Brand identity design: An identity, and
the site built on it.
Most sites are designed first and branded afterwards, which is why so many of them look like a template wearing a logo.
Positioning·Wordmark·Type·Guidelines
The job
Treating brand and web design as two jobs means doing the website twice. A brand is not a logo: it is the set of decisions that make everything you produce look like it came from the same place, the type, the colours, the voice, and the rules about how they go together. A site designed before those exist is a site designed against a guess.
Doing that and the website separately means doing the website twice. Doing them together means every page is an application of the same decisions rather than a new argument about them.
Brand identity design: what's included: The whole list,
nothing extra.
Every one of these is in the price. If a job needs something that is not here, it is in the written scope before you say yes, not on the invoice after.
6things, all in the price
Book a scope call- 01 What you actually sound like Who you are for, what you are not, and the words you use. Written down, because this is the part everybody skips and then argues about for the rest of the project.
- 02 A wordmark, and how it behaves Your name, set properly, with the sizes, spacing and backgrounds it works on. One mark done well beats five options nobody can choose between.
- 03 Type, colour and the rules Typefaces with jobs, a palette that holds up in light and dark, and contrast checked against WCAG rather than eyeballed.
- 04 Brand guidelines somebody can follow A short document that says how to use it, not a fifty-page book nobody opens. Written to be handed to whoever makes your next thing.
- 05 The website, built on it The identity applied as a real site rather than a mockup. Priced by platform on the websites pages, the same as any other build.
- 06 The rest of the surface Social headers, a signature, document templates: the everyday places a brand actually gets seen, done once so they match.
How a brand identity project runs: From hello to handover.
Step 1
12 hours max
I reply
Working hours, unless I am on holiday and have said so.
Step 2
Day 0
Scope call
30 minutes. What you do, who for, and what is wrong with how it looks today.
Step 3
+2 days
Written scope
What gets made, in what order, what it costs, when it lands.
Step 4
First
The decisions
Positioning and voice agreed before anything is drawn, because drawing first means guessing.
Step 5
Then
The identity, then the site
Mark, type, colour and the rules, shown as real things rather than on a grey background, then the site built on them and the guidelines handed over.
This is for you
Brand and web design is for you
if any of these sound familiar.
- The brand has not caught up with you
- Everything looks like a different company
- A logo made in an afternoon, nothing else
- The brand under the site is the problem
It is not, if
- You want print: this is screen-first
- You want a cheap logo on its own
- You want five directions to show a committee
Not sure which side you are on? Say so on the call. If I am not the right person, you get the name of someone who is.
What brand and web design costs
Every price on the page,
before you call.
You should not have to sit through a call to find out whether you can afford me.
Brand identity questions: Questions I get every time.
The honest answers. If yours is not here, it is the first thing we cover.
Ask me yours01 What does brand and web design together actually mean?
The identity and the website as one job, in that order. The positioning, the wordmark, the type, the colour and the rules first, then the site built as an application of them. Done separately, the site gets designed against a brand that does not exist yet and then has to be redone when it does.
02 Can we see an example?
This site, and the guidelines behind it. adamroe. has a wordmark, a gradient, three typefaces with defined jobs and a nine-page guideline document, and every page you are looking at is built on them. It is my own, so it makes no claim about anybody else, and it is the honest answer to what the work looks like.
03 Is a logo the same as a brand identity?
No, and the difference is the reason this page exists. A logo is one mark. Brand identity design is the set of decisions that make your website, your emails, your documents and your social accounts all look like the same company. The logo is the smallest part of it.
04 How much does it cost?
The identity is quoted as a fixed price once the scope call has said how much surface there is to cover, or by the day at £400 where it cannot be pinned down. The website on top is priced by platform, published on the websites pages, with no brand surcharge.
05 How long does it take?
The identity is usually two to three weeks, and most of that is the deciding rather than the drawing. The site follows and takes as long as a site takes. The written scope gives real dates rather than a range.
06 Do you do print, packaging or signage?
No. This is screen-first: websites, social, documents and email. Print has its own requirements and its own suppliers, and the guidelines are written so a printer can pick them up without me.
07 We already have a brand. Can you just do the site?
Yes, and that is website delivery or a redesign rather than this. Branded web design with the rules already settled is a faster job. If what you have is a logo and no rules, expect the site to produce the rules as a side effect, which is fine and worth knowing before it happens.
08 How do we pay?
One of two ways, and the written scope says which. A build is a deposit, paid by card when you agree the scope, which starts the work, then the balance when it is finished, or monthly by Direct Debit where the price allows. Other work is paid as each stage is accepted. No VAT is charged.
Usually goes with: Brand identity
and website redesign.
A redesign that changes the look without settling what the brand is underneath tends to get redone. Doing the identity first means the site is an application of a decision rather than another go at making one.
See website redesignOr one of the other three
Does it all look like
the same company?
Tell me what you do and who for. Thirty minutes, no pitch, and you leave knowing whether the brand is the real problem or whether the site on its own would fix it.
- Within 12 hoursA reply
- Within 2 working daysA written scope and a price
- OrThe name of someone who fits better