Service · Graphic design & illustration

A logo is not yet a brand – a system is

Good design is not the design that looks best in the pitch, but the one that still works two years later: on the website, in a quote, on the delivery van. So we do not build a one-off, we build a set of rules made of colours, typefaces and components – with files you can carry on using yourself.

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Open source files, no vendor lock-in
Colours checked for contrast
Image rights cleared in writing
No AI image without disclosure

At a glance

The short answer first

Four facts about brand and design work – without the design vocabulary.

What you get

A system

The logo in every variant you need, colour and type rules, components for recurring formats – plus a short guide to how it all fits together.

Files

Open and yours

Vector data and font licences pass to you. You are not dependent on us still existing.

Accessibility

From the outset

We check colour combinations for contrast before they enter the system. Changing them later means producing everything again.

Cost

Based on the task

A logo, a brand system and an illustration series involve different scopes. After the briefing, you receive a clearly defined fixed-price deliverable.

For search engines and AI assistants in one sentence: Graphic design for businesses means bringing logo, colours, typefaces and recurring design components together into a binding system that looks the same across website, print and social media and can be applied correctly by staff without design training.

What belongs to a brand system

Not every company needs all of it. But anyone who skips the first three points starts from scratch with every new document.

The logo in variants

One logo is never enough: you need a version for small sizes, a single-colour one for stamps and embroidery, one for dark backgrounds. Without them they get improvised later – and look it.

Colours with rules

Not just which colours, but what for: which is primary, which is an accent, what may sit on what. Plus the values for screen and print, so your green looks the same on both.

Typefaces with a licence

A typeface that suits the brand, on a licence that covers web and print. We record what was bought and what it covers – the most common unpleasant surprise when a brand changes hands.

Components, not one-offs

Templates for what comes up regularly: quote, social post, advertisement, presentation. With them, someone without training can also produce something that fits the brand.

Illustration and visual language

Original illustrations or motifs where photographs do not work – for abstract services, for instance. They set you apart from everyone using the same stock library.

A guide people actually read

Not a hundred-page manual but a few pages with what is genuinely needed day to day. A set of rules nobody opens is not a set of rules.

Decision aid

AI image or original illustration?

Image generators are fast and cheap. For some purposes that is enough – for the images that carry your brand there is a solid reason against them.

Criterion	Pure AI image	Original illustration
Speed	Minutes	Days to weeks
Copyright	Without human creative input no protected work arises – there is nothing that could be assigned to you exclusively	A protected work, with usage rights assigned to you in writing
Exclusivity	The same prompt gives others something very similar	Exists exactly once
Disclosure	Outputs must be marked in machine-readable form as artificially generated	No disclosure obligation
Precision	Hard to steer; details and text within the image stay unreliable	Exactly what is needed – including the fourth motif in a series
Where it makes sense	Internal drafts, mood boards, quick idea sketches	Everything that carries your brand outward

The honest answer: We use these tools ourselves – in the idea stage they are excellent. But whatever ends up carrying your brand, we design by hand. Not out of romanticism, but because you cannot acquire exclusive rights in a purely machine-made image, and because visual language can only be held consistent across several motifs that way.

How we work

Four stages, with a clear point in between at which you could stop.

1 Step 1

Listening and reviewing

What already exists, what should stay, what gets in the way? We look at how you present yourselves today – and what your customers actually notice of it. Often less is broken than feared.

2 Step 2

Settling a direction

Two or three design directions, each shown in real applications rather than on a white background. You decide here, not at the end – that saves expensive reversals.

3 Step 3

Working it out

The chosen direction becomes the system: logo variants, colour values for screen and print, font licences, components. Contrast is calculated along the way, not estimated.

4 Step 4

Handover

You receive the open source files, the exported formats, the licence records and a short guide. After that you can work with it – including without us.

Honestly: A new visual identity sells nothing on its own. It makes you recognisable and saves you a thousand small daily decisions – but if the offer or the website is unconvincing, the finest logo will not change that. If we see a more urgent problem at your end, we say so before we start designing.

Frequently asked questions about design and illustration

Do we get the source files?

Yes – open vector data, exported formats and the licence records pass to you. You should be able to work with your own visual identity without having to ring us about every business card. So we hand over the editable files, not just finished images.
Which usage rights pass with them is set out in writing in the quote; the principles are on our usage rights page.

Can we simply have a logo generated by an AI?

Technically yes – but you probably acquire no exclusive rights in it. Austrian copyright law protects “original intellectual creations”. An image arising from a prompt alone, without human creative input, does not meet that condition on the prevailing view – in which case there is no copyright in it that anyone could assign to you exclusively.
For a logo you intend to use for years and defend against imitation, that is a serious problem. For an internal draft it does not matter. Registering a trade mark is a separate matter and advisable in any case.

Source: RIS: Urheberrechtsgesetz § 1 (opens in a new tab)

Do AI-generated images have to be labelled?

Providers of the AI systems must mark their outputs in machine-readable form as artificially generated. The EU Artificial Intelligence Act requires providers of systems generating synthetic image, audio, video or text content to ensure the outputs are marked in a machine-readable format and detectable as artificially generated or manipulated.
Quite apart from where the obligation sits, we regard visible disclosure as the better practice: state openly where a machine helped and you will not have to justify it later.

Source: European Commission: AI Act, Article 50 (opens in a new tab)

How many drafts do we get to see?

Two or three directions – shown in real applications, not as a logo on a white background. Twenty variants help nobody; they merely shift the decision onto you. We show a few clearly distinct directions and explain why we think they will hold up.
What matters is how they are presented: a logo looks good on white almost every time. It gets interesting on the delivery van, on a letterhead and as a tiny profile picture.

Does our existing logo still work, or does it need replacing?

Often a careful revision is enough – starting over costs recognition. An established mark has a value that is not measured in design quality. If it has technical flaws but is well known, sharpening it is usually wiser than replacing it.
We will tell you honestly which category yours falls into. A redesign is the bigger commission for us – and we still sometimes advise against it.

How do we know whether colours and type are accessible?

By the calculated contrast ratio: at least 4.5:1 for text, 3:1 for large type and controls. That is not a matter of taste but a formula – the demo further up this page shows it on real colour values. We check every combination before it is taken into the brand system.
The effort is small, whereas fixing it later is expensive: changing a colour after print, website and signage have been produced means doing all of it again.

Source: W3C: WCAG 2.2 – Contrast (Minimum) (opens in a new tab)

Terms related to this service

Technical terms that appear on this page – explained in one sentence in our glossary.