Many brand projects begin in the same way. Someone reaches out, full of momentum, and the first thing they ask for is a logo. It’s a natural impulse. Getting a logo in place feels like progress, something concrete you can point at and say, “That’s us.” What’s less obvious, at least at the beginning, is how much needs to happen before that moment truly means anything.
It often appears easier to jump straight to the visual bit, yet the foundations that lie beneath the identity shape the successful launch of a business far more than the symbol.
Before the sketchbook opens
When a brand is still forming, it may be tempting to move quickly. People want to see options, compare directions, and get something into the world. The trouble is, moving straight to artwork usually leads to a logo that looks fine on its own but feels strangely detached once the rest of the brand begins to grow around it.
I’ve seen this happen many times. A company picks a mark that “looks right,” only to discover later that it doesn’t quite line up with their audience, or it sends the wrong signals, or it simply isn’t built for the situations they end up using it in. Those early decisions ripple out for years, which is why the work before the logo matters so much.
Clarity around purpose, audience, positioning, and personality may not feel as exciting as the first round of concepts, though these elements create the conditions for everything that follows. They guide tone. They influence colour choices. They make typography decisions feel less arbitrary and layout habits far easier to establish. You can almost feel the brand settling into itself once these pieces begin to align.
The logo as a marker, not the meaning
People sometimes treat the logo as the brand’s centre of gravity, yet it tends to function more as a bookmark. It helps you recognise the owner of the message, but it only works when the rest of the identity is doing its fair share of the heavy lifting.
In practice, trust builds through the repeated use of colour, type, spacing, words, imagery and behaviour. These elements set expectations long before the logo appears. When the visual system is coherent, the logo becomes a natural continuation of the story. When it isn’t, the logo feels like decoration rather than definition.
This is one of the reasons I believe in slowing the pace a little. Not to drag out the process, but to allow a brand to make sense of itself before anything visual is finalised. It may feel counter-intuitive, although it usually saves time later and prevents the cycle of redesigns that happen when strategy chases the logo instead of guiding it.
Creating the conditions for better work
There’s a moment on every identity project where things begin to click, often just after the early groundwork is done. Conversations become clearer. The brief sharpens. Decisions start to feel less like guesses. By the time the first concepts appear, the direction already feels grounded.
That’s where the real value sits. Not in the speed of producing a mark, but in the thought that allows that mark to carry meaning.
A strong brand ‘wakes up’ long before the logo arrives. Give yourself the room to understand what you stand for, who you’re speaking to, and how you want to show up. The logo will follow, and it will do its job far better because of everything that came before it.
