What should a brand identity project actually include?
A logo is a very small place to put an entire business.
A brand identity project should define how your business expresses itself, show how that expression works in the places you need it, and give your team the means to use it. The exact scope varies. That is why two proposals that both say “brand identity” can describe very different amounts of work.
Before comparing the totals, compare what will exist at the end.
Direction: what are we trying to make people understand?
A business can look polished and still be saying the wrong thing.
The starting point is a shared view of who you need to reach, what makes the business worth choosing, and what the identity needs to change. Sometimes that thinking is already clear. Sometimes it is the part everyone has been politely avoiding.
A proposal should say whether that direction is being developed, refined or taken as an input. “Strategy” is a large word. Ask what decisions it will actually help you make.
AskWhat will we agree on before design starts?
Identity: how does that idea show up?
The visual identity may include a logo family, typography, color, image direction and graphic elements. The useful part is how those choices work together.
A typeface on its own is a typeface. A clear way of using it, alongside the other elements, begins to give a business a recognizable presence.
Naming, messaging, writing and motion can be connected to this work, but they should be named in the scope if they are part of the engagement. Never assume a large umbrella word has quietly included everything underneath it.
AskWhich elements are being created, and which existing ones are we keeping?
Applications: will it work outside the presentation?
This is where a promising identity meets an actual business.
A product may need packaging. A professional practice may need a website and proposal template. A venue may need signage people can read from the street. Choose the applications that matter to your launch and daily use.
Also, distinguish a demonstration from a finished asset. A website mockup can show an identity beautifully without being a designed, built and tested website. A package visualization is not necessarily a file your printer can use.
Both can be valuable. They are different jobs.
AskWhich applications are illustrative, and which will be ready to use?
Handoff: can someone else use it on Tuesday?
The people making the brand will not be in every future meeting. Mercifully.
Useful handoff material explains the important choices and gives the next person workable files. Depending on the project, that might include logo exports, color specifications, type guidance, templates, source files and examples of what to do or avoid.
Clarify usage rights, third-party licenses and responsibility for obtaining them. A beautiful font in a presentation does not settle who needs to license it.
AskWhat files and guidance do we receive, and what will our team still need?
Rollout: what happens between approval and being out in the world?
Approving an identity and launching it are separate milestones.
Someone still has to update the website, prepare the files, order the signs, replace the templates and tell the people who need to know. Your team may handle those tasks. Your agency may handle some of them. The important thing is that somebody knows.
AskWho is responsible for each launch task, and what depends on what?
Why this matters when comparing prices
A proposal covering a visual system is different from one covering direction, naming, identity and a working website. A simple launch is different from a rollout across several teams or markets.
At Anchovies, our pricing conversation considers size, stakes, reach and timing. Start with the problem and the useful scope. A longer deliverables list is not automatically a better answer.
Before you sign, be able to finish this sentence:
“At the end of this project, we will have ___, ready to use in ___, and ___ will handle what comes next.”
If that sentence is still vague, ask another question. It is considerably cheaper to ask it now.
Before you sign, be able to finish this sentence.
At the end, we will have ready to use in , and handles what comes next.
Have a launch in mind?
Let’s work out what it needs.
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