You pass hundreds of logos every day and remember none of them. That’s no accident — most brands are designed not to upset anyone. At goats. we work the other way round: a brand is supposed to stick. Here are five rules we apply to every project, whatever the industry or budget.
1. Start with the audience, not the logo
The logo is the last link in the chain, not the first. Before we open a design tool, we establish who the brand talks to, what that person is afraid of and what they need to hear before they trust it. Colour, typography and language all follow from that conversation. Brands built logo-first look great on a business card and bland everywhere else.
2. Pick the one thing the brand should be known for
A brand that tries to be premium, approachable, bold and safe at the same time is none of those things. Together with the client we choose the single trait the market should remember and let it drive every design decision. Everything else can be added later — the foundation has to be one thing.
3. Tone of voice is half of the identity
We treat tone of voice as seriously as the logo, because customers read a brand far more often than they look at it. A well-defined tone answers three questions:
- how the brand speaks when it sells — and when it apologises
- which words it will never use, however fashionable
- how you recognise its copy without seeing the logo.
If you can swap the logo for a competitor’s and nobody notices — it isn’t a brand yet.
a rule from our process
4. A system, not a folder of files
An identity that works is a system of decisions: what happens when a new format, channel or page appears. So instead of a folder of assets we hand over rules — grids, type hierarchy, how the logo behaves in motion. You can see that approach in our work.
5. Consistency beats spectacle
One good decision repeated a hundred times builds a brand faster than a hundred great ideas used once. The strongest brands we have worked with speak with one voice from the billboard to the email footer — which is exactly why they look bigger than they are.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a branding process take?
A complete identity — from strategy to delivery — usually takes us 1 to 2 weeks, depending on the number of touchpoints and how fast decisions are made on the client side.
Does a small business need a tone of voice?
Even more than a big one. A small company rarely wins on media spend, so every piece of copy — from a proposal to a reply to a Google review — has to build recognition. Consistent language is the cheapest brand-building tool there is.