Practice 02 · Branding & communicationsBrand identity design: be recognised and understood before you are chosen
A strong offer is not enough if customers cannot tell you apart from your competitors, or cannot grasp within a few seconds what you do and for whom. Brand identity sets what your company stands for, how it says it and what makes it recognisable. Kopus builds that identity from what genuinely sets you apart, then turns it into a name, a logo and guidelines your teams can apply.
An outside look at your current materials, no commitment
Who it is for, and whenWhen to create or rethink your brand identity
The need appears at specific moments in a company’s life.
- You are founding a company or launching a new activity and must choose a name, a logo and a visual world before any communication goes out.
- Your logo dates from a time when the company did something else, and your materials (website, brochures, vehicles, email signatures) no longer look like they belong together.
- A merger, an acquisition or a change of leadership calls for clarity about what the brand now represents.
- Your sales reps each present the company their own way, and customers walk away with different messages.
The scopeWhat brand identity design includes
The foundation is the brand platform: a short document that sets out your purpose, your promise, the values you actually practise (not the ones that look good on a wall), your tone of voice and the priority messages for each audience. It is the yardstick for judging later whether a name, a visual or a piece of copy is right.
Depending on your situation, Kopus handles naming: reasoned proposals, domain name availability checks and initial similarity searches, ahead of the legal clearance you will have carried out. Then comes the logo and its variants (horizontal, vertical, single colour, favicon), together with the visual system: colour palette, typefaces, layout principles, illustration or photography style.
Everything is recorded in brand guidelines that set out permitted and prohibited uses, minimum sizes, clear space and special cases (dark backgrounds, print, signage). Because Kopus also designs websites and applications, the guidelines anticipate on-screen use from day one: interface components, contrast, mobile legibility.
Sample identity boardA whole identity readable on a single board
Before the detailed guidelines, the identity has to be readable at a glance: what the brand stands for, how it speaks, how people recognise it. Each colour gets a role and a proportion, not just a value, and every element ties back to the platform. Anything that ties back to nothing has no place in the guidelines.
SorelIdentity board · overviewv1.0
Logo and clear space
SorelPeriod home renovation
Variants
- Favicon
- Single colour
- Light background
Colours
- PrimaryForest green#0C2B15
- AccentBright green#96F878
- SecondarySage#B8E1CD
- NeutralPaper#F1EEEA
- NeutralInk#232326
Proportions in use
- Neutrals 60%
- Primary 30%
- Accent 10%
Typefaces
HeadingsCharacterful serif
Body textHighly legible sans
Renovate without erasing.
Tone of voice
- Precisenever technical
- Warmnever overfamiliar
- Directnever curt
Brand platform
- Mission
- Bring comfort back to period homes without erasing their history.
- Positioning
- The craftsman-adviser for homes built before 1950.
- Values
- Rigour
- Transparency
- Craft passed on
- Promise
- A site run properly, from the first survey to the final finish.
Applications
Claire MartinSite manager
Sorel
Business card
Renovate without erasing.
Book a visit
Mobile screen
The methodThe stages of identity design at Kopus
Immersion
Interviews with the directors and a few customers, analysis of competing brands and their codes.
Brand platform
Drafting, challenge sessions with you and adjustments until every sentence is one you stand behind.
Creative routes
Two or three directions for name and logo, shown in situ on your real materials.
Development of the chosen route
Final logo, variants, visual system, legibility tests.
Brand guidelines, file handover and a working session with the people who will produce your materials.
Our positionAn identity is judged over years, not on a presentation board
A logo can win the room in a meeting and prove unusable a few months later: illegible at small sizes, impossible to adapt, out of step with what the company has become. We design identities for years of use by people who are not designers: simple rules, components that fit together, built-in flexibility for new offers. An identity that lasts stays recognisable when it is applied in a hurry, by someone under pressure, on a format that did not exist when it was created.
Your questionsFrequently asked questions about this service
What is the difference between a logo and a brand identity?
A logo is a graphic mark. A brand identity brings together positioning, language, visual codes and the application rules that make the company recognisable everywhere. A logo with no platform and no guidelines is a drawing, not an identity.
Do we have to change our name to redesign our identity?
Rarely. The name is only questioned if it gets in the way of understanding the business, raises an availability problem or no longer matches the company’s scope. In most redesigns it stays.
What do you hand over at the end?
The brand platform, the logo and its variants as vector and bitmap files, the brand guidelines, and templates for the priority materials agreed with you. From then on you can produce your own materials without depending on us.
Do we need to change everything or can the existing brand evolve?
Both are possible. Often a well-run evolution keeps the equity you have built while fixing what no longer works. We decide after a diagnosis.
Who owns the logo?
You do. Rights to the creative work are assigned to you under the contract, together with the source files.
How long does it take to create a brand identity?
Six to twelve weeks in general, including a strategy phase, two or three creative directions, then the development of the chosen direction and its applications.
How many logo proposals do we receive?
Two or three argued directions rather than a dozen variants. Each direction answers the strategy defined together, which makes the choice easier and more solid.
Go furtherPages related to this service
- Your challenges · 07My brand image no longer reflects my companyAlign your positioning, messages and image with what your business is today.
- Practice 02Branding & communicationsBuild a strong image and grow your visibility. We create identities and communication strategies consistent with each company’s ambitions, and we keep them alive.
- 02 · BrandingArt directionArt direction is the difference between materials that look alike and materials that look like you. We give your brand a recognisable visual universe, then keep it consistent over time.
- 02 · BrandingDigital communicationsBeing online is no longer enough; you have to be expected. We build digital communication that has something to say, says it regularly, and serves your business goals.
SectorSectors that use this service
Let’s bring your projects to lifeYour next project starts here.
Let’s give your brand a shape, from the platform through to the guidelines.
An outside look at your current materials, no commitment