Understand
Start with your business, audiences and existing identity. Agree what needs to change, what should be retained and where the brand needs to appear.
Brand strategy and design for digital products
Strong products need a clear identity as well as a great user experience. For brand strategy, visual identity and creative design, meet our sister company Stills. Their work helps organisations launch new brands, refresh existing identities and communicate clearly at times of change.
A clear identity for the business you're building
Your product may be ready to launch while its identity is still taking shape. Or your business may have changed, leaving a name, visual style or message that no longer explains what you offer. Brand design helps people recognise your organisation and understand what it stands for.
For a digital product, that identity needs to work wherever customers meet it: on a website, in an app and in communications around the service. Considering branding and product design together helps keep those experiences consistent as the product grows.
THE BRANDING OFFER
What brand strategy and design can include
Stills helps organisations define how they present themselves through strategy, identity and creative work. The scope can cover a new brand or a refresh of an existing one, with guidelines and assets chosen around the channels you need to use.
- Brand strategy, naming and positioning
- Visual identity and logo design
- Colour, typography and imagery
- Tone of voice and key messages
- Brand guidelines for consistent use
- Creative assets for digital channels
COMMON STARTING POINTS
When it makes sense to revisit your brand
A launch, a change in direction or an inconsistent customer experience can make the need for branding clearer. Start with what has changed in the business and what your audience needs to understand, then decide how much of the identity needs to evolve.
- Launching a new business or digital product
- Refreshing an identity that no longer fits the business
- Explaining your offer to a new audience
- Bringing consistency to a website and app
- Preparing a brand for investment or growth
Planning your branding project with Stills
Define
Stills develops the brand direction and key messages. This gives the creative work a clear purpose and a basis for reviewing design choices.
Design
Develop the visual identity and explore how it works in the agreed applications. Review the designs against the audiences and priorities in the brief.
Apply
Prepare guidelines and assets for the agreed rollout. Where software is part of the project, DabApps can carry the identity into interface design and development.
WHY STILLS
Branding backed by communications experience
Stills brings more than 30 years of communications experience to work with businesses, academic institutions and third-sector organisations. Their services connect brand development with messaging and creative content, helping you plan how an identity will be introduced and used. Explore Stills' approach and services.
- Brand strategy and creative design in one team
- Messaging shaped around your audiences
- Guidelines to support a consistent rollout
- Creative work for digital and physical channels
Brand design in practice: Zero
Stills developed Zero's brand strategy, visual identity and guidelines. The identity needed to work across digital channels and physical bank cards, while speaking to both prospective customers and investors.
The bank-card designs shown here are part of that work. Read Stills' Zero case study for the brief, creative approach and client's perspective.
What our clients say
“Stills have been instrumental in crystalising the thinking that had already taken place around our brand look and feel.”
Richard Theo, CEO and Co-Founder of Zero, on working with Stills
Put the identity to work in your product
DabApps worked alongside Stills on the Alcumus ISOQAR website, using research and workshops to understand different customer needs. Where your brand project includes software, our product designers and engineers can help with journeys, interfaces and development. If you already have brand guidelines, we can work with those too.
Questions about branding projects
Who delivers the branding work?
Our sister company Stills provides brand strategy, visual identity and creative design. DabApps provides digital product design and software engineering. You can approach Stills directly for branding, or speak to DabApps when branding is part of a wider product project.
How is brand design different from product design?
Brand design defines how an organisation or product presents itself, including its visual identity and messaging. Product design focuses on how people use a website or app, including journeys, interactions and screens. The two meet in the interface, where the identity needs to work alongside clear navigation, readable content and accessible controls.
Can we keep parts of our existing identity?
A refresh can build on what people already recognise. Start by sharing your existing identity, guidelines and the reasons for the change. The scope can then focus on what needs updating and how the revised identity will work across the channels you use.
Can branding be part of a website or app project?
Yes. Stills and DabApps have worked together on digital projects, including the Alcumus ISOQAR website. We can discuss the brand work alongside user research, interface design and development, agreeing responsibilities and the assets needed for each stage.
What affects the scope and cost of branding?
The work depends on whether you need a new identity or a refresh, how much strategy and messaging work is required, and where the brand will be used. Bring your existing materials, launch plans and priorities to the first conversation so the deliverables and rollout can be scoped around them.
Brand and user experience in practice
Chloe Ward-Smith explains how DabApps and Stills approached the Alcumus ISOQAR website, balancing customers' need for information, reassurance and a clear route to a quote.
