Every studio has opinions about design. Most keep them informal. We decided to write ours down in 2020 after noticing that our best work shared the same traits and our weaker work consistently broke the same rules. These six principles are not philosophical statements. They are practical filters. When we disagree about a direction, we hold the work against this list.
1. Clarity before beauty
A brand mark needs to communicate something before it communicates taste. If a logo does not read clearly at 16 pixels wide on a browser tab, the serif details and custom ligatures are irrelevant. We always start at the smallest reproduction size and work outward.
This does not mean design should be plain. It means legibility is the floor, not the ceiling. Beauty is welcome once the foundation is solid.
2. Systems over artifacts
A logo is not a brand. A brand is a system of visual decisions that produce consistent outcomes across every touchpoint. We spend as much time defining the rules between elements as we do designing the elements themselves. How much whitespace surrounds the logo? What happens when the colour palette meets a dark background? How do headlines and body text relate to each other in size and weight?
Clients who receive a system can produce on-brand materials independently. Clients who receive a collection of files call their designer every time something new comes up.
3. Reduce until it breaks
Most early-stage designs carry too much. Too many colours, too many typefaces, too many ideas competing for attention. Our editing process is reductive: we strip elements away until removing one more thing would damage the communication. What remains is the essential version.
This principle comes from Dieter Rams, though he applied it to industrial design. In branding, it means a colour palette of two or three colours almost always outperforms one with six. A type system with one family at three weights beats three families at one weight each.
4. Earn every element
Nothing goes into a design because "it feels empty." Every line, shape, colour, and typeface needs a reason for being there. If the reason is purely decorative, we question it. Decoration is valid, but it should be a conscious choice, not filler.
In practice, this means our first drafts are sparse. We add complexity in later rounds only when the work demands it. Starting minimal and adding is more reliable than starting complex and subtracting.
5. Design for the person who uses it, not the person who approves it
Brand guidelines are often built for boardroom presentations. They look impressive in a slide deck but fail in daily use. We design for the marketing coordinator who needs to build a social post at 4 PM on a Friday, the sales rep who needs a one-pager for a meeting tomorrow, and the developer who needs hex codes and spacing values.
If the people applying the brand every day cannot do so without help, the system has failed regardless of how polished the guidelines document looks.
6. Longevity is the real test
Trends are useful for context. Following them is a trap. A brand identity should feel current without being fashionable. The difference is subtle but measurable: current design uses contemporary tools and production methods; fashionable design adopts the stylistic preferences of the moment.
We evaluate our own work by checking in on projects two and three years after delivery. If the identity still feels appropriate without modification, we got it right. If it already looks dated, we failed, no matter how well it was received at launch.
Good design is as little design as possible. Less, but better, because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials.
Dieter Rams, tenth principle of good design