Branding and logo

Branding and logo design

No logo yet, or one you've outgrown? We'll make your brand with you: a logo, colours and type that fit your business, ready for your website and everything after it.

Let's talk Open our brand kit
  • Made with you Your business, your say
  • Yours to keep Every file is yours on handover
  • Ready for the web Made alongside your website
Our mark, the Arabic word درب, on its construction grid.
A bone mug with the درب mark and its path wrapped round it An enamel street plate reading Darb Creative on a brick wall The app icon: the mark in bone on Klein blue A canvas tote bag with the path running up to the handle A blue wax seal with the mark on a kraft envelope Two caps, blue and black, stitched with the mark

We made our own brand the same way.

The clearest way to show you what a brand kit holds is to open ours. Everything here is Darb Creative's own brand, from the first drawing to the mug on the desk. Yours will look nothing like it, because it starts from your business, not ours.

  1. 01

    The mark

    Our logo is the Arabic word درب, which means path. It's a custom logo made from Arabic letters, and it has one move: the bowl of the bā stretches, like a road getting longer.

    Every brand needs a main logo and a small one. Ours shrinks to the dāl alone for the browser tab and the app icon.

    Main mark
    Small mark
    A phone home screen with the Darb app icon A browser tab with the small mark as its icon, under a magnifying glass
  2. 02

    Colour

    Three colours do the everyday work: Klein blue for the brand and the one action that matters on a page, bone for paper, ink for words. A loud orange is kept for launch days.

    Each season gets a guest colour for a while, then hands it back. Every pairing is checked for contrast, so the words stay readable.

    • Klein blue#1F2BD6The brand
    • Bone#EFEBE3Paper
    • Ink#111111Words
    • Ground#DCD8D1The page
    • The loud one#FF5A1FLaunch days
    • Spring lilac
    • Summer saffron
    • Autumn madder
    • Winter cedar
  3. 03

    Type

    Dela Gothic One for headings: one heavy weight, where size does the work. Lexend for everything you read, because it stays clear at small sizes on a phone.

    Two typefaces, no more. Fewer choices make a brand easier to keep the same.

    AaDela Gothic One
    AaLexend

    Light: we build websites

    Regular: that feel yours

    Medium: made with you

    Our brand book, open at the page that shows the mark's four jobs
  4. 04

    Path and nuqta

    A path runs out of the mark and into everything we make: along a parcel tape, up a sleeve, down a corridor. The nuqta, the dot under the bā, turns up on its own as a pin or a marker.

    Small rules like these keep a brand recognisable even when the logo isn't there.

    An enamel pin of the nuqta completing the word on its backing card A painted blue path running down a corridor and up the end wall into the mark The mark and its path sprayed as a stencil on paving stones
  5. 05

    Everyday use

    Then the brand goes to work: cards, notebooks, boxes, bottles, a sign on the wall. A good kit makes all of it easy, because the decisions are already made.

    You don't need any of these on day one. You need a brand that's ready when you do.

    A floating stack of business cards in blue, bone and ink A blue cloth notebook with a foil mark, and an open copy A mailer box whose tape carries the path into the word Blue and bone steel water bottles with the path and mark Softcover pocket notebooks with a dot grid and the path

What you get

Everything you need to look like yourself, everywhere. When we do your branding and logo design, the kit comes in one box, laid out like this.

  • Colours

    A palette that fits your business and works on screen and in print.

  • Type

    Typefaces for headings and text that are easy to read on a phone.

  • A short guide

    How to use it all, on one or two pages, so your brand stays the same wherever it goes.

  • Files for everywhere

    Every file in the formats you need for your website, social media and print.

Why branding and your website together

Your website is often the first place people meet your brand. Making them together means they fit from the first page, and you only explain your business to us once.

Your website design then grows straight out of your brand: the same colours, the same type, the same feel. Our own site is the proof. The blue of its buttons, the type of its headings and the mark on its home page all come from the kit above.

Already have a website you like? We can bring a new brand into it with a website revamp.

The Darb Creative home page: We build websites that feel yours, over the bone mark on Klein blue
The Darb Creative home page on a phone

Drawn, not picked from a list

Our own mark, درب, is a custom logo made from Arabic letters. Its one move is the stretch: pull the slider and watch the bowl of the bā grow. Nothing is redrawn; the letters just make room.

We bring the same care to your logo design. Not a font with your name typed in it, and not an icon from a library, but something drawn for your business that can move, shrink and stretch without falling apart.

When we make your brand, it's yours on handover: every file, to use however you like.

Everywhere it goes.

A brand has to work away from the screen too. These are mockups of our own brand, made to test it on signs, in print and on the things people carry. Hover over one for a closer look.

A 48-sheet billboard at dusk: Bring us the idea and we will take it the rest of the way
Billboard
A transit map poster: All lines end here, with stops from Call to Launch
Station poster
An ink hoodie with the path running up the sleeve
Hoodie
A stapled zine spread showing how we work, stop by stop
Zine
The mark and path in vinyl on a studio window
Window vinyl
A wall of wheatpasted posters in orange and blue for launch day
Launch day posters
A kiss-cut sticker sheet with one sticker half peeled
Stickers
A saffron beach towel with the path and mark, the summer guest colour
Summer saffron
A lobby wall band running into the mark, with a directory and blade sign
Wayfinding
A backlit poster in a bus shelter at night
Bus shelter
A wall calendar in winter cedar green
Winter cedar
Five of our posters framed on a gallery wall
Poster set

Questions people ask.

Anything else? hello@darbcreative.com. We reply within one working day.

What if I already have a logo?

We can design your website around it, or refresh it with you if it no longer fits.

Do I own my logo?

Yes. When we make your brand, it's yours on handover, with every file.

How much does branding cost?

It depends on what you need. After the call we give you one clear price for your branding and website together, before any work starts.

Can you do my branding and my website together?

Yes, and it's the way we'd recommend. See website design.

How long does it take?

Usually two to nine weeks, depending on the size of the website.

Where next.

Ready when you are.

Tell us about your business. We reply within one working day.

Let's make yours