Branding for a local business. Made once. Used everywhere.
A logo, two or three colours and a pair of fonts - and then everything a customer holds or walks past, made from them: the menu, the card, the sign, the van.
The short version
Branding is two jobs. The identity - logo, colours, fonts - is made once. The materials - menu, cards, sign, van, flyers - are made from it, whenever you need them. We design both, hand over print-ready files, and quote before we start. You print wherever you like.
Most small businesses do not have a brand problem. They have a consistency problem: a logo someone made years ago, a different font on the van, a menu in whatever the printer had, and a sign that matches none of them. Each one was fine. Together they look like four businesses.
The fix is not expensive or mysterious. Decide the few things once, write them down, and make everything else from them.
The identity comes first.
This is the part you decide once and keep. It is small on purpose - a logo, three colours and two fonts is a brand - because a system with twenty rules is a system nobody follows.
- A logo in the versions you will actually need - the full one, a small mark for a profile picture, and a one-colour version for a stamp or an engraving.
- Your colours, with the codes a printer, a signwriter and a website each ask for.
- Two fonts: one with character for names and headings, one plain one for everything else.
- A one-page guide showing how they go together, so whoever makes your next thing gets it right without asking.
If you already have a logo you like, we start from it. Nobody has to throw away something customers already recognise.
Then everything made from it.
Once the identity exists, each of these is a much smaller job, because the decisions are already made. You pick the ones your business actually uses - a plumber never needs a menu, and a café rarely needs van lettering.
- A menu or price list - one people can actually order from.
- Business cards - what belongs on one, and what does not.
- A shop sign or window vinyl - a sign has one job.
- Van lettering - what to put on a work van, and what to leave off.
- Flyers for door drops - what goes on one that works.
- Loyalty and appointment cards - and whether yours is worth printing.
How it works.
- Tell us about the business - what you do, who comes to you, what you already have, and which materials you need.
- A fixed quote, before anything starts, so you know the cost first.
- The identity, shown to you before anything is made from it. You say what to change.
- The materials, made from the identity you approved.
- The files, print-ready and in the formats each printer or signwriter asks for. They are yours.
We design. Your printer prints.
We never print or post anything ourselves. You get the files and take them to any printer, signwriter or vehicle wrapper you like - usually a local one, who can match a colour on the day and fix a problem in person.
That is deliberate. A studio that prints marks up somebody else's press, and you pay for the markup every time you reorder. With the files in your hands, a reprint is between you and the printer.
If you are getting a website too.
The identity is what the website is built from - the same colours, the same fonts, the same logo - so doing them together means making those decisions once. And once a site is built, most of what a menu or a card needs already exists: the logo, the photographs, the prices and the hours.
One honest note: the branding photographs on our home page carry our own brand, not a client's. They show the kind of work, not work we have delivered.
Questions about branding.
Do I need a logo before I get a website?
No. If you have one, we build the site around it. If you do not, the identity can be made first and the site built from it, which is the tidier order - but a site can go live with a simple wordmark and take the full identity later.
Do you print things?
No. We design and hand over print-ready files, and you print them wherever you like. You never pay us a markup on printing, and a reprint is between you and your printer.
What if I already have a logo?
Then we start from it. Often a logo only needs tidying - cleaner lines, a version that works small, colours with proper codes - rather than replacing.
What files do I get?
The logo in vector and image formats, your colour codes, the fonts' names and where they come from, and every material as a print-ready file. They are yours to use anywhere.
How much does it cost?
It depends on how many materials you need, so it is quoted before we start. The identity is the main job; each material made from it afterwards is much smaller.
