Most growing companies buy their brand in pieces. A logo from one designer, a website from a developer, a promo video from an editor, flyers from whoever is available that week. Each supplier does reasonable work. The trouble is the joins. The website uses a slightly different green. The video ignores the type. The flyer stretches the logo. After a year the company looks like four vendors made it, because four vendors did.
I started this studio in 2020, as The A’ Kompany, to work the other way. Identity, website, print and film come from the same people, so every touchpoint feels like the same company. That only works if the process is clear, so here it is, step by step.
Discover
Every project starts with a free call. Then we research the business, its audience and its competitors, and draw a mind map. The mind map is not a formality. It is where we find the ideas the rest of the project draws on, like the turtle and the spark in the Triple C identity.
Discovery usually takes the first week. It ends with an itemised proposal, so you know the scope and the timeline before any work starts.
Direction
Next come moodboards and stylescapes, so we agree on the feeling before we draw. A stylescape shows type, colour, imagery and texture together, roughly as they might appear on a website, a poster and a pack. It is much cheaper to change direction here than after a logo has been approved.
For a website, direction is also where we agree the structure: which pages exist, what each one has to do and what your team will want to update without help. Settling that early stops a site from growing pages nobody planned.
Design
Sketches become a system: mark, colour, type, pattern and applications. This is where the identity is built and tested on the places it will live. For IAO Pharma that meant a reception wall, signage, livery, uniforms and an exhibition stand, all designed as part of the identity rather than after it.
Build and produce
Then we make the things: the website, the print files, the shoots and the edits, with progress you can see. Because the same team designed the system, the website is built from the same palette and type, and the film uses the same graphic language. Our websites are built in WordPress with Bricks, on clean structures your team can edit without calling a developer.
This is where one team pays off most. A motion designer who sat in the identity reviews does not need a style guide to know how the logo should move. The IAO logo animation and brand showcase film came out of the same system as the brochure and the van.
Launch and hand over
At launch you get the final files, brand guidelines, logins and a short training session. We teach what we make, so the brand stays consistent after we step back. For Carlos Pharmaceuticals the handover included design training for the team who produce everyday materials in-house.
Grow
After launch there are care plans, campaigns and content when you need them. Some clients come back for a single campaign. Others keep us on a monthly plan. Either way, the people who made the brand are the people who extend it. Because we keep the source files and the guidelines we wrote, a new campaign starts from the system instead of a blank page.
How long it takes
Every proposal confirms its own timeline, but these are the typical ranges.
- Brand identity: 2 to 6 weeks.
- Website: 6 to 10 weeks.
- Campaigns and video: 1 to 4 weeks.
Payment is 70% to start and 30% before launch. Care plans and retainers are monthly.
What one team changes
The obvious benefit is consistency. The less obvious one is speed. When the person editing your film already knows why the brand uses two colours and not three, there is no briefing document to write and no round of corrections when the first cut ignores the palette. Decisions made once carry through.
It also changes who you talk to. You have one point of contact, clear review rounds and updates on WhatsApp or email, wherever you are. We work remotely with clients and agencies abroad, on West Africa Time, and the studio answers around the clock.
You can still hire us for one thing. Many clients start with a logo, a website or a single film and add more as they grow. But if you are building something you intend to lead with, it helps to have it made by people who see the whole picture.
