Branding agency in Newcastle, NSW: one look, everywhere.

It is the set of decisions making everything a business puts out look like it came from the same place. The name, the logo, the colours, the type, the photographs and the way you write.

People use the word brand to mean the logo. The logo is one line item. A brand identity is the whole set of choices underneath it, written down so that everything the business produces matches.

What is actually in one

• The name and how it is written.

  Including whether it is one word or two, and what it shortens to where there is no room for all of it.

• The logo in its working versions.

  Full, compact, one colour, and something small and square for a profile picture on any platform.

• The colours and the type it uses.

  Two or three colours with their exact codes, and one or two typefaces used everywhere.

• What all the photographs look like.

  Set once, so that stock images and real ones are not mixed on the same page.

• The way the business writes to people.

  Short and plain, or formal, and the things it never says to a customer.

Written down, all of that fits on a few pages. Without it, every quote, post and sign is a fresh decision, and the ones that do not match cost the business the recognition it has already paid for.

In a market this size most customers see you several times before they call. A consistent look is what makes those separate glances add up to one business rather than several.

Newcastle is small enough that the same businesses are seen again and again. Every one of those glances either builds on the last one or starts again from nothing, and the ones starting again are paid for twice.

What it is worth

• Advertising already paid for starts working harder.

  The vehicle, the signage and the posts are already being seen. A consistent look is what turns those separate sightings into one business a customer remembers the name of.

• Enquiries arrive warmer.

  Somebody who has seen the business four times and recognised it each time calls already half decided, which is a shorter sales conversation and a higher chance of the job.

• The quotes stop being compared on price alone.

  A business that looks established is judged against other established businesses, not against the cheapest quote in the inbox.

A short document with the decisions written down, the logo in every working format, the colour codes, the typefaces, and the templates used weekly. Where it is only a logo file, the job is half done.

What design work costs across a year is easier to plan job by job than as a single figure agreed up front.

Ask for this list by name, and get it in writing before anybody starts drawing anything. What is not on the list is what gets charged for later.

The handover list

• A brand kit, meaning the rules everything follows.

  A few pages covering the logo versions, the colours, the type and how each is used.

• The logo supplied in every format.

  A vector version, meaning one that prints at any size without going fuzzy, plus flat versions for the web and one that works in a single colour.

• The exact colour codes for it.

  The codes for screen and the codes for print. They are not the same thing, and a printer will ask for the print ones.

• The templates you can edit yourself.

  The quote, the invoice, and the social posts the business makes most weeks, in something it can open itself.

• The licences for the fonts.

  Which typefaces the business is allowed to use commercially, and whose name the licence sits in.

Register the business name properly at the same time. business.gov.au is where that happens, and the registered name is the one belonging on everything printed.

A new logo fixes how a business looks. A rebrand fixes what people think it is. Most businesses asking the question want the first one and can leave the name entirely alone.

What a rebrand costs depends far less on the mark than on how many places it has to appear once it is finished.

These are different jobs and they cost different amounts of money. Paying for the largest one where the smallest would have worked is the most common way money is wasted here.

The jobs, smallest to largest

• A tidy up of what exists.

  Same name and same logo, with the colours, the type and the templates fixed so everything matches. It is the cheapest of the three and it solves most of the complaints on its own.

• A new identity around the name.

  Same name, new logo, and a full set built around it. Right where the business has changed but the name still fits it.

• A full rebrand with a new name.

  Only worth it where the name is wrong, taken, or hard to say. It costs the recognition already built up, and that has to be earned again.

Before committing to a name, search it and check IP Australia for a registered trade mark in your industry. A name found to be taken after the signage is made means paying for the signage twice.

There is one warning worth giving about rebrands. Everywhere the business is listed online carries the old name. Changing it means changing all of them, or Google is unsure which business you are for months, and the enquiries coming through search drop while that is unresolved.

Write down what is actually wrong, gather examples, and agree the handover list. Approve one direction, then roll it out onto what customers see most before what they rarely see.

The order matters because the expensive parts come last, after the direction is settled.

1. Write down what is actually wrong

Not likes and dislikes, but what the business is losing. Being mistaken for a competitor, looking smaller than it is, or nothing matching are different problems with different fixes and different prices.

2. Collect examples, not adjectives

Five businesses whose look the owner would happily have, and two they would not, from any industry at all. Examples settle the direction in one round, and each extra round costs time and money.

3. Agree the handover list first

The list from the chapter above, in writing, including who owns the files at the end of the job.

4. Approve one direction, then close the choice

You pick the direction, and every note after that happens inside it. Reopening the choice at round three is what turns a six week job into a six month one.

5. It rolls out in the order customers see things

Google listing photographs, website header, quote template, email signature, vehicles, signage. The last two cost real money, so they go last, once nothing is going to change again.

6. The files go somewhere everybody can reach

One folder holding the current versions only, so that old logos stop reappearing on quotes and posts months after the job is finished.

A tidy up is a short job and a full identity is a longer one. A name change is longer again, and most of that extra is updating every place the business is listed.

The order it happens in

• First the problem goes down on paper.

  References come together and the handover list is agreed. Nothing is drawn yet, and this part decides the length of the whole job.

• Then the identity itself gets drawn.

  Directions first, then one round of notes, then the logo and the brand kit finished properly.

• Then it goes onto everything.

  Templates, website, listing photographs and signage artwork, in the order a customer meets them.

A name change carries its own tail behind it. Every directory, listing and profile still showing the old name has to be found and changed, and until they are, the business is harder to find in search.

Ask what is on the handover list, who owns the files, how many directions you will see, and who updates the listings if the name changes. The answers are what decide whether the price quoted is the price paid.

These are worth asking of any agency, including this one, so the answers given here are underneath each question.

• What is on the handover list?

  The brand kit, the logo formats, the colour codes, the typefaces and the templates. Get all of it in writing before paying anything.

• Who ends up owning the files?

  The business does, so they can be handed to another designer without anybody having to ask permission first.

• How many directions will I be shown?

  A specific number. Two or three is normal for this, and a fixed number is what keeps the job from running long.

• Who updates my listings if the name changes?

  It is hours of work and it has to sit with somebody. On jobs run here it sits with the agency.

• Will the templates be editable by me?

  Changing a price is a weekly job, so the templates handed over open in something the business already has, rather than being charged for each time.

Plenty of Newcastle businesses run a perfectly good look they built themselves. The part worth paying for is the decisions being made once and written down, so the business stops paying to be recognised from scratch.

Where the same materials have to work across several locations, a brand kit for a franchise sets out what head office locks and what each location controls.