An identity is a system, not a logo
A logo is one asset. What determines whether a brand looks coherent six months later is everything around it: the type scale, the colour roles, the photography treatment, the tone of the writing, and rules clear enough that somebody who was not in the room can apply them correctly. We spend the first part of the engagement on positioning, because a visual system built before anyone has agreed what the company is claiming will look confident and say nothing.
- Positioning and messaging groundwork before any visual work.
- Logo and identity system with defined usage rules.
- Typography and colour systems that work in print and on screen.
- Templates for the formats you actually produce weekly.
- Written guidelines including tone of voice.
- Source files and fonts licensed correctly, in your name.
Designed for the work you produce most
Most brand guidelines are built around a launch campaign and then fail at the social post somebody has to make on a Tuesday afternoon. We design the everyday formats first: the proposal, the price list, the Facebook post, the Viber display picture, the invoice, the signboard. Those are where a brand is mostly seen, and they are usually made in a hurry by whoever is free, and they are the assets a campaign runs on, which is why the format list comes from the same conversation as the channel mix for a Nepali business. If the templates for them are good, the identity holds. If they do not exist, the identity is whatever the person with Canva decides that week.
Bilingual from the start
If you communicate in both Nepali and English, the identity has to hold in Devanagari as well as Latin. That is a typographic decision, not a translation task: the two scripts have different vertical proportions, a logotype that works in one may be unbalanced in the other, and very few typefaces have families that genuinely pair. Choosing type that performs in both and setting the rules for how they sit together costs very little at the start and is a rebuild later. We also check the name itself reads properly in both scripts before anything is drawn around it.
Where the brand meets the screen
An identity now lives mainly on a phone. That means colours checked for contrast at accessible ratios rather than only for how they look on a designer's monitor, a logo that survives being rendered at thirty pixels as a favicon or a chat avatar, and a type scale that maps onto real interface sizes rather than a print grid. We deliver the colour and type system as tokens as well as swatches, so the developers building your website implement the brand rather than approximate it, and the interface design inherits the same values instead of starting a second, quietly different system. Which parts of an identity actually change behaviour on a screen, and which only change how a slide looks, is the subject of the design principles that lift conversion. If a website is part of the same programme, how to choose a web development company is worth reading before the two pieces of work are scoped by different people.
Refresh, rebrand, or leave it alone
The most expensive branding advice is the kind that always concludes with a full rebrand. Where there is real recognition, a refresh that tightens the system, fixes what breaks in practice and keeps the equity is usually the better spend, and we will quote it that way. A full rebrand is justified when the name no longer describes what you sell, when a merger or a market shift has changed who you are talking to, or when the existing identity is so inconsistently applied that there is nothing coherent left to preserve.
What goes wrong in branding, and how we avoid it
- A logo approved on a large screen at large size.
- We review every mark at favicon size, on a signboard, in one colour, embroidered and on a chat avatar before it is signed off. Most logos that fail in practice failed at small sizes and nobody checked.
- Guidelines nobody opens.
- We deliver templates for the formats produced weekly, not a fifty-page document. A rule that is easier to follow than to ignore is the only rule that survives contact with a busy team.
- A typeface nobody can license or install.
- We check licensing for web, print and desktop use up front, name the cost, and pick something with a proper Devanagari companion where you need one. A brand held together by a font on one designer's laptop is a brand with a countdown on it.
- Colours that fail contrast the moment they reach a screen.
- The palette is tested at accessible contrast ratios in the roles it will actually be used in, so the brand does not have to be quietly abandoned on the website to make text readable.
How we run branding work
- 01
Position
Interviews with you, your team and a few customers, a look at how competitors present themselves, and a written statement of what you are claiming and to whom. Everything visual is judged against that afterwards.
- 02
Explore
A small number of genuinely different directions, presented in context rather than as marks on a white slide. Twenty options is a way of avoiding a decision, not a way of offering choice.
- 03
Resolve
One direction developed properly: the mark at every size, the type scale, the colour roles with contrast checked, and the photography treatment.
- 04
Systemise
Templates for the formats you produce weekly, tokens for the developers, and written guidelines including tone of voice with examples of what is wrong as well as what is right.
- 05
Roll out
Applied across the assets that matter first, with a session for whoever will be producing material. Source files and licensing handed over in your name.
What branding costs
Branding is quoted by scope, in phases you can stop between. A logo and its immediate usage rules is the smallest sensible piece. A full identity, positioning, mark, type and colour system, templates and written guidelines, is quoted as one engagement with a fixed price. Where branding runs alongside a website or a product build, we quote it as part of that project so the tokens land directly in the build rather than being reinterpreted.
What pushes the price up
- Naming work, which is a separate discipline and includes trademark checking.
- Bilingual identity, where Devanagari needs its own typographic work rather than a translation.
- Printed and physical applications: signage, vehicles, packaging, uniforms.
- Sub-brands or a product family that all need to sit together.
- Photography or illustration commissioned rather than directed.
What brings it down
- Keeping the existing name and refreshing rather than replacing.
- A shortlist of formats you genuinely produce, instead of every possible application.
- Licensing an existing typeface rather than commissioning one.
- One decision-maker, since brand work is where committees add the most cost.
- Every figure here is a starting point, not a quote. You get a fixed price against a written scope before anything is built.
- Nepali clients are quoted in NPR at local rates, with a VAT invoice against our PAN. International clients are quoted in USD, AUD, EUR or GBP.
- You own the code, the domain and the hosting from day one, on every tier.
Who this is for, and who it is not
Worth a conversation if
- Companies whose materials look like they came from four different businesses.
- New ventures that need a coherent identity before going to market.
- Businesses communicating in both Nepali and English who need it to hold in both.
- Organisations about to build a website or product, where the identity should be settled first.
Probably not us if
- Anyone who needs only a logo and will not use a system. We will quote it, and tell you it will drift within months.
- Businesses where the real problem is the offer or the service quality. A new identity makes that visible faster, not better.
- Companies with no one who will own consistency afterwards, because guidelines require somebody to apply them.
Frequently asked questions
Do you do logo design only?
We can, and we will quote it. What we will also tell you is that a logo without the surrounding system tends to be applied inconsistently within months, because the person making a poster on Tuesday has no rules to follow. You get both quotes and the trade-off in front of you.
How long does a brand identity take?
A logo with usage rules is typically two to three weeks. A full identity with positioning, templates and written guidelines runs six to ten weeks, and the variable is almost always how quickly your side can decide, not how quickly we can design.
Do we own the artwork and the fonts?
You own the artwork, including editable source files, with rights transferring on final payment. Fonts are licensed rather than owned, which is normal, and we tell you what the licence covers and what it costs before choosing one so there is no surprise when you want to use it in an app.
Can you refresh an existing brand rather than replace it?
Usually the better option where there is existing recognition. We tighten the system, fix what breaks in practice, and keep the equity you have already built. A full replacement is justified when the name no longer fits what you sell or when there is nothing consistent left to preserve.
How do you handle a name and logotype in Devanagari?
As typography rather than translation. The scripts have different vertical proportions, so a logotype balanced in Latin often is not in Devanagari, and few typefaces have families that genuinely pair. We set the pairing rules, the relative sizing and the lock-up for both, and check the name reads correctly in each before anything else is drawn.
Will the brand work on our website without being reinterpreted?
That is why we deliver colour and type as tokens as well as swatches. Developers implement values; if they are given only a PDF, they will approximate. Where we are also building the site, the tokens go straight into the code.
Do you write the copy as well?
We write the tone of voice guidance and the core messaging, with examples. Ongoing copywriting for campaigns and content sits with our digital marketing work rather than inside the branding engagement.
