Design a contemporary brand identity to Brand New's standard: a custom or heavily-customized logotype (not an off-the-shelf face used plain), a small defined color system built around one or two accent colors against white or black, and a full system of lockups/applications rather than a single mark. The visual language itself should be driven by the client's actual strategic position — state what problem the identity solves before choosing how it looks. Target mood: clean, confident, professional, and considered — avoid decoration that doesn't trace back to a rationale.
Sourced from the Brand New blog (plus BP&O and Identity Designed). 14,905 archive entries (Substrate collection: brand-identity) — by far the largest collection in the archive, larger than every other collection combined. Almost entirely 2006–2026, weighted toward the present. This is a curatorial quality bar for contemporary branding, not one visual style — the range runs from museums to biotech to car-trading platforms to record labels. Read this brief for the recognizable patterns and the standard, not a fixed look.
What "Brand New-caliber" actually means
Every real example in the archive follows the same underlying move regardless of industry: a considered new logotype or mark, a defined color and type system (not just a single asset), and a rationale connecting the visual decisions back to the client's actual positioning — not decoration for its own sake. The write-ups consistently frame the identity as solving a specific strategic problem (a car-trading platform needing to feel fast and decisive; a florist network needing to feel modern but trustworthy) rather than as a purely aesthetic exercise.
Palette
Overwhelmingly presented on white or black grounds (#ffffff/#000000 dominate by a wide margin) with one or two brand-specific accent colors layered on top — there is no fixed "Brand New palette," because the accent is the brand. The white-ground convention is presentation discipline (clean case-study photography), not necessarily the delivered brand's own primary context.
Type
Custom or heavily-customized logotypes are the norm rather than an off-the-shelf typeface applied as-is — logotype (2,954) and logo-design/logodesign/brand-design together account for thousands of tag occurrences. Where a supporting typeface is chosen, it's treated as part of a full system (headline face + text face + a defined type scale), not a single decorative choice.
Composition
Identity-system thinking: a primary mark, a set of approved lockups/variations, and defined usage rules — identity-system (534) and corporate-identity (382) are both heavy co-tags. Presentation itself follows a recognizable case-study format: brand rationale first, then the mark, then applications (packaging, signage, digital, merchandise) shown in context.
Motifs & materials
Recurring genres worth knowing rather than a fixed visual motif: sports branding is a large, distinct thread (390 occurrences — team/league/event identities), retail and packaging (283/808) is another major current, and rebranding specifically (265) — an existing brand being modernized rather than a new one being built from nothing — is common enough to be its own case-study format (before/after, rationale for the change).
Mood
Clean, modern, bold, classic, professional, playful, sophisticated, reliable — genuinely coherent across the whole collection despite the visual heterogeneity. Whatever the industry, the target register is confident and considered, never amateurish or undecided.
Reference points
- New Logo and Identity for National Year of Reading 2026 by Fold7Design — a government/nonprofit-adjacent identity built around a clear behavioral goal (get people reading again) rather than a product
- New Logo and Identity for Bloomnet by Goodside — a B2B network rebrand (florist supply chain) aimed at feeling modern without losing trust — a good template for "legacy institution modernizing" briefs
Archive texture
branding (9,799) and logotype (2,954) are the two heaviest tags by a wide margin over anything else in this entire archive, across all 14 collections — this confirms the collection's real center of gravity is logotype-led identity systems specifically, not branding in the broadest sense (packaging-only or campaign-only work is present but secondary).
Be Data as it May
Norfolk Coast
So… da’lightful
Who knew a spiral could do so much? Pentagram did, in this joyful Tokyo museum identity
JKR overhauls football club Sporting CP by doing what it does best : plundering heritage to build a robustly simple, contemporary brand identity
Mountainview Brewing
New Logo and Identity for Nortiva by Goal and Orchestra
Koto breathes new life into Floridian arts institution The Norton
LiveKit
