BM—08 / BRANDING / EN The Foundation · work 02

Anyone can have a logo. A visual system applies the same way in every piece, without anyone having to decide again.

THE MARK · THE PALETTE · THE SYSTEM · THE LIVING SHEET

How many times have you tried to show what you see in your mind and nobody really understood? If it doesn't attract visually, nobody notices you — it's like having a crooked moustache. Identity is how what you see reaches other people's eyes the way you saw it.

A mark drawn over an undecided positioning is decoration. Who your client is and what they believe before they buy decide whether the mark can be playful or must be sober: it's not a matter of taste. That's why identity comes after positioning, and here I write the rules by which everything that comes out of Boosted OS looks.

01 — The order BM—08.1 / THE STEP BEFORE

The mark comes after positioning. In this order it has somewhere to start from.

Identity is the visual translation of what was decided at positioning. The other way round, it's an exercise in taste.

I don't just deliver a logo. I deliver a set of rules by which the mark is applied, by a person or by a machine, on everything that comes out. Boosted OS produces seventy-seven pieces a month, so the rules must be applicable without someone standing next to every piece.

When the positioning exists in writing, the rules have something to rest on: why this colour and not another, why this tone. When it's missing, every visual choice stays an opinion.

If you haven't yet written down who you sell to and what you promise, start there: see Positioning, step by step. Without it, a new logo only makes you more nicely wrapped.

02 — The work BM—08.2 / WHAT YOU BUY

One piece of work, with a beginning and an end.

A project, not a subscription: it ends, and it stays yours whatever comes next.

02 — Visual identityThree weeks

What the promise looks like.

The visual translation of what was decided at positioning. In this order identity has somewhere to start from; the other way round, it's an exercise in taste.

€1,400

A brand book like the one I work from: a single document, with rules that can be checked, not “tastes”. The table of contents is in section 05.
The mark, in the variants you need, and the slogan, written as a mark to use on video, on covers and in signatures.
Colour and typography, with the contrast measured on each background where they actually appear.
Backgrounds for content, made on your brand: for carousels, video and static posts.
Real templates: post, story, deck, email signature. Not samples, files you actually use.
A brand book like the one I work by: a single document, with rules that can be checked, not “tastes”. The table of contents is in section 05.
The rules go into Boosted OS, so they apply themselves to everything that comes out of it.

It can be taken separately, but after positioning. Together with it, with Web and with Media production it makes up the complete Foundation: €5,900, compared with €7,500 piece by piece. Details on the services page.

03 — How I work BM—08.3 / STEP BY STEP

Six steps. Three approvals, all in the first part.

At every step I tell you what I do, what stays written down, what you decide and how long it takes. The three approvals (the DNA, the mark, the palette) are where the risk is high; the other steps run freely, because they're local and reversible. If the mark is reopened after approval, 2–3 days are added.

What kind of mark you need

What happens: I find out how far the job goes and whether it's needed at all. There are three cases, which don't ask for the same work: a new mark, from scratch; a system over an existing mark (the logo stays, the rest gets written, most often); or just application rules, when a logo and a palette exist but every piece looks different. I take stock of what leaves your hands today (posts, decks, invoices, site) to see where consistency breaks. The break usually points to a missing rule, not a lack of taste.
What comes out: One sentence about what gets built and what isn't touched.
What you decide: Nothing to approve separately here. I show you the sentence, and if you understood something else, we correct it before I draw anything.
How long it takes: The first week, together with steps 02 and 03. That's where the risk is and where the approvals are.

Where we start: references and material

What happens: I ask you for references from outside your industry: the ones from inside give the industry's average mark. We name the physical material of the mark (paper, metal, glass, soft plastic, enamel), because a good mark has a substance. And we write what it isn't: that list shortens the work that follows.
What comes out: The visual DNA: the references, the material and the “what it isn't” list.
What you decide: You approve the DNA before I draw anything.
How long it takes: The first week, together with steps 01 and 03.

The mark

What happens: I draw the whole mark, not just the symbol: horizontal, stacked, the sign alone, plus the versions on white and on black. I check it at 16 pixels, not at large size: a mark that doesn't survive in a browser-tab icon isn't a mark, it's an illustration. If the mark carries information, I measure its contrast; it isn't exempt because it's a drawing. Any character outside the Latin alphabet I deliver as a vector drawing, not as text, so it doesn't quietly switch to another font. If it comes out, I write the slogan too.
What comes out: The whole mark folder: every variant exported, plus a sheet that says which goes where. The slogan, if it comes out.
What you decide: You approve the mark. After approval we don't go back: any later touch means redoing all the exports. If we reopen it, 2–3 days are added, and I tell you that at signing, not at delivery.
How long it takes: The first week, together with steps 01 and 02.

The palette, measured

What happens: I extract the colours from a real source, for example a photograph, not from a generator. I measure each colour on every background where it's actually used, not “in general”: the same colour has different verdicts on different backgrounds and I write down both. For text I choose the darkest shade that can be read on all the backgrounds it appears on. If certain colours mean something (one for data, one for confirmation), we write the key and never break it for the sake of colour balance.
What comes out: The palette with contrast measured on each background and a verdict written next to each pair: where it can be used, for what, where not.
What you decide: You approve the palette together with its verdicts.
How long it takes: The second week, together with step 05.

The visual system

What happens: I write the rules that make everything that goes out look like you without anyone deciding each time, in four layers. Typography: two or three roles, a scale, decided weights. The grammar of surfaces: what is body, what displays information and what text colour each one takes. The object: light, finish, shadow, edge, kept separate, so you can change the material without rewriting the meaning. Iconography: a single system, generated, not drawn piece by piece. At the end, motion, in one sentence. This is also where I write the slogan, as a mark usable on anything, and where we decide the content backgrounds together, so they don't look like a template from one piece to the next.
What comes out: The rules of each layer, written so both a person and the system can apply them; the slogan; the content backgrounds.
What you decide: Nothing to approve separately: the step is local and reversible. You see it and ask for changes.
How long it takes: The second week, together with step 04.

The living sheet

What happens: I gather everything into the brand book: an HTML document, opened in a browser, not a PDF. A PDF can't be measured, can't be corrected and can't be read by an agent. The sheet has the palette with measured contrasts, the typography with scale and roles, the two surfaces, the colour rules with a Wrong / Right demonstration side by side, the colour key and the motion. Then I run the same checks on it as on anything else: the living sheet is always right against intention.
What comes out: A living brand sheet, with the checks run on it and passed. The mark can be applied without me in the room.
What you decide: Nothing to approve separately. You receive the sheet, and from here the mark is applied without me.
How long it takes: The third week, after steps 04 and 05.

What the app does and what I do. The app applies an identity, it doesn't invent one. If the identity already exists and is written in the profile, the pieces come out in it. If it doesn't, you get pieces consistent with themselves and with nothing else, and it shows. Creating the identity, the measured mark sheet and the rules Boosted OS follows are done with me, in the steps above.

04 — What I refuse to do BM—08.4 / WHAT I REFUSE

Rules drawn from real mistakes, not from theory.

These aren't matters of taste. They're things I got wrong once, when I built the Boosted Mode mark, and haven't done since.

I don't start from the logo A mark drawn over an undecided positioning is decoration. First I find out who buys and what they believe before they buy, then I draw.

I don't deliver a mark I haven't checked small I try it at 16 pixels, not at large size. A mark that doesn't survive in an icon isn't a mark, it's an illustration.

I don't pick a “discreet” text colour if it can't be read A quieter colour that you can't read on a brighter screen isn't quieter, it's absent. I pick the darkest shade that reads everywhere and pay the price: the hierarchy tightens a little. It's worth it.

I don't give a colour a name instead of a verdict “Use orange sparingly” isn't a rule. A rule has a figure: on which background, at what contrast, for what yes and for what no. And no piece gets a colour just to be coloured.

I don't hand you a guide that breaks its own rules The Boosted Mode brand sheet had three wrong contrast figures in the very section about contrast. Nobody would have found them by reading; they came out by measuring. Since then, the sheet is measured like everything else.

I don't leave old variants in circulation Whenever the mark is touched after approval I redo all of them: the vectors, the PNGs, the tab icon. A single variant left old and the mark is inconsistent in exactly the most visible place.

I won't give you a mark that Boosted OS can't apply Every rule has to end in a file or a value that a machine executes. A rule that stays an intention isn't a rule.

05 — The brand book BM—08.5 / WHAT STAYS

What's in your brand book.

A PDF in Drive isn't branding. A system that applies itself is. Eight chapters, each with what gets measured, so you can tell for yourself whether the rule was followed.

Story on a black background, with the mark and the slogan — Story · the mark and the slogan

The logo, on a light background

Post from the profile grid

Profile picture

The icons

Page cover

Aa.ARCHIVO · IBM PLEX MONO

Colour and lettering

Profile picture, orange version

Banner for the LinkedIn company page — Company banner

Real pieces, on our own brand

The mark, its variants and the slogan All the variants of the mark, exported, with a sheet that says which goes where. The slogan, as a mark written once and used everywhere. They stay yours.

Colour and typography The palette with the contrast measured on each background, the type families, the scale and the roles. With the verdict written next to each pair: where it can be used, where it can't.

The icons and the content backgrounds One icon system, generated, not drawn piece by piece. The backgrounds for carousels, video and static posts, made on your brand.

Photography and motion What a photo that is yours looks like, and what a stock one looks like. What moves in a piece and what never moves, with durations.

The voice What doesn't change from one piece to the next: the words you use, the ones you don't, what you never promise.

Covers and profile pictures For your social accounts, made from the same drawing as the mark: when something changes, it changes everywhere at once.

The templates Working files, not presentation samples. Anyone on the team can make a post without sounding different.

The rules, in Boosted OS The living sheet and its rules go into Boosted OS. From there they apply themselves to everything that comes out of it.

The guide, as a PDF

The branding guide, in one document.

To read offline or send to your team. It starts immediately, not in three days.

One email, on request. I don't add you to any list and I don't pass the address on — see the privacy policy.

You have a logo. Do you have a brand?

The difference shows in what every campaign costs you from here on. In a twenty-minute conversation I'll tell you which of the two you need. And if you need neither, I'll tell you that too.

Let's talk

I can't make you a suit until I know your measurements. The call is the fitting, not a sales pitch.

Or see all the pricing and positioning.