Brand
Method first.
Then the madness.
Your team reaches a consensus in a live workshop or an async survey. The consensus becomes the strategy, and the strategy sets the design system for the logo, the color and the type.
The method
3 steps, from consensus to system.
Both formats produce the same consensus. The consensus is what the team agrees on, what it does not, and what the identity must communicate.
- 01DiscoveryWorkshop or async
The team votes anonymously on a board, or each person answers a survey at their own pace. The questions cover goals, values and mission, then archetype, color and type, and each one is a scale between two extremes.
- 02ConsensusThe deck
The deck records the team’s consensus on archetype, values, mission and the risk to solve. That is the strategy, and every mark and the directions for color and type are measured against it.
- 03SystemThe brand dashboard
One page holds the brand, and anyone in the company can open it. The strategy sits at the top, in the team’s words, with every mark, color and type decision under it and the reason each one won. It is live from day one.
The questionnaire
Two extremes. One answer.
Every question is two ideas at opposite ends of a spectrum. Your team picks a point on it. Nobody needs design vocabulary to answer. The consensus is where the points land. Try 5 below.
Your team answers the full set. Where the answers split is what we talk about first.
The deck
Every mark traces back to your answers.
Your responses build the deck. The archetype comes first, then the values, then the mission, and each one builds on the answer before it. Color, type and every mark are measured against the archetype, the values, the mission and the risk.
Ask for a sample deckIn the deck
The brand’s personality. How it speaks, acts and carries itself.
What the brand will not compromise on. The rules behind every choice.
Why the brand exists, and who it exists for.
What goes wrong if the brand misses. The problem the identity has to solve.
The palettes, with the text color that passes AA on each tint.
The typefaces, and where each one is used.
The shapes the brand could be known by, and why all but one lost.
The shape the brand is known by.
Heading
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare.
Heading
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare.
How the brand stays itself everywhere it appears.
What you receive
One page that stays current.
A brand PDF is current on the day it is exported. Fonts, logos and templates download from this page, so everyone in the company gets the same file.
The mission, the slogan and the values, in the team’s words, each with what it means in practice.
The mark on both grounds, every lockup, the clear space, and the files.
Names, values, usage ratios, and the pairs that pass contrast.
The typefaces and every size in use, set with real text.
Over 3,000 icons in one line weight, included with the design system.
Deck templates for Google Slides and PowerPoint.
Everything in the system
Strategy
- Mission and values
- Brand voice guide
- Name and tagline options
- Domain and handle check
Identity
- Logos and lockups
- Trademark-ready mark files
- Color system
- Type system
- Icon library
- Favicon and app icon
Digital
- Website components
- Email signature
- Social media banners
- Social avatars
- Zoom and Teams backgrounds
- Design tokens as JSON and CSS
Documents
- Pitch deck
- Slide deck templates
- One-pager and sales sheet
- Document templates
- Letterhead
Print and merch
- Business cards
- Stickers
- T-shirts and merch
- Packaging and labels
- Print-ready specs, CMYK and Pantone
Motion
- Lower thirds, single and double
- Title cards and full-screen text
- Stats, data tables and timelines
- Quotes, lists and key points
- Countdown and progress bars
- Logo end card and screen bug
- Output as Adobe Premiere .mogrt files, in Lite and Nite themes
When to run it
3 situations this method is built for.
Design debt starts with the first slide made before the brand exists. Run the method first and there is no design debt to clear later.
RebrandingThe brand no longer describes the business it represents, or there is a new set of initiatives the old brand cannot announce. The consensus decides what stays, and the system sets everything else. At MARA the brand changed 3 times before the name did.
A new product lineSub-brands must read as one family and as separate products at the same time. The system sets that rule before the second product ships.
Plans
One fee to build it.
A monthly rate to keep adding to it.
The setup takes 3 weeks. The subscription handles one request at a time, for as long as the company needs it.
- The method, as a live workshop or an async survey
- The consensus deck: archetype, values, mission, risk
- The identity: every mark, then color and type
- The brand dashboard, live from day one
- Three weeks, consensus to system.
- Add to or change anything in the system
- One request at a time. Queue as many as you like.
- A first draft within 2 business days of every request
- New collateral as the company grows
- Website pages, built from your components
- Pause or cancel any time
You own every exported file, every font license and the page.
One fee for the method, with no hourly billing.
Try the subscription for a week. If it is not right for you, you get 75% back.
Billing runs in 31-day cycles. Pause with 10 days left, and you have 10 days when you come back.
Each request is done before the next one starts.
The person you talk to does the work. I do not pass it to an agency or a marketplace.
A request is revised until you approve it. Changes to it are never a new request.
A website or a campaign is too big for one card, so I split it into pieces and deliver them one at a time, with an update every 1 to 2 days.
Two people on your side file and approve. Every brand the company owns sits under the one subscription.
One call to set up your board and your access. You can file your first request the same day.
Videos are their own engagement. 3D, books and magazines, and engineering past the website components get their own quote.
Questions
Before you subscribe.
4 questions that come up on the call.
Can I use it for a month and stop?
Yes. Pause when the queue is empty and come back when it is not. Nothing is lost between visits; the system and the board stay yours.
What if I only have one request?
File it, take delivery, then pause.
How do refunds work?
On the subscription, you get 75% back in the first week. After the first week there are no refunds, and none for work already delivered. The setup is a fixed piece of work and is not refundable once it starts.
Where is the work done?
In Figma, on the same file the brand dashboard reads from, so every request lands in the system the day it is delivered.
Start here
Design debt, cleared.
One call. I learn who has to agree, and you learn what the work needs and how long it takes.
- 01You write.A few lines on the company and what you need.
- 02We talk.Thirty minutes, on a call, within 1 business day.
- 03You leave with a plan.What happens first, who it needs, and a date.