There are no stupid questions.

Branding, or Brand Identity refers to the public appearance of a company or organization. It extends to all the ways you communicate who you are to the world and is understood consciously and subconsciously. In short, it includes any cues that enable your audience to trust that you are who you say you are.

Elixir creates Brand Identities. We design things in the physical and digital world to shape a person’s perception of something; a company or organization, but it could also be a person, place or thing. Brand Identity has two components: Brand Strategy and Brand Design. Since these industry words are used interchangeably and loosely, let us clarify about what BRAND simply means to us.

Elixir’s preferred definition of “brand” is to say that a brand is what a given group of people thinks and feels about something. Brands lives in minds (and hearts) outside a company’s four walls. Your brand identity is what your audiences think of you. “Branding” or a brand identity also refers to the designed visual language for a brand – the logo or mark, fonts, colors, and voice.

Brand strategy identifies where a brand is today, where you want it to go, and how to get it there. Most of the time, there is a gap between what people think about you and who you really are. Good brand strategy identifies the exact shape of that gap, and then creates a strategy to close it. The most difficult thing, and the most powerful thing, is to communicate precisely what you do and why it matters.

Our “North Star” process gets everyone on your team on the same page (and screen) and enables internal consensus: a shared, actionable roadmap based on collective insights. Because a picture is worth a thousand words, our designers influence the strategy process as much as the strategy informs the design process.

This, in a nutshell, is how we think. Strategy (which really just means “what we are going to do”) is inextricably linked to design. Design is inextricably linked to strategy. Many firms say the same thing – but we have been told countless times that our holistic approach sets us apart.

VIEW OUR APPROACH

A statement that articulates why someone would want to part with time or money to buy something (or attend something, or listen to something, etc.) First one must be precise around the audience, and then one must identify why someone would value whatever it is on offer.

For new clients, ramping up requires an investment of time. A first project must be a minimum of $15k. That being said, we will always talk to people once at no cost; we can be helpful to you regardless. We have helped many choose another firm. We have clients who came to us years ago before they were ready and eventually came back. For existing clients, there is no project that is too small. Often our clients need help for a few hours and we are here for them.

For the most part, our clients are on a mission of one kind or another. They’re often at an inflection point, and they want to take it to the next level. Sometimes, they want to create something that is off the chart special whether it is an artifact or an experience.

No. But bad design, bad infographics could make it hard to leave a burning building…and a well placed and well designed CPR poster might help in a crisis.

The world is going to change no matter what…Design is at work all the time. Good design. Bad design. Design changes the world. The word design is from the latin de signare meaning “out from a plan.” If we humans want to make a world that is habitable to all forms of life, a place where all beings have a shot at living tomorrows that are better than today, then good design requires that people who are radically empathetic of all beings control the rudder, mouse, joy stick.