Ella's take on branding
Brand is way more than a logo: why strategy comes first
If you've ever searched how to build a brand, you've probably found dozens of articles telling you to design a logo, choose a color palette, create a website, and define your target audience. While all these elements are important, they only scratch the surface of what branding really is. A brand is not your logo. It is not your typography, your colour palette, or your website. A brand is the feeling people associate with your business. It is the story they remember, the emotion they experience, and the reason they choose you over someone else. This is why branding should always begin with strategy rather than design. Before thinking about a visual identity, you need to understand what your business stands for, who your audience is, and most importantly, what you want people to feel when they encounter your brand. The strongest brands are built around meaning. Think about brands like Harley-Davidson or Nike. Their products are excellent, but what truly sets them apart is the emotional connection they create. Harley-Davidson represents freedom. Nike represents ambition, determination, and the belief that you can push yourself further. People don't simply buy motorcycles or trainers. They buy into a story that reflects who they are or who they aspire to become.
Every great brand begins with research
We believe that building a brand starts long before we design a logo. Every project begins with a deep analysis. We explore the business, its history, its competitors, its audience, and the culture surrounding it. Sometimes inspiration comes from architecture, history, nature, or even science. The goal is to discover an existing story and give it a voice and a platform. When we create a brand, we are creating emotional associations that are relevant to both the business and the people it wants to reach. A memorable is different because it communicates something meaningful that no competitor can easily replicate.
Branding in practice: two real examples
One example of this approach is our work with Saša Tenodi, Croatia's only NLP trainer with the original license. Rather than starting with a visual identity, we began by asking the right questions through a brand workshop. Those conversations helped us define his brand strategy, structure his services, and identify the core idea behind his work: empowering people through the right questions and the right answers. From that strategic foundation, we developed the brand story, messaging, slogan, and visual identity. Even the logo was designed around the hidden number ten, a symbol of expertise that reflected both his name and his methodology. The visual identity became the natural expression of a story that had already been clearly defined.
Another rebrand was Croatia's largest tomato producer. At first glance, the business was known for growing premium tomatoes, but we wanted to understand what truly made it different. Through research, we discovered that the tomatoes were grown naturally without pesticides, pollinated by more than 10,000 bumblebees, and cultivated in Sveta Nedjelja, a place whose name carries heavenly associations in Croatian culture. Those insights became the foundation of the brand. The name Rajska, meaning “from paradise,” reflected both the origin of the tomatoes and the Croatian word rajčica. The slogan, “Scent of summer, taste of paradise,” was inspired by the nostalgic feeling of picking fresh tomatoes on warm summer days. Every element of the visual identity, from the illustrations to the packaging, was created to reinforce that story. Instead of simply designing a new look, we built a brand that connected people with a feeling, making the product memorable long before they took their first bite.
Design brings the strategy to life
This is why copying another brand rarely works. You can imitate a logo, a website, or even a product, but you cannot copy the emotional connection people have with a brand. Once the strategic foundation has been established, we move on to building the brand identity. This is where the visual identity begins to take shape. The logo, typography, colours, photography, and every other visual element should reinforce the story rather than replace it. Design is a way of expressing the personality and positioning of the brand. Of course, even the strongest strategy and the most beautiful identity are meaningless without consistency. Every interaction with your audience contributes to how your brand is perceived. Your website, your social media, your packaging, your emails, and every conversation with a customer should communicate the same values and personality. Consistency is what transforms recognition into trust.
The brands people remember
Quality also plays a crucial role. Branding cannot compensate for a poor product or service. A successful brand starts with something genuinely valuable. Branding helps people understand why that value matters and why they should choose it over every other option on the market. Building a brand is about understanding people. It is about discovering what inspires them, what motivates them, and what they want to say about themselves through the brands they choose. The best brands become part of a person's identity because they communicate something bigger than the product itself. In the end, people rarely remember every detail of a business. They remember how it made them feel. That is why the strongest brands are built on strategy, emotion, authenticity, and consistency. A logo may catch someone's attention, but a meaningful story is what earns their trust and keeps them coming back.
Ella Katherine Orešković
