one of these situations:
- Standing apart from competitors you no longer differ from at first glance.
- Bringing internal and external documents back under one set of rules.
- Making the logo carry the brand's values and the message it wants to convey.
- Setting rules for logo usage so the brand stays identifiable across every medium.
The problem
A logo that ignores the codes of its sector forces users to guess who they are dealing with. And an identity with no rules produces materials that go completely off-guide, until the brand is no longer identifiable. So we deliver the logo together with its grid and its usage rules, which the visual style guide then records.
How we work
Agree on the creative brief
We bring the project team together to set what is expected: the values the brand has to carry, the message the logo has to convey, the field of activity it has to illustrate.
Explore the sector and the competition
We look at what exists in your field, and we draw a benchmark and a moodboard from it. The further the research goes, the wider the pool of inspiration, which keeps you from getting stuck once the design work starts.
Sketch, then design the routes
The moodboard feeds the sketches, and the sketches feed the logo routes in whichever software is chosen. The benchmark and sketching stages are not to be taken lightly.
Set the usage rules
We deliver the logo grid and its use on each medium, together with the uses to avoid. Your teams and your suppliers then have the rules in writing.
We have done it for real brands
Bringing students, parents, teachers and the public together on a single portal
2,100 students, 1,500 EAC beneficiaries: rethinking their portalFrequently asked questions
It depends on what we take over and what we create. Taking over an existing logo and setting rules for it does not carry the same weight as designing a full identity, with benchmark, moodboard, routes and variations. We quote once we have seen your current materials and understood what you want to keep.
Both happen. We design the logo of a brand or a service, or we improve the one that already exists. We decide in light of your current materials and of the message the brand wants to carry.
The logo and its grid, its usage rules medium by medium, and the uses to avoid. You also leave with the benchmark and the moodboard that served as the basis.
Your project team and your clients. That is where we set what is expected: the values the brand has to carry, the message the logo has to convey, the field of activity it has to illustrate.
Visual identity is the logo and what surrounds it. The <a href="/en/glossary/visual-style-guide">visual style guide</a> is the document that records the whole set of rules, from colours to the uses to avoid. Visual identity is its central element.
Without written rules, people produce materials in good faith that go completely off-guide, and the brand ends up no longer being identifiable. Showing the logo grid and its use on each medium avoids having to arbitrate case by case.