BRANDING
Position, language and a mark tested against the real thing, then handed over as a system a team can actually run.
AN IDENTITYWITHweight.
PlayLab builds brand systems: naming, positioning, identity, type and motion, delivered as a working system with the digital surfaces already built in it rather than as a static guidelines PDF.
Most identity work is a deck. Ours is built against the real thing — the product screen, the film frame, the invoice — because that is where a brand either holds its shape or quietly gives up.
Positioning and naming
The sentence the company is actually about, and a name that can carry it without a tagline propping it up.
Identity system
Wordmark, type, colour, grid and image rules — a small number of decisions, made properly, that hold everywhere.
Motion grammar
How the brand moves. Cuts, easing, weight. A brand that only exists as a static PDF is half a brand.
Art direction
Ongoing direction of image, film and interface so year two still looks like the same company as launch week.
NO MOODBOARDSPRESENTED ASSTRATEGY.
Interrogate
Founders, customers, competitors and the actual product. We look for the uncomfortable truth worth building on.
Language
Name, voice, the sentences the company will repeat for years. Words before marks.
Mark and system
Logotype, type system, colour, grid, motion — designed as one instrument, tested on the ugliest real use case.
Apply
Site, product surfaces, decks, film titles. The identity is proven by application, not by a specimen sheet.
Arm the team
Guidelines that are short enough to read and files that are easy to use, so the brand survives us.
NO DECK.NO PITCHTHEATRE.
- Identity engagement, often with a site
- 6 – 14 weeks
- A founders' session
- What is included in a brand system?
Positioning and voice, the mark and its lockups, a type and colour system, motion behaviour, and applied surfaces — usually including the site — so the system is proven on real material before handover.
- Do you do naming?
Yes, when the project needs it. Naming runs alongside positioning rather than after it, because a name only works when the argument behind it is settled.
- Can you rebrand an existing company?
Yes. Most of our identity work is a re-set for a company that has outgrown its first mark, which means the migration path matters as much as the mark.