Brand Identity Visuals
Extending an existing identity into everything it did not originally cover: photography, illustration, iconography, motion and the rules that keep it coherent.
Overview
Identity projects deliver a logo, colours and type, and then reality asks a hundred questions the guide never answered. What does our photography look like? Do we illustrate? What happens when the logo animates? Each gets answered ad hoc, and the identity slowly dissolves.
This is the work of answering those properly: building the visual layers around the core identity and writing down enough rules that new material lands in the same world without needing a designer's opinion every time.
Who this is for
- Companies whose identity covers the logo and little else
- Brands whose photography or illustration looks borrowed
- Teams producing material that is technically on brand and feels unrelated
How we approach brand identity visuals
The specific pieces of work a typical engagement covers. Scope is agreed up front — nothing here is a surprise line item later.
Photography direction
How your photography looks: subject, framing, light and treatment, with reference sets a photographer can shoot to.
Illustration system
A style with enough rules to be extended by someone else, rather than a set of drawings that cannot be added to.
Iconography
A consistent icon family with construction rules, so the fiftieth icon matches the first.
Motion principles
How things move, from logo animation to interface transitions. Motion is part of an identity and is usually left undefined.
Layout and composition
Grids, spacing and hierarchy rules that make a page recognisable before anyone reads the logo.
Extended guidelines
Documented with real examples of correct and incorrect application, which teaches far faster than abstract rules.
From first call to measured result
The same sequence every time, so you always know what happens next.
Audit
Where the existing identity runs out, and which of those gaps cause the most visible inconsistency.
Explore
Develop directions for each visual layer, tested against real material rather than on a moodboard.
Build
Produce the systems: photography direction, illustration, icons and motion, with the assets to start using them.
Document
Write guidelines with worked examples, and run a session with whoever will apply them.
Outcomes, not deliverables
A pile of artefacts isn't progress. These are the changes the work is meant to produce — and what we report against.
An identity that covers reality
Fewer decisions made under deadline pressure, because the answer already exists.
Recognition beyond the logo
Strong visual layers make material identifiable before the logo is noticed.
Work that can be briefed out
Photographers, illustrators and agencies get something specific enough to work against.
Consistency that holds
Documented rules with examples survive staff changes in a way that taste does not.
Common questions about Brand Identity Visuals
The things people ask before they get in touch. If yours is not here, ask us directly.
How is this different from brand identity design?
Brand identity design creates the core: name treatment, logo, colour and type. This extends an identity that already exists into the layers it never covered. If your logo and palette are the problem, that page is the right starting point.
Do we need a full rebrand?
Usually not. Most inconsistency comes from an identity that was never extended rather than one that is wrong. That is a much smaller and cheaper piece of work, and we will say if we think otherwise.
Can you direct a photoshoot rather than shoot it?
Yes. Direction and a reference set often produce better results with your existing photographer than switching supplier would, and it means the standard survives after we leave.
How long does this take?
Six to ten weeks depending on how many layers are needed. Illustration and motion systems take longest because they need enough examples to be genuinely extendable.
Thinking about Brand Identity Visuals?
Tell us what you are trying to change. If we are not the right fit we will say so, and point you somewhere better.
Looking at the wider picture?
Brand Identity Visuals usually sits alongside other work in Content & Creative Production. Browse the full area to see what it connects to.