A consistent visual identity across every medium

A logo is not an identity. What makes a brand recognisable comes down to a handful of decisions, applied without exception.

Inès Neifar

Founder and managing director

Published on: March 31, 2026
min read: 7 min read

In short

A consistent visual identity rests on five decisions applied everywhere: a limited colour palette with defined roles, at most two type families, a regular spacing system, a constant photographic treatment and strict logo usage rules. Recognition does not come from the logo but from the repetition of these elements. A brand becomes identifiable when a publication is recognised before the name appears. On the web these decisions must additionally hold in two display contexts, light and dark, which often means adapting accent colours rather than reproducing them identically. The simplest test is to hide the logo on three recent publications: if they remain identifiable, the identity works, and if not, one of the five decisions is missing.

The logo is not the identity

Many companies invest in a logo then leave everything else to chance: each document a different typeface, each post a different shade of blue, each photo a different treatment.

The result: the brand is recognisable only when the logo is visible. That is, too late.

The five decisions

A palette, with roles. Not "our colours", but: this is the action colour, this the background, this the secondary text. A colour without a role ends up used anywhere.

Two type families at most. One for headings, one for body text.

A spacing rhythm. Margins and gaps follow a regular scale. It is consciously invisible and immediately perceptible.

A constant photographic treatment. Heterogeneous photos destroy consistency faster than any colour mistake.

Logo usage rules. Clear space, minimum size, approved versions, forbidden backgrounds. And above all: never redraw the logo or recompose its gradients by hand.

The web case

A modern site displays in light and dark modes. An accent colour readable on a dark background can become unreadable on white, and vice versa.

Good practice defines roles — action colour, surface colour, text colour — and assigns different values per theme, checking real contrast ratios. That is the method applied on this site.

Making it last

An identity holds only if it is tooled: ready-made templates for publications, reusable components on the site, source files accessible to the team.

That is what we deliver in our creative and content projects, and what the back-office maintains without technical intervention.

The simple test

Hide the logo on three recent publications. If they remain identifiable, the identity works. If not, one of the five decisions is missing — see also our editorial line and our case studies.

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