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Every brand project I take on has a moment I'm working toward.
It's not the logo reveal. It's not the color palette. It's the moment the client reads the Big Idea for the first time and says, yes, that's exactly it.
The Big Idea is the single sentence, phrase, or concept that everything else in the brand is built around. It's not a tagline. It's not a mission statement. It's the irreducible truth at the center of what the business does and why it matters.
Most brands skip this step entirely. They go straight from strategy to visuals and wonder why the whole thing feels somehow off even when it looks good.
For NYC TaxAbate Advisors the Big Idea was two words: What's yours.
The tax abatement that belongs to your building. The savings your board has never claimed. The value that was always there, waiting for someone to go and get it.
Those two words shaped the logo concept, the website copy, the CTA structure, and even the tone of every page. Not because we kept referring back to them consciously, but because once you have a Big Idea that strong, every good decision naturally aligns with it and every bad decision feels immediately wrong.
For the Irish Institute of Medical Herbalists the Big Idea was about rootedness and lineage. The idea that herbal medicine in Ireland has an ancient, unbroken tradition that the institute is the custodian of. That gave us the Ogham script mark, one of the oldest writing systems in Irish history, as the foundation for the logo.
Two completely different businesses. Two completely different Big Ideas. Both arrived at through the same process: understanding what's irreducibly true about the business before picking up a design tool.
That “Big Idea” moment is such a strong lens for brand work. When the concept clicks before the visuals do, every later decision feels much more intentional.
On point!
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What if a space brand didn’t just look futuristic — but felt like it was already living in the future?
For XPACE, the goal was to build a visual identity that could turn the idea of space exploration into a complete and immersive brand experience.
The identity combines a bold typographic system, a high-contrast visual language, and electric blue accents against deep black to create a futuristic presence that feels precise, technological, and unmistakably XPACE.
But the identity didn’t stop at the logo.
The system was extended across digital interfaces, web design, favicon and UI icons, access cards, board passes, and branded applications — creating a consistent experience across every touchpoint.
Every detail was designed to make XPACE feel less like a brand inspired by the future, and more like a brand built for it.
XPACE — Visual Identity System.
Looking to build a visual identity that goes beyond a logo?
Let’s create something with a world of its own.
The identity system feels cohesive because the typography, electric blue accents, and image language all push in the same direction. Extending that logic into interfaces and packaging is what makes XPACE feel like a real world, not just a futuristic logo.
More visuals from the rejected brand direction I shared earlier.
Really good to see this direction resonating with so many of you. It was one of our favourite explorations to build, from the narrative behind it to the visual world that brought it to life.
Great work doesn’t always make the final cut, and sometimes the reason has little to do with the quality of the direction.
Curious why this one was rejected? I’ve shared the story in the first comment✨
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