Brand Strategy & Identity Systems

Startups and founders building a first real brand, technology companies whose identity no longer matches the product, and organisations rebranding, merging or entering a new market. Usually a founder, CMO or head of brand owns the decision; I work with them directly and with the teams who will apply the system after launch.

Usually at one of four moments: a new brand is being built; an existing one has drifted and no longer matches what the company has become; several sub-brands, channels or products have grown apart and need one language; or the organisation has outgrown an identity that was designed for a much smaller version of itself.

The useful time to start is before the deliverables are decided. If the brief already names the assets, most of the strategic decisions have quietly been made, and they are the ones worth revisiting.

Brand problems rarely present themselves as brand problems. They arrive as symptoms: the sales team has no short answer to “what do you do”; every campaign looks like it came from a different company; the institution feels older than its audience; the product is genuinely better than the competition and nobody can tell from the outside.

Underneath is almost always the same gap: no single idea strong enough to organise everything the organisation makes.

• Positioning and the central idea: what the brand is actually claiming, in language precise enough to design against
• The visual language: logo and identity design, colour, typography, image-making, motion behaviour
• The system: how the parts behave together across channels, formats and the hands of other teams
• The governing documents: brand book, channel or product kit, usage rules that a designer three years from now can follow
• Direction of everything produced against the system while the engagement runs

Much of the identity work I design myself. When a system needs more - typeface customisation, motion design, illustration, 3D, a broadcast or on-air package, a build - I collaborate with the specialists it requires, or work inside an existing agency or in-house team. The team is assembled around the problem.

Channel 13 A national broadcast identity by Shortcut Playground - I was part of the team from brand strategy through execution. Partner TV One channel-ID system across series, kids and movies, each with its own energy and one identity. Mako 12+ A launch language for a streaming service, built around a single typographic device.

Past projects in this area. My role differed from project to project - each case study states my individual contribution.

I combine brand strategy with hands-on identity design. On some projects that means finding the central idea and building the system around it; on others it means joining a direction that already exists and designing the parts it still needs.

Either way, the aim is a system other people can extend - by designers who were never in the room, without asking permission.

Independent engagements typically begin at ₪30,000. Full identity systems with a multidisciplinary team are scoped separately, once the shape of the problem is clear. If you know your range, say it early. It decides what is possible, not whether the conversation is worth having.