Design & Product
Brand & Visual Identity
Logos, palettes and brand guidelines
A brand is not a logo. It is the answer to "who is this for, and why them rather than the cheaper option" — expressed consistently enough that people remember it. The logo is one artefact of that answer, and designing it before the answer exists is the most common way brand projects produce something pretty that changes nothing.
So we start with positioning, then build the visual and verbal identity on top of it, and finish with a system your own team can actually apply without needing a designer for every social post.
What's included
Positioning and strategy
Who the customer is
in specific terms — not "everyone who needs X".
What you actually compete on.
Price, speed, expertise, service, access, trust. Choosing everything means choosing nothing.
Your position against the alternatives
including the alternative of doing nothing, which is the competitor most companies forget.
The messaging hierarchy.
The one thing to say first, the proof that supports it, and the three points that follow.
Voice and tone.
How you sound formal, how you sound friendly, what you never say — defined for both Arabic and English, because a voice does not translate automatically.
Visual identity
- Logo — primary, secondary and icon-only versions, with the clear-space, minimum-size and misuse rules that decide whether it survives contact with real applications.
- Arabic and Latin lockups. For a bilingual brand these are designed as a matched pair, with consistent weight and presence, so neither reads as a translation of the other. This is skilled work and it is where most bilingual identities fall down.
- Colour palette — a full system with primary, secondary, neutral and functional colours, checked for accessible contrast, and specified for screen, print and, where relevant, signage.
- Typography — a type system that includes a genuine Arabic typeface chosen to pair with the Latin one, not a default fallback, with a scale that works from a mobile caption to a billboard.
- Imagery direction — photography and illustration style, defined precisely enough to brief a photographer or choose stock without diluting the brand.
- Iconography and graphic elements — the supporting shapes, patterns and textures that let the brand be recognisable even where the logo is not present.
- Application design — how the identity looks applied: website, app, social templates, presentation deck, email signature, stationery, invoices, packaging, vehicle or signage where relevant.
Guidelines your team can use
Brand guidelines fail when they are a beautiful document that answers none of the questions people actually have. Ours are written for the person making a social post on a Tuesday: which logo file, on which background, at which minimum size, with which fonts, and what to do when the layout does not fit. We deliver editable templates alongside the rules, because a template gets followed and a rule gets ignored.
You receive the full source files, the exported formats for print and screen, the licensed or open fonts with their licences documented, and a written guideline document — in both languages.
Rebrands, honestly
A rebrand is disruptive and it is not a fix for a business problem. If your issue is that people do not know you exist, a new logo will not solve it and a marketing budget might. If your issue is that you look untrustworthy next to your competitors, or that your name no longer describes what you sell, or that you cannot use your own identity on a phone screen, then it is worth doing.
When it is, we plan the transition rather than dropping it: what changes on day one, what changes as stock and signage are replaced, how you explain it to existing customers, and the technical work that goes with a domain or name change so you do not lose the search visibility you already have.
On working with Codigoo
They refused to do a big-bang launch, which annoyed me at the time. We traded through the entire migration without a single hour of downtime, so they were right.
Questions we are usually asked
- Can you design just a logo?
We can, but we will tell you what it will and will not do. A logo without positioning, a palette, typography and rules for using it tends to produce inconsistency rather than recognition — you will have a mark, and every application of it will be improvised.
- How long does an identity take?
The strategy work is the part that cannot be rushed, because it is the part everything else derives from. The design work moves faster once the positioning is agreed. Discovery will give you a specific timeline for your scope.
- How many logo options do we see?
A small number of genuinely distinct directions, each with the reasoning behind it, rather than a wall of variations. Presenting twenty options is a way of asking the client to do the designer's job; presenting two or three considered ones is a recommendation you can actually interrogate.
- Do you handle trademark registration?
We are not a law firm, so registration is handled by your legal advisors. What we do is check for obvious conflicts before we get attached to a direction, and prepare the files and specifications your lawyers need for the application.
If you are launching, or your identity no longer matches what the business has become, a consultation is where to work out whether you need a rebrand or a refresh.
Talk to us about Brand & Visual Identity
Thirty minutes with an engineer and a strategist who do this work — not a sales team. You will get an honest answer about whether it is the right thing to buy, and what it would realistically cost.