Branding & Identity
The mark, the language and the rules that keep a business sounding like one business — including when someone else is writing.
The situation
Most identity problems are not logo problems. They show up as a site, an ad and an email that read like three different companies, because three different people wrote them against nothing.
What actually holds a brand together is a written position and a messaging guide people can apply without asking. The mark is the visible part; the guide is the part that survives you not being in the room.
How we do it
- 01
Find the position
What the business is actually for, who it is for, and what it will refuse. The refusals matter most.
- 02
Write the language
Tone, vocabulary, the claims that are allowed and the ones that are not.
- 03
Draw the system
Mark, type, colour, layout — designed as a system rather than a logo plus opinions.
- 04
Prove it in use
Applied to a real page, a real ad and a real email before anything is signed off.
- 05
Document it
A guide your team and your suppliers can follow unaided.
- 06
Govern it
A named owner and a review point, so it does not quietly drift.
What you get
- Positioning and messaging framework
- Logo suite and identity system
- Type, colour and layout rules with usage examples
- Written messaging guide with approved and prohibited claims
- Applied templates for site, campaign and email
- Source files and licences under your ownership
Where this was the substance
A specialist building-services engineering firm, made legible to the people who commission buildings.
Digital identity · Design · Development · Motion & 3DDesigned in New York, handcrafted in Nairobi — an e-commerce experience built to carry provenance as carefully as product.
Design · eCommerce · Brand storytellingContemporary handcrafted furniture with a trade programme for interior designers and hospitality specifiers.
Design · eCommerce · Trade portalA brand built from nothing — name through to nurture. Identity, messaging, store, acquisition, email and automation delivered as one system rather than six suppliers.
Digital identity · Design · Brand storytelling · eCommerce · Automation · Paid media · Email · GrowthOur own venture — which is why we can publish how it is built, in detail no client NDA would allow.
AI & automation · Platform · DesignAn interactive 3D model of a working mine, showing exactly where a wireless mesh network lives and why it holds — the kind of thing that previously needed an engineer, a whiteboard and an hour.
Motion & 3D · Design · Development · Complex B2B · Digital identityRepositioned from financial advisor to retirement partner — competing on confidence rather than products — with a custom CRM behind every form on the site.
Digital identity · Brand storytelling · Design · Development · Automation · EmailA contract manufacturer rebranded and rebuilt around its process — discovery, formulation, prototyping, manufacture, QA — so brands can see how a product actually gets made.
Digital identity · Design · Development · Brand storytelling · Complex B2BA stockbroking and investment firm taken through discovery, workshop and a clarity-first copy framework — technical financial services written so a client can act on it.
Digital identity · Brand storytelling · Design · Development · MigrationAn independently owned freight operation, explained clearly enough that a procurement team can shortlist it.
Design · Development · Complex B2BThirty years of commercial HVAC, positioned around response time and certification rather than price.
Design · Development · Growth · Brand storytelling · Content · SocialAfrican heritage and upcycled materials presented to corporate buyers without losing either the craft or the commercial case.
Design · Development · Brand storytellingA seaside guest house positioned where coastal luxury meets corporate stay, with booking handled properly.
Design · Development · AutomationA live digital-product business moved off Wix onto WordPress — 13,000 customers, their orders and their access, carried across without a break.
Development · Migration · eCommerce · Design · SEO · MaintenanceAn OEM and turnkey engineering business made sellable through search — complex process equipment translated into the language buyers actually type.
Paid media · Growth · Complex B2B · Brand storytellingA premium water brand selling direct, with custom branding offered on the product itself.
Design · eCommerceQuestions we get asked
Do we need a full rebrand?
Usually not. Most engagements extend an identity that already carries equity rather than replacing it. Where the brand is genuinely holding the business back we will say so, with reasons — but starting from scratch is the expensive answer and rarely the right one.
What is a messaging guide, and why does it matter more than the logo?
It is a written document covering how the business describes itself, the words it uses, the claims it is allowed to make and the ones it must avoid. It matters more because it governs everything written after the project ends — your team, your ad agency, your email platform. A logo cannot do that.
Who owns the files?
You do. Source files, fonts licensed in your name where licensing allows, and the guide itself. We do not hold brands hostage in a designer’s personal account.
Tell us what is changing in the business.
If we are not the right partner for it, we will say so in the first conversation.