[ Services · Branding ]
Branding for hardware
that lives on the object.
The name, the identity and the livery, drawn for the surfaces your product really has, then handed over as a system anyone can apply.
Most identities are drawn on a white page and applied to the product afterwards. We take five decisions first, in writing, then draw the symbol, wordmark, palette and type for the fin, the flank, the box and the screen they will live on. You decide twice, and you get back a documented system with its source files, so a printer or a molder applies it without calling us.
Read the object
01Symbol on the finTwo crossed spars, born from the silhouette of the aircraft seen head on. Drawn on a grid, it holds down to favicon size.
02Roundel on the flankOne of the four roundels of the system, set for three grounds, photography included, so the mark stays legible wherever it lands.
03Registration in the systemThe registration is part of the graphic system, it was not laid on top of it. That is the difference between a brand designed for the object and a logo applied afterwards.
04The truss as graphicsThe open truss under the tail is picked out in lime: the livery schemes each used it as part of the graphics.
[ The short answer ]
What is branding
for a hardware product?
Branding for a hardware product is the name, the identity and the rules that put them on the object itself, its fin, its box, its screen, so the brand is designed for the product rather than applied to it afterwards.
A logo is the visible end of a set of decisions. We take the decisions first, in writing: who the product speaks to and what it is compared against, what the brand may claim and will never claim, the vocabulary and the proofs it accepts, the visual territory, and the rules that make it reproducible. Then we draw.
For hardware, the drawing is tested on surfaces a screen brand never meets. The eXalt symbol had to hold at favicon size and on the fin of an aircraft; the Toutoucan toucan had to read at sixteen pixels and on a shopfront, then reach a customer's door printed on a carton.
What the work produces is a framing document, an identity drawn on its grid, a palette with its print and screen codes, the applications on the object and its packaging, and a guide with the source files. It stands on its own, or runs beside the industrial design when we also design the product.
The words, defined
- Brand identity
- A brand identity is the set of visual elements that make a brand recognizable, its symbol, wordmark, palette and type, drawn so they are reproduced the same way everywhere.
- Lockup
- A lockup is the fixed arrangement of the symbol and the wordmark together, with their spacing and proportions set once.
- Livery
- A livery is the set of colors and graphics a brand applies to a vehicle or a product, on its real surfaces: a fin, a flank, a fuselage.
- Brand guide
- A brand guide, or brand guidelines, is the document that sets the rules of an identity, its construction, colors with their print and screen codes, type and applications, so a third party can apply it without asking.
- Naming
- Naming is the work of finding the name of a product or a company, a name that then has to clear a trademark search before it is used.
[ One identity, six surfaces ]
How does one identity hold
from 16 pixels to a fuselage?
By being drawn for both ends of the scale at once. The same eXalt symbol had to read in a browser tab and on a 5.58 m aircraft, on light grounds, dark grounds and photographs, in print and on screen. Here it is, surface by surface, with the rule that made each one work.
eXalt Aircraft came to us in 2017 with no symbol, no palette and no vocabulary. A light aircraft manufacturer whose buyers compare machines and manufacturers long before they compare brands needed the credibility of a builder without any history to lean on. We built the whole thing, from the field of inspiration to a printed guide of 34 pages.
One language then held on a website, a trade show stand, a technical dossier and a livery, without the discussion having to reopen. A favicon is the small icon a browser shows in its tab, sixteen pixels square.
The construction of the symbol Grid
The construction
What the surface asks
That anyone, anywhere, redraws the mark identically.
What the system answers
The symbol is drawn on a grid, with its proportions and its control points. Two crossed spars, born from the silhouette of the aircraft seen head on.
The variants: four roundels, three grounds 16 px
The browser tab
What the surface asks
That the mark survives the smallest place it will ever live.
What the system answers
It holds down to favicon size. Four roundels and three grounds, photography included, keep it legible wherever it lands.
The lockups and the palette Page
The lockups and the palette
What the surface asks
That the name and the symbol always sit together the same way, on light and on dark.
What the system answers
The lockups fix the symbol and the wordmark together, on a light ground and a dark one. The palette sets an acid green, Green Lizard, against two deep blues, and every color carries a name, an intention and its print and screen codes.
The visual identity board Board
One language, many media
What the surface asks
That one language holds on very different media without the discussion reopening.
What the system answers
The identity board gathers the field of inspiration, the symbol studies, the palette, the type and the lockups. That language held on a website, a trade show stand, a technical dossier and a livery.
The printed guide, 34 pages 34 pages
The printed guide
What the surface asks
That the printer, the agency and the next designer apply it without calling us.
What the system answers
The system went into a printed guide of 34 pages, so the people who apply it after us work from written rules rather than from memory.
The livery board: twelve schemes on the side view 5.58 m
The aircraft
What the surface asks
That the brand belongs to the aircraft rather than being stuck on it.
What the system answers
Livery boards tried twelve schemes in white, navy, lime and blue on the side view, each using the open truss as part of the graphics, and the corporate livery was drawn for the fuselage, wings and tailplane: symbol on the fin, wordmark on the cowling, roundel on the flank, registration inside the system.
The six surfaces, and what each one asks of the mark
[ The framing ]
Which decisions come
before the logo?
Five decisions come before anything is drawn: the positioning, the claims line, the brand platform, the visual territory and the rules of the system. Each one forbids and permits something on the object, and each one lands somewhere you can point at.
The framing is a named deliverable, at the same rank as the identity, and it comes before it. Brand work that starts from a symbol reasons backwards, which is why the arguments end up not lining up with the packaging. Here the right hand column says where each decision lands; a decision that landed nowhere would be visible at once.
[ The process ]
How does a branding project run,
and where do you decide?
In six steps, and you decide in two of them: you choose the direction at the end of the territories, and you validate the system before the guide is laid out. Between those two points we work from one person's consolidated feedback.
The path opens deliberately onto several tracks, closes onto a single direction, then locks into a system a third party can apply without us. It is the same path for every brand we build.
Market analysis
We read the market ourselves: what the product is compared against and how the brands around it speak. You bring whatever exists already, even if you consider it wrong, and one hour with whoever decides.
You getThe reading the framing starts from
Strategy and framing
The five decisions, written: positioning, claims line, brand platform, visual territory, rules of the system. It is the document you approve before anything is drawn.
You getThe framing document
Territories
Several directions explored in parallel and shown side by side. You choose one. The ones set aside are not lost: they are what made the decision possible.
You getOne direction, retained
Identity
The retained direction becomes a symbol, a wordmark, lockups and a palette, each drawn on a grid with its proportions and control points.
You getThe identity and its construction
Brand system
Patterns, layouts, applications and rules, landed on the object, the packaging, the textile and the screen. You validate the system before the guide is laid out.
You getThe applications, landed
Guide
The documented system, its source files and its rules of use. Any provider picks it up after us and stays on brand without asking.
You getThe guide and the source files
What the calendar asks of you: the name, if it is settled at the start, then consolidated feedback from a single person. That single voice is what keeps a brand coherent when five people each pull one element.
[ Naming and packaging ]
What changes when the brand
arrives in a box?
When a product sells online, the first physical contact with the brand is the box, so the box is designed as a medium, with the card slipped inside it, rather than as neutral packaging. Toutoucan, a Canadian online pet shop we named and drew, is the case.
Everything had to be created: the name, the symbol, the system. An online pet shop facing established chains, on a bilingual site, with a brand that has to work in two places at once, on the screen of a shop and on a parcel delivered to a door. Packaging design is the design of the box a product travels and sells in, treated as a surface of the brand rather than as a container.
01Named and drawn
The name, the symbol and the commercial signature were created together, from pencil sketches of the bird to the vector mark, then set as one system before anything was printed.
The directions
Two directions presented, one developed. The one set aside is not lost: it is what made the decision possible.
The symbol
A toucan built from continuous strokes and closed surfaces, drawn by hand then vectorized. It reads at sixteen pixels and on a shopfront.
The name
A name, a symbol and a commercial signature launched together, in a market where the brand is the only asset left once the promotion ends.
02Landed at the door
Selling happens online, so the first physical surface of the brand is the parcel: the carton on the doorstep, the card inside it, and then the shop on screen where the next order starts.
On the carton
The box carries a message, not only a logo: it is the first time the customer holds the brand, so it speaks before it is opened.
Inside the parcel
The cards slipped inside pick up the same visual direction, so the parcel reads as one brand from the lid to the last card.
On screen
The shop runs today on this identity, applied by their own team: symbol, palette and illustration direction, exactly as they were delivered.
[ What you get back ]
What do you get at the end
of a branding project?
A documented brand system, the source files behind it and the rules that make it reproducible by someone other than us. Not a presentation, and not a folder of logos. Each piece arrives in the file formats the people who apply it already use.
The framing document
The five decisions, written, with what each one fixes and where it lands.
PDFThe identity and its construction
Symbol and wordmark drawn on their grid, with proportions, control points and safety zone.
AI . SVG . EPS . PNGThe palette and the type system
Named colors with print and screen codes, and the type families with their fixed uses.
HEX . RGB . CMYK . font filesThe applications
The brand landed on the object, the packaging, the textile and the screen, so nobody has to guess.
PDF . working filesThe guide and the source files
A printed and digital guide, plus the working files, so a third party can apply it without us.
Printed . PDF . working filesAnd then you are not held by us
Editable files, named fonts, coded colors. Your printer, your agency, your next designer picks the system up and applies it without calling us. If they have to call, the system is not finished.
[ Is it the right step? ]
When is branding
the right next step?
Branding is the right step when the product has, or is about to have, real surfaces for a brand to live on and nobody has decided yet what goes on them. It is the wrong one while the product itself is still undecided.
Start with branding when
- The product exists or is being designed, and there is no name, no symbol and no vocabulary yet.
- The brand will live on the object itself: a fin, a housing, a textile, a box.
- Several hands will apply the brand after us: a molder, a printer, a textile supplier, an agency.
- You sell online, and the box is the first time a customer touches the brand.
- You have a mark that works but is undocumented, and you need the system that makes it reproducible.
Start with another service when
- The shape of the product is not set yet. On eXalt the livery was drawn once the shape was set.
Industrial design → - You need images of a product that is not built yet, for a campaign page or for investors.
Rendering and animation → - You are still deciding what to build, for whom and at what price.
Product strategy → - You want to see the whole path from idea to launch before choosing a step.
The product development guide →
[ Why ONMOTIO ]
Why work with ONMOTIO
on a hardware brand?
Because the people who draw the brand also design the object it lands on, and they hand over a system built to work without them.
ONMOTIO is a team of nine: designers, mechanical engineers, electronics specialists and branding people, designing and engineering hardware since 2017, with 150+ projects and 50+ products shipped. About us →
The same team designs the object
Where we also design the product, the two reinforce each other, because the same team decides what the object shows and what the brand claims. The brand engagement still stands on its own and is priced on its own.
You decide twice, not constantly
Once at the end of the territories, once at the end of the system. Between those two points we work, from one person's consolidated feedback.
It has to work without us
The test of a brand system is whether a supplier, a printer or another agency produces something correct from it without a call. That is what the guide is for.
We can start from nothing
eXalt came with no symbol, no palette and no vocabulary; Toutoucan came without a name. Both left with a mark, a system and the rules to run it, and the Toutoucan shop runs on its identity today, applied by their own team.
Landed before it is called done
A brand is judged where it lands, so we land it on the fin, the flank, the carton, the card and the screen before the guide is laid out, and you validate it there rather than on a white page.
Shown only once it is public
We keep the right to show the work in our portfolio, and we do not show it until you have made the brand public yourself.
[ Questions ]
Questions founders ask
about branding.
Open a question to read its answer. Something else? Ask us on a call.
What is branding for a hardware product?
Branding for a hardware product is the name, the identity and the rules that put them on the object itself, its fin, its box, its screen, so the brand is designed for the product rather than applied to it afterwards. We take five decisions first, in writing, then draw the identity for the surfaces the product really has, and hand it over as a guide with its source files.
Do you do branding without the product design?
Yes. Several of the brands we have built came to us as brand work first, with the product already made or made elsewhere. Where we also design the product the two reinforce each other, because the same team decides what the object shows and what the brand claims, but the brand engagement stands on its own and is priced on its own.
What if we already have a logo?
Then the work is usually a rebrand, or a system built on top of what you already have. A mark that works and is simply undocumented is kept, and what gets built around it is the frame that makes it reproducible. Starting over is a decision we put to you with reasons, not a default.
Do you do naming?
As an option, and only where the name is genuinely open. Naming is the work of finding the name of a product or a company, a name that then has to clear a trademark search before it is used. Naming is its own exercise with its own risk, including a trademark search we do not run ourselves, so it is quoted separately rather than folded into the identity.
What is a livery, and can you design one?
A livery is the set of colors and graphics a brand applies to a vehicle or a product, on its real surfaces: a fin, a flank, a fuselage. Yes: for the eXalt SOLO, livery boards tried twelve schemes on the side view of the aircraft, and the corporate livery was drawn for the fuselage, wings and tailplane, with the registration inside the system. The eXalt Aircraft case study →
What is a brand guide, and who uses it?
A brand guide, or brand guidelines, is the document that sets the rules of an identity, its construction, colors with their print and screen codes, type and applications, so a third party can apply it without asking. It exists so a molder, a printer or a textile supplier produces something conforming without calling us. We size it on how many hands will touch the brand; eXalt's runs to 34 printed pages.
Does the packaging count as part of the brand?
Yes, and for a product sold online it is often the first physical contact. Packaging design is the design of the box a product travels and sells in, treated as a surface of the brand rather than as a container. For Toutoucan the shipping box carries a message, not only a logo, and the cards slipped inside pick up the same visual direction.
How many rounds of revision are there?
You decide at two points: the direction at the end of the territories, and the system before the guide is laid out. Between those two points we work from consolidated feedback given by one person. That single voice is not an administrative preference, it is what keeps a brand coherent when five people each pull one element.
Should the brand come before or after the product design?
Either works, as long as the framing comes before the identity. On eXalt the identity was built in 2017, and the livery was drawn once the shape of the aircraft was set, during its color, material and finish work. An identity built on an unsettled positioning gets redrawn, so we do not start drawing before the framing is approved.
Who owns the brand and its files?
You do. Under our contract the intellectual property in everything we produce for the project, source files included, is transferred to you once the invoices are paid. We keep the right to show the work in our portfolio, and we do not show it until you have made the brand public yourself.
What do you need from us to start?
The name if it is settled, whatever exists already even if you consider it wrong, and one hour with whoever decides. We do the market reading ourselves. The framing document comes out of that first pass, and it is the thing you approve before anything is drawn.
[ Next step ]
Have a product
that needs a brand?
Tell us what the product is and where the brand will live: the object, the box, the screen. A first call takes thirty minutes and costs nothing; you leave it with a view on the next step.