Brand identity & logo — a consistent brand, not a lone file
A decent logo dropped on a badly proportioned business card, a storefront sign in roughly the right colours, and a Facebook page that looks like nothing else: that's how a small business starts looking smaller than it is. NEXUS AGENCE designs a logo, but above all the system around it — palette, typography, templates, usage guide — so your business is recognizable everywhere, from a phone screen to the lettering on the truck.
Creative directions · logo variants · palette & typography · templates · SVG and PNG files · $500, $1,200, $1,500 packages
The logo
A small-business logo is judged on three things: does it read at 12 mm on a business card, does it hold up in a single colour when the printer only has one, and will it still look like your trade ten years from now. The work therefore happens in three steps, and you see the result of each one before moving to the next.
After the discovery call, NEXUS AGENCE first writes down what the logo has to say — industry, customers, tone, words to avoid — then draws two or three clearly distinct directions: for example a sober typographic route, an emblem route with a symbol, and a more handcrafted route. Each one is presented as a black-and-white sketch, with no styling, precisely so that you choose an idea rather than a colour effect.
The chosen direction is then properly built: stroke weights, optical alignment of the letters, spacing, balance between the symbol and the name. This is the invisible step that separates an amateur mark from a credible one. Two rounds of revisions are included — you comment once, NEXUS AGENCE applies the changes and explains the trade-offs when a request hurts legibility.
A single logo is useless: every medium imposes its own format. So you get the full set — a horizontal version for the header, a stacked version for square signs, the symbol alone for avatars and the favicon, a one-colour version for embroidery and engraving, and a white reversed version for dark backgrounds. Each variant is drawn by hand in the file, never squeezed automatically.
Palette & typography
Recognition comes from repetition. If your storefront is navy blue, your invoice light blue and your Facebook page mint green, you don't have a brand: you have three businesses. The job of the palette and typography stage is exactly to lock those choices in, once and for all.
One primary colour, one accent, one dark neutral and one light neutral: enough to dress a website, a card and a sign, few enough to stay memorable. Every shade ships with its three usage codes — HEX for the web, RGB for screens, CMYK for the printer — because a screen blue never prints as-is. The site's near-black background, #070b11, also serves as a reference point for checking that text stays readable.
Two families are enough: one for headings, one for body text. The choice accounts for how the typeface holds up at small sizes, for French accents — the É and the à are often badly drawn — and for licensing, since a paid font used on the web without the rights is a problem that always shows up at the worst moment. No font is fetched from an external server, which avoids pointless network requests and keeps the page fast.
Text/background pairs are checked against recognized contrast thresholds before they are written into the guide, not after the first client complains about squinting. Minimum text sizes and colour rules — never let colour alone carry information — are spelled out in black and white. This stage ties directly into web performance and local SEO best practices, both of which depend on a readable page.
Templates & applications
A logo placed in the wrong spot, too close to the edge or on a busy photo, loses its credibility instantly. That's why every identity delivered by NEXUS AGENCE comes with templates ready to fill in, rather than a single file that every printer reinterprets their own way.
A double-sided layout prepared for the printer: bleed, safety margin, contact details aligned on the brand grid, and a Quebec-ready check — 438 area code, postal code, accents. The file goes to the printer untouched and comes back with no nasty surprise.
A high-legibility version designed to be read from a distance, with proportions suited to a neighbourhood storefront: lettering wide enough, strong contrast against the facade, and the city and lease constraints taken into account. The vector file is supplied in the format the sign manufacturer expects.
A truck or a van is a poster in motion: the brand has to stay legible in the rear-view mirror, on both sides and at the back. The template accounts for body curves, door handles and trim, and includes the monochrome version that some vinyl cutters require.
Square avatar, banner, post format and a matching email signature: the files are cut to the right dimensions so the profile doesn't look improvised. The signature is supplied as simple HTML, with no heavy image and no script, so it displays correctly for everyone.
Invoice header, quote, work order and letterhead all follow the same grid. A client who receives a clear, recognizable invoice pays more willingly than one who receives a default Word document — and your bookkeeping gains consistency too.
T-shirts, vests, trade-show banners and stickers: the one-colour version is prepared for embroidery and vinyl, with the required minimum stroke weights respected. You can order from any local supplier without redrawing anything.
Guide & delivered files
A brand identity that stays in a folder nobody knows how to apply has achieved nothing. Delivery therefore includes the instructions and the files in the formats that printers, sign makers and web platforms actually ask for.
A short, illustrated document written to be read by an office manager or a supplier, not by a designer: which variant to use for which medium, how much clear space to keep around the logo, which minimum size never to go below, which colours to use on light and on dark backgrounds, and the list of forbidden uses — stretching, recolouring, adding a shadow, redrawing the symbol.
You receive an organized, clearly named folder with vector formats for print and bitmap formats ready for the web. SVG is the master format: it resizes without loss and can still be edited ten years from now. Transparent PNGs cover everyday use, and the site favicon is generated as part of the job.
When the identity accompanies a business website or a redesign, both are designed together: the logo colours become the stylesheet variables, the site typography is the one in the guide, and the favicon reuses the symbol. The result is no gap between the business card and the homepage — and a brand recognized from the browser tab.
Timeline & packages
Brand identity is included in the website package, which avoids paying twice for the same work: the $500 package delivers a simple, clean brand, while the higher packages add the variants, the print templates and the full guide. The right package is the one covering the media you actually use — not the most expensive one.
For a business that needs a clear brand right now, with no sign or fleet project on the table.
$500 · delivered in 5 business days
For an SME that talks to customers through paper, a storefront and social media.
$1,200 · delivered in 10 to 12 business days
For a business with a street-front location, a branded vehicle and service in both French and English.
$1,500 · delivered in 3 weeks
After delivery, maintenance at $59.99/month covers small file touch-ups — adding a variant for a new sign, rebuilding a format for a platform, updating contact details — on top of website monitoring and backup. It is optional, never imposed. Payment is 50% on order and 50% at deployment, and hosting with the domain name is included the 1st year.
Frequently asked
Two directions in the $500 package, three in the higher packages, and they are genuinely different: a typographic route, a route with a symbol, a more handcrafted one, for example. Showing ten variations of the same idea doesn't give you more choice, it just gives you a headache. Each direction is explained — why these letters, why this symbol — so the decision rests on arguments rather than a passing crush.
An organized folder with the vector SVG — the master format, the one that resizes without loss — transparent PNGs in several sizes for the web and social media, the monochrome and reversed versions for print, the site favicon, and the usage guide. Nothing is locked: the source files belong to you and you don't depend on NEXUS AGENCE to use your own brand.
Yes, and that is planned from the start rather than patched afterwards. The files are vector, so they scale to sign size without going blurry, and the one-colour versions respect the minimum stroke weights that embroidery and vinyl cutting require. The signage and vehicle templates in the higher packages save the manufacturer from interpreting your logo their own way.
That is the criterion that rules out fashion effects: complicated gradients, drop shadows, symbols built on this year's trend. The work favours a simple shape, legible small and in a single colour, that will ride out website changes and new graphic fashions. If you rebuild your site in five years, your logo won't need to be rebuilt with it.
When both are made by the same agency, yes, automatically: the logo colours become the stylesheet colours, the site typography is the one in the guide, and the favicon reuses the symbol. If your site already exists and you don't want to touch it, NEXUS AGENCE at least checks that the palette and contrast work with the pages in place before locking the guide.
Plan 5 business days for the $500 package, 10 to 12 business days for the $1,200 package and about 3 weeks for the advanced package, starting once the basic information is supplied. Two rounds of revisions are included; a complete change of direction after the retained route has been approved becomes a new assignment, and the price is stated before we start, never billed as a surprise.
Next steps
Write or call: in 20 minutes we scope the assignment, confirm the package and the timeline, and the first directions follow within days. No deposit is requested before the scope is clear and accepted.
Related services
A mockup in 48 business hours, custom design, security and speed built in from the start.
Read more →
An ageing site that loses customers: diagnosis, a new structure and a migration that keeps your search rankings.
Read more →
The details of all three packages, the monthly maintenance and everything included at delivery.
Read more →
Tommy Lafrance's Web AgencyAGENCE • WEB • CYBERSÉCURITÉ