Listen
We build brands with purpose.
We are brand snobs. There. We said it. If your branding isn’t right, you’ve botched your first impression and potentially each forthcoming opportunity to influence how a consumer feels about your business.
Stout Heart believes in intelligent strategy, meaningful design, and brand authenticity. Think a brand can’t illicit emotion? Think again. Whether starting from scratch with a new identity, refreshing a brand, or starting again with a brand redesign, your brand is your very first critical touchpoint with your audience and your opportunity to begin building an emotional connection with them. Do it right. Always. That’s how we roll.
Our Branding Services
Brand Audit & Competitive Analysis
Want a professional opinion on how your brand measures up in the marketplace? We’ve got you. We’ll take a look at the status quo and evaluate your brand with an eye toward its longevity.
Naming
Whether you’re looking for help naming a startup, have a brand that is in the midst of an identity crisis, or have a subbrand that needs to live in harmony with its parent brand, we can help.
Logo Design & Development
This is the really fun stuff. Starting with strategy, we’ll help build your brand from the ground up, getting you the assets you need to pave the way for future marketing success.
Brand Refresh & Redesign Work
Whether it’s light brand update to keep your business current or a full redesign with thoughtful strategy behind it, this is not our first rodeo.
Brand Guideline Development
Your logo is just the tip of the branding iceberg. We consider color palette, typography, fonts, iconography, ton of voice, contextual brand application, and so much more all wrapped up in one fantastic brand guideline document.
Marketing Guidelines
Need to next-level your brand guidelines so that your internal team has ground rules for how to use the brand in your marketing in print ads, digital banners, outdoor advertising, and beyond? we can do that, too.
Our Branding Process
Listen
Listening is an essential part of all that we do. We are an agency started by an account service professional so relationships are of primary importance to us. We begin every branding project with a kickoff meeting that gets us on the same page. We’ll cover your history, your values, your culture, your objectives, and so much more. We might be nerds but we love these branding kickoffs. They take us down some interesting and informative rabbit holes that provide insight that will be important to the branding process.
Research
Research
Most Stout Heart branding projects include interviews with both internal stakeholders and customers. We like to get a variety of perspectives so that we understand as many perspectives on your brand as possible. We also conduct a competitive analysis and, if budget allows, we’re always in favor of qualitative research (focus groups, surveys, etc.) to ensure that we have all the insight we can get as we move into the creative process.
Strategize
Strategize
It’s easy to write off a creative brief as an unnecessary bit of housekeeping but it is the most important tool for clearly outlining the strategy behind a brand and keeping everyone on the same page. Our team writes a creative brief for every brand we develop based on our listening and research. Our client (you?!) then signs off on this brief before we begin design. Every word is important in a creative brief and we build ours carefully.
Create
Create
We know, this is the part you’ve been waiting for. It’s the pretty part. The fun step. And we agree. In our first creative presentation, you’ll see at least three viable logo options and together we’ll refine one until it exactly reflects what the creative brief has outlined. We’ll also begin fleshing out your brand’s color palette, typography, and any other important details needed to bring it to life.
Support
Support
Brand guidelines- the law of the branding land. Here, we set rules down on paper for how your brand should be used. The brand guideline document is imperative for many reasons, not the least of which is ensuring that no matter who the designer is- Stout Heart, a freelancer, an in-house designer, you- the final product looks and feels like it came from the same place. A unified brand is a happy brand. We promise.
Extend
Extend
Inevitably, any project that touches your brand will have a ripple effect. If you changed a logo, you’ll need to review all marketing materials and make sure that they follow your new guidelines. If you’re a startup, you’ll probably have projects waiting in the wings (signage? labels? website?). This is our chance to roll your brand out in style and we’d love to help.
