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).
So… da’lightful
Who knew a spiral could do so much? Pentagram did, in this joyful Tokyo museum identity
The Art of Subtle Persuasion
New Logo and Identity for Nortiva by Goal and Orchestra
Norfolk Coast
Friday Likes 577
Be Data as it May
Mountainview Brewing
JKR overhauls football club Sporting CP by doing what it does best : plundering heritage to build a robustly simple, contemporary brand identity
