Learn
Nine lessons. Then every
design decision is yours.
Every founder picks a logo, a color, a typeface and a character for the company. Almost none were taught how. This is the workshop I run with client teams before we design anything, rebuilt as a short course you can take at your desk. It is free, and each lesson covers one idea.
Why
Brand is a reputation. Identity is the part you control.
You do not get to decide what people think of the company. You do get to decide what they see, every time, and whether it is the same thing. The whole course is built on one formula.
Story is the one idea you want repeated. Proof is the fact that backs it. Experience is how it feels to deal with you. Inconsistency divides all three, and design is how you remove it.
The lessons
9 lessons, one idea each.
Each lesson takes 8 to 15 minutes, and the ninth is the workshop itself. Take them in order, because each one uses the one before it. Each lesson is a video, and its page is also the video’s script and notes, so what is on screen is what you can open afterwards.
Identity is the kit and the tone, and it changes fast. Brand is reputation, other people decide it, and it changes slowly.
Open the lessonThe formula from lesson one, a term at a time. It covers one sentence a customer can repeat, a fact a stranger can check, the 4 places a customer meets the company, and where inconsistency gets in.
Open the lesson
The archetypes, each with its promise and the brand that carries it. Clear, match, resonate.
Open the lesson
Accessible, unmistakable, authentic. Then why a logo is a system, not a file.
Emotional, distinctive, aligned. 6 colors, 6 brands, what each one is doing to the viewer.
Us, legible, durable. Serif, sans, slab, script, modern, and what each one says before the words do.
Legible, accessible, modular. The parts, the rules and the examples, and why the file is not the system.
When logo, color and type tell one story, people recognize the company faster and trust it sooner. The competitive wall, and how to read it.
The identity preferences workshop. The two-extremes scales, taken by a team, read back as a consensus.
The five elements
Five things to decide. Three tests for each.
Each decision passes or fails its own 3 tests, and the heart in the middle of each diagram is where all three hold. Under each one is a redesign you know, before and after, so you can run the test yourself before the lesson does.
A clear character portrayal, so people understand the company faster.
The simplest mark people recognize in a second, at any size, in any context.
The set of colors used to create emotion, recognition and consistency everywhere.
The style of letters, so the words are easy to read and feel as intended.
The shared set of reusable parts, rules and examples that keep every piece looking like the same company.
How to use it
Watch it yourself. Decide as a team.
- 01Take the course
Take one lesson a sitting, in order, over 9 sittings or one long morning.
- 02Send it to the team
The decisions in lesson nine are made by everyone who will use them. The course gives the whole team the same words first.
- 03Agree, then design
Lesson nine is the 15-minute workshop. When you want it run for you, with the identity built after it, that is the Brand method.
Start here
Ask about a lesson, or tell me about the company.
A question about a lesson gets an answer. A company gets the questionnaire.
- 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.