A brand isn't a logo, but a launch needs a logo — and a few other things that most founders only discover when a developer, a printer or an app store asks for them. This checklist separates what you need on day one from what can wait until you've found product–market fit.
Brand vs. brand identity
Your brand is what people think and feel about your company. You can't design it directly; it comes from the product, the service and every interaction.
Your brand identity is the set of visible and verbal tools that shape that impression consistently: name, logo, colours, type, imagery, tone of voice. That part you can design, and doing it well early saves money, because everything else — the website, the product UI, the pitch deck — is built on it.
Before any design: three decisions
- Positioning in one sentence. "For [audience] who [need], [company] is the [category] that [key difference]." If you can't write it, a designer can only guess.
- Three personality words. Calm, precise, warm? Bold, playful, loud? These steer every visual choice and are easy to check against.
- The name, cleared. Check the domain, social handles and — before you spend on a logo — trademarks in the markets you'll sell in.
The launch kit: what you need on day one
Logo system, not just a logo
- Primary logo (horizontal and/or stacked version)
- Symbol or monogram for small spaces: favicon, app icon, social avatar
- Single-colour versions: black, white, and on your brand colour
- Clear space and minimum size rules
- File formats: SVG for the web, PNG with transparency, and PDF or EPS for print
The symbol matters more than people expect: at 32×32 pixels in a browser tab, a full wordmark is unreadable.
Colour palette
- One or two primary colours
- A neutral scale (backgrounds, text, borders)
- Functional colours: success, warning, error
- Values in HEX/RGB for screens and CMYK (or Pantone) for print
- Contrast checked: text colours that pass WCAG AA on the backgrounds they'll be used on
Typography
- One typeface for headings, one for text — or a single family with enough weights
- Licensed for web, app and print use. Many "free for personal use" fonts aren't free for commercial use; open-source families (Google Fonts and similar) avoid the question.
- A simple size hierarchy for headings, body and small print
Imagery direction
A short description and 6–10 reference images: photography or illustration? People or product? Bright and airy, or dark and dramatic? This keeps stock photos, AI-generated images and photoshoots consistent.
Tone of voice
Half a page is enough: how you address people (formal or informal), words you use and avoid, and three examples of a sentence written "like us" and "not like us".
Basic applications
- Favicon and app icons in the required sizes
- Social media avatar and cover images
- Email signature
- A one-page brand guide (PDF) that collects all of the above
What can wait
- A 60-page brand book. Write it once the brand has been used for a while and you know which questions come up.
- Custom typeface. Expensive and rarely necessary early.
- Brand animations, sonic logo, merchandise. Nice to have, after launch.
- Sub-brands. Wait until you have more than one product that needs one.
Briefing a designer
A good brand brief answers:
- What the company does, for whom, and how it's different
- The three personality words
- Competitors, and how you want to look different from them
- Where the brand will appear first (website, app, packaging, signage)
- What's fixed (name, existing colours) and what's open
- Deliverables (use the launch kit above as the list)
- Budget range and timeline
Expect a process along these lines: research and a mood board, two or three distinct concepts, refinement of one, then the final files and guide. Two to six weeks is typical for a launch kit, depending on rounds of feedback.
Common mistakes
- Choosing a logo by committee. Decide against the positioning and personality words, not personal taste.
- Designing only for a big screen. Test every logo at favicon size, in one colour, and on a dark background before approving it.
- Too many colours. A palette of eight equal colours isn't a palette. One clear primary is more recognisable.
- No source files. Make sure you receive the editable files and the rights to use them.
From identity to product
Once the identity exists, it becomes the foundation for the website and the product: the colours and type turn into design tokens, and the tone of voice into interface copy. That next step is covered in a design system for small teams.
Need a brand and a website that match from day one? Let's talk.
