What goes in a brand book, and what can stay out
A useful brand book is shorter than you think. Here is how we decide what earns a page (sample).
Brand identities, and the book that keeps them right
Quarry Lane Studio (sample) designs logos, colour and type for small companies and the brand book that holds it all together, so the next sign, label or post still looks like you.
Eleven weeks from first workshop to the printed book (sample).
Contents
60 pages
A full Quarry Lane brand book (sample). Page numbers are where each chapter starts and ends.
Recent work
Three identities from the past year. Under each one, the chapters its brand book has.
Identity, packaging and shop signs (sample)
A neighbourhood bakery opening its second shop needed bags, labels and a sign that work in flour and steam.
Chapters in this book: brand story, logo, colour, typography, applications, files and templates.
Rebrand of a bike workshop (sample)
Forty years of repairs, one hand-painted sign. We kept the sign and built the rest of the brand around it.
Chapters in this book: brand story, logo, colour, typography, imagery, applications, files and templates.
Festival identity and signage (sample)
A three-day folk festival in a field: posters, wristbands and wayfinding that can be read from forty metres.
Chapters in this book: logo, colour, typography, applications.
Client names and projects (sample).
Three packages, read by chapter
Each package is a brand book of a different size. A filled tab means the chapter is in your book, with the number of pages it gets.
Chapter
Mark
Identity
Brand book
Time
3 weeks
7 weeks
11 weeks
Price
$2,400
$6,800
$12,500
Example prices. Printing the book is quoted separately; every package includes the files as PDF.
Eleven weeks, in this order
The full brand book package, week by week. Smaller packages skip the weeks they do not need.
Week 1
Kick-off workshop
Half a day with the people who decide: what you make, who buys it, what has to change.
Chapters it produces: brand story.
Weeks 2–3
Research and positioning
We visit, read, ask your customers and write the brand story for you to sign off.
Chapters it produces: brand story.
Weeks 4–6
Logo routes
Two or three routes on real things (a bag, a sign, a post), then two rounds of changes to the one you choose.
Chapters it produces: logo.
Weeks 7–8
Colour, type and imagery
Palette with print and screen values, typefaces and sizes, a photo brief and a test shoot.
Chapters it produces: colour, typography, imagery.
Weeks 9–10
Applications
Stationery, signs, packaging and social templates, checked with your printers and sign makers.
Chapters it produces: applications.
Week 11
The book and the files
The brand book as PDF and print, the master files, and an hour of training for your team.
Chapters it produces: files and templates.
Five designers in an old print works
We take about fourteen projects a year, so the designer at your first workshop is the one who sets your brand book.
Studio
7 Quarry Lane, Springfield (sample)
Since
2012 (sample)
Team
Four designers and a writer (sample)
Clients
Food, shops, makers, culture and charities
Before you get in touch
How long does a brand book take?
Eleven weeks for the full book, seven for an identity and three for a logo and mark, counted from the kick-off workshop (sample). Your answers and sign-offs set the pace as much as ours do.
Do we own the logo and the files?
Yes. When the last invoice is paid, the copyright in the logo and the artwork passes to you, and you get every master file. Typefaces stay under their own licences; we tell you which ones need buying.
Can you update an identity we already have?
Yes. Many projects keep the logo and fix what grew around it: colours that drifted, five fonts, signs nobody can read. We start with an audit of what you use now.
What do you need from us to start?
An hour for the kick-off workshop, the people who decide, and what you have now: old logos, photos, printed things. A rough budget helps us choose the right package.
Do you print?
We prepare print-ready files and work with local printers we trust; you pay the printer directly. We check the first proofs with you.
From the journal
Printing the brand book: paper, binding and the thumb index
Why our printed books have tabs on the edge, and which paper survives a year in a workshop (sample).
Choosing typefaces that will still work in five years
Licences, languages and the fallback fonts nobody plans for (sample).
Start with a forty-minute call
Tell us what you make and what is not working. We reply within two working days with questions, a package and a date to start.