Week 1
Audit and inventory
What you make, how often, and who makes it. This decides the size of the system more than any creative judgement does.
Creative direction · Visual identity systems · Sydney
Visual identity systems
A logo is not an identity. An identity is everything needed to make the next thousand assets look related, made by people who were not in the room when it was designed.
Grab the snowball. Give it a spin, and watch it grow as you scroll. Just like recognition.
6parts a working system needs
1system, applied everywhere
Built to scaletested on real assets first
Sydneydesign and production together
The short answer
What is a visual identity system?
A visual identity system is the complete set of visual parts a brand uses, and the rules governing how they combine: the marks, the typefaces, the colour set, the graphic devices, the layout logic and the treatment applied to imagery. The word system is doing the work. A logo is one part of one part.
The test of a system is not how the presentation looks. It is whether somebody with no involvement in the project can produce a new asset that looks like it belongs, using only what was handed over. Most identity work fails that test and nobody notices for a year.
So we build systems against real assets rather than against a mood board, and we test them by making things nobody planned for. It sits inside our wider creative direction service, and because our Snowball SEO platform automates the search heavy lifting other agencies bill by the hour, more of your budget goes into the design.
The difference
What does a system actually have to contain?
Six parts. Most identity projects deliver two of them beautifully and leave the other four to be improvised later by whoever needs them first.
Signs of a system that will hold
- It has been tested on assets nobody planned for
- There are rules for what happens when something does not fit
- The type scale has actual sizes, not a hierarchy diagram
- Colour has usage rules, not just hex values
Signs of one that will not
- Everything shown at poster size, and nothing at phone size
- One beautiful application per slide, none of them a real deliverable
- No answer for the awkward cases, which are most cases
- Files handed over in formats your team cannot open
If the identity itself already exists and the problem is consistency of use, that is visual direction rather than a new system.
The cost
What drives the price of an identity system?
Breadth and testing. Designing marks is a bounded job. Building a system that holds across every surface a real business uses is the larger half.
Refresh a system
Existing identity
Keeping the marks and building the missing parts, which is the commonest real need and the least often sold.
A full system
New identity
Marks, type, colour, devices, layout and image treatment, built and tested together as one thing.
System plus rollout
Applied
The system, plus the templates and first assets that prove it works, which is what makes it survive first contact.
We quote after a free consult and a look at what you produce most often. On how the identity is then directed in use, see brand visual direction.
What moves the number, in order
- How many surfaces the system has to work on
- Whether existing marks are kept, adapted or replaced
- How much testing against real assets is included
- Whether templates and first applications are in scope
- How many stakeholders hold a veto
- Whether accessibility requirements constrain colour and type
Test it on the boring things
Identity work is presented on the exciting applications: the poster, the campaign, the hero page. Those are the assets a business makes twice a year.
The assets it makes daily are a proposal document, a social post, an invoice, a slide, a form. If the system does not work on those, it does not work, and that will be discovered by whoever has to make one at five o'clock.
So we test on the dull deliverables first. It makes for a less impressive presentation and a system that is still standing in three years.
The scope
What you receive
Files your team can open, rules they can follow, and proof it works.
The marks and variants
Primary, secondary and the small-size version, in the formats and colour spaces your team and your suppliers actually use.
Type and colour systems
A type scale with real sizes and a colour set with usage rules and contrast checked, rather than a palette and good intentions.
Layout logic
Grids, spacing and how much room things get, which is the part that makes unrelated assets read as one brand.
Image treatment
How photography and video are handled so commissioned work and phone footage can sit on the same page.
Tested applications
The system applied to your dullest, most frequent deliverables, as proof rather than as illustration.
Source files
Editable, organised and named, so the next designer inherits a system rather than an archaeology project.
The return
How much of a system do you actually need?
Less than a large agency will sell and more than a logo. The right size is decided by how many people make assets and how often, not by the size of the business.
Buy the rung you are on
The commonest waste in identity work is a business of nine people buying a system designed for a business of nine hundred, then applying about a fifth of it.
The commonest failure is the reverse: a business that has grown past its rung, where six people now make assets against rules written when one person did, and the brand is quietly coming apart.
We will tell you which rung you are actually on, including when the honest answer is that you need less than you asked for.
The process
How an identity system gets built
Six to ten weeks depending on breadth, with testing built in rather than added at the end.
Weeks 2 to 3
Design the core
Marks, type and colour, developed together because they constrain each other and are usually designed apart.
Week 4
Devices and layout
The graphic devices and the layout logic, which is where a set of nice elements becomes a system.
Week 5
Test on real assets
Applied to your dullest, most frequent deliverables, which is where systems break and where breaking is cheap.
Weeks 6 to 7
Document
Rules with examples, written for the people who will apply them rather than for the people who designed them.
Week 8
Hand over and set up
Source files organised, templates where they help, and a named owner for the awkward cases.
The brief
What to ask before you commission an identity system
Identity is bought on presentation quality and lived with on whether it works at five o'clock on a Thursday.
What will you test it on?
Ask for the boring deliverables: a proposal, a slide, a social post, a form. Poster applications prove nothing about daily use.
What happens when something does not fit?
Every system meets a case it did not anticipate within a month. Ask what the rule is then, and who decides.
What files do we get, and can we open them?
Source files, organised and named, in formats your team and suppliers actually use. This is asked too late more often than any other question.
How much system do we actually need?
A good answer sometimes recommends less. A supplier who scales the system to the size of the business rather than to how it works is selling by headcount.
We are happy to answer all four and to audit what you make most often. On directing the system in use, see brand visual direction.
Start here
Ready to build something that holds?
Send us the five things your business makes most often. The free consult is a working session, not a sales call, and you leave with three things whether or not you book us.
- An honest read on which rung of system you actually need
- The parts you are missing, named, from the six a system requires
- A fixed price, with testing and file handover written into the scope
Good questions
Visual identity system FAQs
What is a visual identity system?
It is the complete set of visual parts a brand uses and the rules for how they combine: marks, type, colour, graphic devices, layout logic and image treatment. A logo is one part of one of those six.
Is this the same as a logo design?
No. A logo is one element. A system is everything needed to make the next thousand assets look related, produced by people who were not involved in designing it. Buying a logo and calling it an identity is the most common and most expensive mistake here.
How much does an identity system cost?
We quote after seeing what you make most often. What moves it is how many surfaces it has to work on, whether existing marks are kept or replaced, how much testing on real assets is included, and whether templates and first applications are in scope.
How do we know if a system will actually work?
Test it on your dullest, most frequent deliverables rather than on the exciting ones. If it works on a proposal document, a slide and a social post, it will hold. If it has only been shown at poster size, nobody knows yet.
How much system do we need?
It depends on how many people make assets and how often, not on the size of the business. A founder making everything needs marks and basic rules. A team of six with external suppliers needs written rules those suppliers can follow.
Can you refresh what we have rather than starting again?
Usually, and it is often the better answer. Most brands have adequate marks and are missing layout logic and image treatment, which are the parts that actually cause the inconsistency they are worried about.
What about accessibility?
Colour contrast and type sizing are constraints on the system rather than a check at the end. Designing a palette and then discovering half the combinations fail is a rework nobody budgets for.
Who owns the files afterwards?
You do, organised and named, in formats your team and suppliers can open. Ask this before the work starts rather than at handover, because it is a very awkward conversation to have late.