Engineering a Brand Identity

"It's a fintech company focused on tackling short-term financial support challenges, grounded in responsible financial management for Canadians."

To go from a vision statement like that to an entire brand identity, complete with Brand Guidelines, Social Media Assets and a fully revised Logomark and Logotype, is exactly what we did for Prestar in late 2025.

And it none of it happens by luck.

All of it boils down to process.

When engineering a brand identity for any client of ours, be it from scratch or a refresh, we follow a 12 step process to guide every project from start to finish.

“Our approach is a hybrid model of Waterfall, Scrum, and Kanban.”

Initial Inquiry/Qualifying

Whether it's from warm or cold outreach on our end or clients reaching out through our site, each project begins with an initial inquiry. At this point, we gather preliminary data from the client around budget, timeline, project scope and requirements, and other details to set a foundation.

This is either done over a qualifying call or via a Brand Questionnaire we send clients to establish a baseline for the project and if we align.

SOW/Project Setup

We typically go from Quote/Qualifying straight to Statement of Work (SOW) with clients – contrary to the normal process of sending a proposal.

With an in-depth qualifying call, we tend to establish the base elements and requirements of the project, from both client and our end, and sign off on the SOW together.

Once that happens, we setup our Project Dashboard with the client – in Notion – which houses all of our project details and deliverables, instead of fussing around with email threads for deliverables, updates, etc.

Project Kickoff + Discovery

With the key stakeholders in the project and organization, we have a discovery session and brand workshop – which be anywhere from an hour to a half day to a full day workshop, depending on the project scale and requirements. During this time, we align on and uncover key insights about the client's industry, audience, and background, to steer the direction of our visual identity development, messaging framework, etc.

Art Direction + Alignment

Present a series of Moodboards and Stylescapes to align on a visual direction for the logomark, logotype, and other brand identity elements. In this step, we use the research and insights from the Discovery session(s) to present 2-3 styles and directions for the client's brand identity moving forward, containing samples of colour palettes, icons, and other brand elements, all centred around distinct themes.

Brand Identity – First Pass/Feedback

After aligning on moodboards and stylescapes for the project direction, we use all the research and insights from past stages to present the new logomark, logotype, and early brand elements to the client.

We never just present the logomark and logotype to the client; we always show applications in mockups, both large format and small format, and a light sense of how the type, colour, patterning, and other systems work within the branding.

Brand Expansion

Once approved, we expand on the branding by further developing assets, templates, motion designs, and the brand guidelines for the client, and their partners, to refer to for future usage and brand applications.

Project Finalization

From here, we render and deliver all final assets and templates to the client, via Figma, Dropbox, etc. and ensure the client has all the handoff information and access needed for future brand applications.

Futurecasting

We will have a quick sync with the client after the project is finalized to determine future needs and likely develop a retainer relationship to help with ongoing projects, content strategy, etc.

Project Post-Mortem (internal)

Done internally, we meet with our contractors + team members to determine what went well with the project, what we could improve on the next project, and get it all documented in our Notion Dashboard for future use.

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