What does a brand identity design project include? A deliverables checklist
Brand identity and design
8 min read
Published: · Updated:
A brand identity project ends in a folder. The easiest time to decide what goes in that folder is before the work starts, and it is a moment that slips by easily. Brand identity design is the work of fixing how a brand looks through its logo, colours, typefaces and visual style, applying that to the pieces people actually use, and writing the rules down in a guide.
Below, the items are listed one by one, a table shows what gets added as the scope grows, and twelve checks cover the day the files arrive. How the work unfolds, step by step, is a different question; how to build a brand identity covers that.
What does a brand identity design project include?
Five groups of work:
- The logo system: the main logo and its working versions
- Colour and typeface rules
- Visual style: pattern, icons, the direction of photography or illustration
- Applications: business cards, letterhead, slide and social media templates
- The guide that explains how to use all of the above
Not every quote has all five. Visual style is the one most often left out, and applications are the one most often promised loosely. Before reading the price, read which of the five groups the quote actually names.
Brand identity or corporate identity: is there a difference?
Plenty of people use them interchangeably, and nothing breaks. Some agencies draw a line, though: identity as the visible, printed side, brand as everything a company says and shows. That distinction is a habit rather than a standard, and it shifts from site to site. If the label doesn’t help, the item list will.
What the brand says, to whom and in which voice sits outside this list; that is brand strategy. Anyone who wants outside help with those decisions themselves is on another route, which do you need a brand strategy consultant lays out.
Logo, colour, type and visual style: the core pieces
A logo is never one file. Next to the main version there is a horizontal and a vertical one, versions for light and dark backgrounds, and sometimes a single-colour version for stamps or embroidery.
Picture a small removals company (fictional). Its logo arrived as one PNG on a white background. On the cover of a quote document laid over a photograph of a van, the logo sits inside a white box. The sign writer asked for a vector file and there wasn’t one; enlarged for the van, the edges blur. The design itself is fine; what the folder lacks is a vector file and a dark-background version.
Colour is where screen and print part ways. Screens use HEX and RGB values; print uses CMYK, and if a spot-colour system is involved, its reference too. Typefaces need a name, a weight and a role (headings, body text). The line we would watch most closely is the licence: is the typeface free or paid for, and in whose name was it bought? Finding out after delivery is unpleasant.
Visual style is the softer item. Patterns, icon shapes, how a photograph should be framed. A small project can skip it as long as everyone knows it was skipped.
Business cards to social media templates: the applications
Applications are the most visible face of an identity. The usual ones: business cards, letterhead, a slide template and a set of social media templates. Brochure and catalogue design, or a small icon set, tend to sit on top of those.
Print files have to match what the printer asks for, and the printer is usually chosen by the client. Templates should come with editable source files. Without them, a changed phone number means going back to the designer. Think of the warranty folder that comes with an appliance: you never open it until something breaks, and then it is the only thing you want.
What should a brand guideline contain?
It should be short enough to read in one sitting and clear enough to hand to someone new on their first day. Typically:
- Clear space around the logo and its smallest size
- Misuse examples: a stretched logo, a clashing background, an added shadow
- The colour table and where each colour belongs
- Typefaces, with a heading and body-text layout
- Examples of the visual style
- Mock-ups for the card, slides and social templates
- Where the files live and who to ask
Tone-of-voice rules can sit in the guide too, if they were decided earlier. If they weren’t, the guide is better off without invented ones.
Which items belong to which scope: small, medium, wide
The three levels below are not an industry standard. They are a way of reading quotes, and the names and borders can shift. The table only shows what tends to be added, and when.
| Deliverable | Small | Medium | Wide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main logo | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Logo versions (horizontal, vertical, light and dark background) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Colour rules | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Typeface set | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Visual style | optional | ✓ | ✓ |
| Business card | optional | ✓ | ✓ |
| Letterhead | optional | ✓ | ✓ |
| Slide template | optional | ✓ | ✓ |
| Social media templates | optional | optional | ✓ |
| Brand guide | short | ✓ | detailed |
At the wide end, brochure or catalogue design, an icon set or a short animated logo often join in. Our own service page lists what we hand over: logo files, a brand guide, a colour and typeface table, templates with editable source files and a social media template set. Details are on the brand identity and design page.
Price sits outside this table. Scope, the number of feedback rounds and the usage rights move it. It is more useful to see those three in writing than to compare totals.
What file formats and names should the folder have?
A vector format (SVG or PDF) for the logo, plus a PNG for screens. Editable source files go into a separate folder, because they are the part nobody asks about until they are needed.
Naming looks dull and saves whoever opens the folder six months later. One layout:
brand-identity/
01-logo/
brand-logo-horizontal-light.svg
brand-logo-horizontal-dark.svg
brand-logo-vertical-light.png
02-colour-and-type/
colour-and-type-table.pdf
03-templates/
business-card-print-ready.pdf
business-card-source.ai
04-guide/
brand-guide.pdfIf the logo goes on a website, one more detail applies. Google Search Central’s image guidance says images are found through the src attribute of an img element, and that CSS images are not indexed. A logo placed as a real image with alt text is the safer choice; a background image won’t be indexed.
Twelve checks when the files arrive
Checking is the first thing to go when delivery is rushed. The list looks long and takes about a quarter of an hour.
- Did the logo come as both a vector file (SVG or PDF) and a screen file (PNG)?
- Are the horizontal, vertical, light and dark versions all there?
- Does the guide give the clear space and the minimum size?
- Are colours given for screen (HEX, RGB) and for print (CMYK)?
- Are the typefaces named, with weights and uses?
- Is the typeface licence written down, and in whose name?
- Are the font files or a download address included?
- Do the templates come with editable source files, and do you know what opens them?
- Are the print files in the format the printer asked for, and has the printer tried at least one?
- Do the social templates fit the accounts you really use?
- Does the guide still show an old logo, a wrong typeface or pages that don’t match the file names?
- Are the files with you, in a named folder, saved in two places, with the usage rights as the quote described?
Number four looks small. If it goes wrong it is the expensive one: a colour that looks right on screen can print a shade off, and without a print value the printer is guessing.
Frequently asked questions
What is included in a brand identity package?
The logo and its versions, colour and typeface rules, a visual style, applications such as business cards and slide templates, and a guide tying them together. Larger scopes add brochures, catalogues or an animated logo. The quote should name each item; “brand identity” alone is not a delivery list.
What should brand guidelines include?
Clear space and minimum size for the logo, examples of misuse, colour and typeface tables, visual style examples and mock-ups of the applications. If the guide also says where the files are stored and who answers questions, a newcomer can use it without help.
When should a brand identity be refreshed?
When the name, the line of work or the audience changes, or when the look has drifted apart across channels. An ageing logo on an unchanged brand usually needs a refresh, not a rebuild. If a deeper change is on the table, the positioning comes first and the look follows.
What affects the price of brand identity design?
The number of items, the surfaces the files are prepared for, the feedback rounds and the usage rights. Two quotes with the same title can carry different items, so line the delivery lists up before comparing the totals. This post gives no figures, because we have no average we could back up with a source.
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