A person, not a sequence
Talk to us about Brand Guidelines
Identity inquiries reach the brand team. Tell us the smallest and largest places it has to work. Ask a question, describe a problem, or tell us you are not sure this is even the right kind of supplier — that is a useful conversation and it is a short one.
Before you ask
The questions that come up on most brand guidelines inquiries.
- Why do you design in black and white first?
- Because color hides weak form. If a mark does not work in one color it is not finished, and adding color only postpones finding that out. It also forces the conversation to be about the idea rather than about whether somebody likes teal, which is a conversation worth having later.
- Do you check the name is available?
- We run a preliminary USPTO search and domain and social checks before presenting anything, because names die at screening more often than at presentation. That is a screen, not legal clearance. A trademark attorney should do the formal search before you file, and we will tell you when it is time for that.
- What is the difference between a rebrand and a refresh?
- A rebrand changes what you stand for. A refresh changes how it looks. Confusing the two is how companies spend rebrand money on a new logo and wonder why nothing else moved. We will ask which one you actually need, and sometimes the answer is neither — a set of guidelines and templates fixes more drift than a redesign does.
- Are fonts included in the price?
- The selection is; the license usually is not, and it is worth knowing early. US font licenses are normally sold per use case, and desktop, web, app and broadcast are frequently separate tiers. We will tell you what each option costs to license for the uses you actually have, before you fall in love with one.
- What stops the identity drifting after handover?
- Guidelines that show incorrect usage alongside correct, templates for the things people make most often, and one named owner. Without those, four people recreate the logo in four tools and the identity is unrecognizable within a year. The guidelines are the deliverable that decides whether the rest was worth it.
- Is the free trial really free?
- Yes. What the trial covers differs by discipline — two images, a 30-second cut of your own footage, one mastered episode, a technical review of a page you already own — and each service page says which one applies. No card, no invoice, no subscription that starts quietly afterward. It is done by the same people who would do the paid job, to the same standard, because a trial that flatters the work is useless to both of us.
- How fast can you turn work around?
- Most image work comes back in 6 to 24 hours. Video and 3D depend on the shot and the length, and we tell you the turnaround in the quote rather than after you have committed. If you have a deadline that cannot move, say so in the brief. We will tell you honestly whether we can hit it.
- How do you price the work?
- By what the job actually involves, not an average. A clipping path around a box and one around a bicycle are different amounts of work, and so are a two-minute explainer and a two-minute product film. The unit differs by discipline: per image, per finished minute, per episode, per product, per project, or monthly for retained work. Every service has a pricing page with our published rates and the US market ranges beside them, so you can sanity-check any quote including ours.