A logo answers one question: what goes on the sign.Then you need a menu. Then a van. Then an Instagram grid, a business card, a t-shirt, an email signature, and a flyer for an event next month. Each one gets made by a different person, at a different time, in whatever font was available.
Six months later nothing matches, and customers can't tell your van and your storefront belong to the same business.
A brand identity is the system that stops that happening. Not more logos - rules.
What you get
What a brand identity includes
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Logo design, with full and secondary lockups
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Color palette with hex, CMYK and Pantone values, and rules for when to use which
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Typography: a heading face, a body face, and the sizes and weights to use
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Supporting graphics: patterns, icons, or illustration style where it fits
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Photography direction: so the images you choose feel like the rest of it
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Business card and stationery design
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A brand style guide, typically five to ten pages
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Two rounds of revisions
Is branding the right service for you?
A good fit if
You have more than one surface to design for and they're drifting apart
More than one person makes things with your name on them
You're opening something where first impressions carry real weight
You're tired of answering "what font do we use?" every week
You want to hand a printer or a sign shop a document instead of a phone call
Probably not a fit if
You need one mark for one sign. That's logo design, and it's cheaper
You have a logo people recognize and only want it modernized. That's a redesign
You're pre-revenue and unsure what the business is yet.
You want templates and files but no rules. That's a design system, and it's a different conversation
How it works
Three to five weeks start to finish, depending on how quickly feedback comes back.
01
Discovery
An hour on what the business does, who buys, who you're competing with, and how you want people to feel walking in. This session shapes everything after it.
02
Direction
Two or three strategic directions, each shown as a small set of applications rather than a logo on a white square. You're choosing a personality, not a picture.
03
Build
The chosen direction expands into a full system: color, type, supporting elements, and how they behave together.
04
Document
Everything written down in a guide your team, your printer and your sign shop can all follow.
Logo, color palette, typography, supporting graphics, business card, and a five to ten page style guide. Where you land depends on how many applications the system has to cover and how much research the project needs upfront. You get a fixed number in writing before anything starts.
You need one the moment somebody other than you makes something with your name on it. A guide is what lets a printer, a sign shop, or an employee produce something on-brand without asking you first. It's the deliverable that saves the most money over time.
How long does a full identity take?
Three to five weeks typically. It's longer than a logo because there's a discovery session at the start and a documentation stage at the end, both of which are where most of the value sits.
Can I start with a logo and add the rest later?
Yes, and plenty of businesses do. It costs a little more overall than doing it in one go, because some groundwork gets repeated. If you know you'll want the system eventually, doing it together is cheaper.
Will you work with my existing colors?
If they're working, absolutely. Recognition has value and I'm not interested in changing things for the sake of it. If they're not working - poor contrast, unprintable, indistinguishable from a competitor - I'll tell you why and show you the alternative.
Want everything to look like the same business?
Tell me what surfaces you’re designing for and who else makes things with your name on them. Brand identity design for small businesses in Tacoma, Gig Harbor and Kitsap County. Fixed price and a realistic timeline before anything starts.
