Part of: Design and creative
Ecommerce branding
Branding is the decisions about who you are for and what you say, then the visual identity and rules that carry them everywhere. We treat strategy, identity and guidelines as one system.
How to choose
A quick comparison of the services in Branding.
| Service | What it is | Best for | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brand strategy | Brand strategy is deciding who you are for, what makes you different and how you say it, before anything is designed. We research your customers and market, write your positioning down in plain English and hand you something your whole team can use. | Founders launching a new brand, and established stores that cannot say in one sentence what makes them different, or whose message changes depending on who writes it. | Read more about Brand strategy |
| Logo design and visual assets | We design a logo and the visual assets around it so your brand looks the same on a phone screen, in an ad, in an email and on a parcel. You receive the logo suite, colours, type and icons in the formats your team needs, including SVG and light and dark versions. | New brands that need an identity before they launch, and established stores whose logo is hard to use in small sizes, in dark mode or in different channels. | Read more about Logo design and visual assets |
| Brand guidelines | Brand guidelines turn your brand decisions into rules that other people can follow. Ours are written for designers and developers alike, with semantic colour tokens, light and dark themes, typography and voice, so your store looks and sounds the same wherever it appears. | Stores where several people, agencies or developers touch the brand, and where the same colour or heading style keeps coming out differently. | Read more about Brand guidelines |
Branding is a system, not a logo
Branding is what customers understand about you before they read a word: who you are for, what you stand for and why you are different. A logo is one small part of it. Strategy, identity and guidelines work best as one connected piece of work, because each depends on the one before.
How to choose where to start
| If this sounds like you | Start with |
|---|---|
| You are launching or repositioning, or cannot say in one sentence what makes you different | Brand strategy |
| You know your message, but your logo, colours and type do not carry it | Logo design and visual assets |
| Your brand looks different in every channel, or developers and designers keep guessing | Brand guidelines |
| You are not sure which applies | A creative review, which tells you what to fix first |
The three parts
Brand strategy
Brand strategy answers who you are for and what you say. It covers your audience, your positioning and what you want to be known for, written in plain English so founders and freelancers can all use it.
Logo and visual assets
The identity is how that strategy looks: logo, colours, type and icons, in the formats and light and dark versions you need. It has to work on a phone screen, in an ad and on a parcel. You receive the files as SVG, PNG and PDF.
Brand guidelines
Brand guidelines turn the decisions into rules, so the brand stays the same when other people use it. For an online store that includes what your developers need. If you are building on Shopify, this feeds straight into Shopify development.
How branding connects to the rest of your store
A brand is only as strong as its weakest touchpoint. The same message should show up on your product pages, in your ads and in your emails. That is why we plan branding alongside UX design, which makes the store easy to use, and ad creative, which carries the brand into places where you have a few seconds to be understood.
What it costs
Branding is priced by the stages you need, so you can start with strategy and add the rest. See pricing for how we approach it.
Priced per project, with a fixed quote in writing before work starts. Up to three rounds of revisions are included. See the pricing page.
Not sure where to start?
A creative review is a good first step. It tells you whether the problem is your strategy, your identity or how consistently it is used.
Each service in Branding
Brand strategy
Brand strategy is deciding who you are for, what makes you different and how you say it, before anything is designed. We research your customers and market, write your positioning down in plain English and hand you something your whole team can use.
Logo design and visual assets
We design a logo and the visual assets around it so your brand looks the same on a phone screen, in an ad, in an email and on a parcel. You receive the logo suite, colours, type and icons in the formats your team needs, including SVG and light and dark versions.
Brand guidelines
Brand guidelines turn your brand decisions into rules that other people can follow. Ours are written for designers and developers alike, with semantic colour tokens, light and dark themes, typography and voice, so your store looks and sounds the same wherever it appears.
How it works
Every project is different, so timings depend on its size and complexity. You get a realistic timeline in writing before work starts, and we never promise results by a date.
Step 1: Listen
We learn who you sell to, what you do better than others and what you want to be known for.
Step 2: Decide
We write down your positioning and messaging, and agree it with you before any design starts.
Step 3: Design
We create or refine the identity so it works on a small screen, in an ad and on a parcel.
Step 4: Document
We write the guidelines and hand over files in the formats your team needs.
Questions people ask
Do I need strategy before a logo?
Usually yes, even if it is short. A logo only works if you know who it is for and what it should say. Without that, you are choosing by taste, and taste changes.
Can you refresh our brand without starting again?
Often, yes. If the core idea is sound, we tidy the identity, fix inconsistencies and write the guidelines. We say honestly if it needs more than that.
What do brand guidelines include?
The logo and how to use it, colours, type, imagery, tone of voice and examples. You receive them as a PDF with the editable source files, and design tokens for your developers where the work includes a hand-off.
Do you build the website as well?
We can plan the brand with the people who will build your store, so the two fit together. Our Shopify development work covers the build side.
How long does branding take?
It depends on the size of the project and how quickly decisions are made on your side. You get a realistic timeline in writing with the quote. Waiting on feedback or sign-off is what slows most projects down.
Will a new brand increase sales?
A clearer brand can make it easier for customers to understand and trust you. Nobody can honestly promise a sales result from branding alone, and we do not.
Not sure which to choose?
Get a free UX and conversion review of your website, focused on how your creative affects performance. A subject matter expert at Advent reviews it, and we aim to send it within 5 working days.