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Most people think brand strategy is something you receive at the end of a process. A document. A PDF. A mood board with some colors and a font pairing.
It's not. That's brand identity. Brand strategy is what makes every decision inside the identity defensible.
Here's what I mean.
When I started working with Ori Efroni on NYC TaxAbate Advisors, the first thing we did before touching any visuals was answer one question. Who is actually reading this website and what do they need to believe before they reach out?
His clients are volunteer co-op and condo board members in New York. People with no legal or financial background making significant decisions about buildings full of their neighbors. They weren't going to trust someone they didn't immediately feel confident about.
That one answer gave us everything we needed.
It told us the brand couldn't be warm and approachable in the way a consumer brand might be. It told us it couldn't be cold and corporate either. It needed to feel like the most capable person in the room who also happened to be completely transparent about how they work.
We called that Quiet Authority. Two words that became the filter for every decision that followed.
Does this color feel quietly authoritative? Does this typeface communicate precision without arrogance? Does this layout make someone feel confident before they read a single word?
The creative direction wasn't a mood board. It was a decision engine.
That's what brand strategy actually is. And when it's done properly, every other decision in the project becomes faster, clearer, and easier to defend.
Great work 🙂
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Not every growing brand needs to look dynamic to feel ambitious.
With Auren, the challenge was almost the opposite.
The brand needed to work across real estate, development and wellness without becoming a generic identity trying to fit everything.
So the direction became more restrained, solid and precise.
Less visual noise.
More consistency to support different sides of the business.
For me, that’s one of the most interesting parts of building brands meant to last:
flexibility doesn’t have to mean losing personality.
Full project: https://www.behance.net/gallery/255378471/Auren
the Auren book mockup looks nice. did you make the logo too?
New Brand Guidelines delivered.
While it may seem trivial, this asset remains a key component of our final deliverables for every project. We offer a recommended guide for the proper use of the brand, with various layout options permitted within the visual language. This ensures the brand can expand over time with a truly functional visual system.
We always strive to be as concise as the brand allows, establishing the foundation for its effective use. This empowers the client to make informed decisions and implement each brand element in the ideal scenario with optimal adjustments.
"As concise as the brand allows" is the hard part, because the guidelines that get ignored are almost never the thin ones. Curious whether you pair the PDF with a live component library so the document only has to explain the rules and doesn't also have to enforce them - that split has saved me a lot of pages.
Project Showcase: Brand Identity Design for Burger Lover 🍔🎨
As a designer working with small businesses, I recently led the visual identity design for Burger Lover, a fast-casual restaurant looking to establish a distinct, memorable presence in a competitive market.
My focus was on translating the brand’s core personality into a clean, cohesive visual system that bridges the gap between digital marketing and physical packaging.
Key Design Deliverables
Logo & Visual Identity: Crafted a modern, scale able mark built for high legibility on everything from app icons to storefront signage.
Packaging & Touch points: Designed branded takeout boxes, custom burger wraps, and sticker seals engineered to create an elevated unboxing experience.
Color Palette & Typography: Paired appetite-stimulating primary tones with strong display typography to establish instant visual recognition.
Social & Marketing Assets: Developed structured templates to ensure consistent visual hierarchy across digital channels.
I’d love to get feedback from fellow designers! How do you feel about the packaging layout and visual balance? Any insights on the typographic hierarchy would be greatly appreciated.
Sick 🔥