The method behind the magic
We often get asked what it's like to work with us and how we bring brands to life. We thought it was about time to pull back the curtain and share some of our thinking behind the journey – the process that shapes the brands we create. We're not here to build brands that blend in, we work hard to create brands that won’t get lost. We want our work to drive success for our clients, in whatever form that takes – whether it’s to inspire, to educate, to sell, we help them communicate in a clear and distinctive style. There’s no magic formula to creating great brands – it’s a journey and the path looks slightly different for every project.
Our clients typically find us through word of mouth. While the Waikato is mostly recognised for its rolling green pastures and thriving agricultural industry, beneath the surface is a community of hard-working, creative, and forward-thinking people. Hamilton has recently been crowned the fastest-growing city in New Zealand – it is buzzing with hospitality, tech startups, reimagined civic developments, an emerging arts and culture scene, pioneering property developers, health & wellness entrepreneurs …I could go on! We feel incredibly privileged to collaborate with these businesses as they are passionate about carving out their own space in and from our thriving region. The ones we align best with are those willing to trust the process, embrace creativity, and have the courage to push beyond the ordinary.
Over the past seven years, we've refined and evolved our process – learning, growing, and adapting as technology and the business landscape shifts. But at the heart of it all, our goal remains the same: to create brands that connect. So how do we uncover what makes your brand unique? How do we define where you stand among your competitors? And how do we create something that truly resonates on both a visual and emotional level? It all starts with asking the right questions, having real-life conversations, lots of listening, collaborating, and digging deep to understand what truly makes your business unique.
So let’s dive in, here’s a breakdown of how we create brands –
The dating period
We always get excited when a potential client reaches out for a new brand or a brand refresh. Whether they're facing a unique business challenge or have a fresh idea they’re ready to launch, we love diving into the conversation to get a broad understanding of their needs and vision. For larger projects, this might mean an in-person meeting, but often, a phone call is all we need to gather enough information to put together a proposal. These are important conversations for both parties as we both figure out if this partnership will work – this is the dating period!
Proposal and quoting
From here, we’ll pull together a quote that breaks down the key sections of the project and our estimated costs for each. This is an important step to make sure we're aligned — not just on the budget, but also on the scope of what’s included. There’s often a little back and forth at this stage as we refine exactly what outputs are needed. We'll also share a project schedule to give you a sense of when we can kick things off and how long each section is likely to take. On your approval – we’re good to go!
Brand strategy
This is the one where we go deep! Our brand strategy process is collaborative, insightful, and leaves our clients with a clear vision for positioning their brand to win.
It’s a scalable approach that adapts to the size of your brand and the level of stakeholder and customer research needed to gain meaningful insights and define your market positioning.
Typically, our strategy process can cover the following areas: brand architecture and product systems, brand naming, audience and personas, USPs and positioning, purpose and values, personality and messaging, core idea, and look & feel direction.
For us, strategy is critical to the success of every branding project. Some of our best ideas, messaging, and concepts are seeded during this phase. We’ve found that nailing the fundamentals—like your brand’s purpose, promise, and personality—creates an enduring compass to align your business direction with your team and customers.
Identity design
This is where the fun begins. We typically present 1-2 concepts that are an extension of the brand strategy phase. We believe that a brand is always better when it stands on a core idea. This idea might be a message that everyone within the organisation can rally around: a story that can connect with customers or simply a feeling or emotion we’re trying to communicate with our brand. A simple but meaningful idea is hard to land but worth the pursuit as it helps create a driving theme for your brand's messaging and look and feel. Here are a few examples:
Lodge – “You Belong Here” – speaks to both customers and agents – Lodge connects people to their true place of belonging.
Te Whare Taonga O Waikato Museum & Gallery – “House of treasures” – The Museum and Gallery act as guardians of the Waikato region's cultural, historical, and artistic heritage.
Pause (Sauna and Icebath) – “Find strength in calm” – your moment to pause, breathe and restore.
Once we’ve landed on a strong idea, we begin bringing it to life visually. We typically start with a wordmark and/or icon, then explore the broader visual language—colour palette, typography, imagery, illustration, layout systems, tone of voice, motion design, and any other elements that will shape the brand. To ensure the concept has range and flexibility, we test it across a variety of real-world applications—merchandise, landing page concepts, social tiles, out of home ads etc. These aren’t necessarily final designs, but they’re a valuable way to see how the brand performs in context and testing it has the legs across mediums.
Finally, we bring you into the studio to walk you through the work. This is your chance to sit with the concepts, share them (sparingly!) with colleagues, friends or family, and gather your feedback. At this point, we always encourage clients to revisit the strategy and evaluate the concepts through the lens of their audience—not just personal taste. Who is this brand speaking to, and how do they see the world? Is my feedback personal and subjective or is it based on what’s best for the brand, it’s positioning and personality? Tip - truly new, fresh and novel ideas are naturally a bit scary. We’ve evolved as humans to be attracted to the safe and familiar, but with branding we’re trying to stand out, for people to take notice, to be intrigued and lean in to learn more. Our advice is to embrace the discomfort and take courage in doing something new.
Developed design
Once you’ve had time to sit with the concepts and check in with your key stakeholders, we’ll take your feedback and refine the concept into a more finalised design solution. This is where we really tighten up the messaging, layouts, and type choices, and begin creating final artwork for each core ingredient of the brand.
We present this developed design pack back to you for final approval. Typically, we allow for two rounds of amends during this phase of the process.
It’s also at this stage that we usually kick off the website design, as we now have most of the brand ingredients in place to ensure a successful website project.
Detail design and implementation
Once the brand is approved, this is where it all starts to come to life. We’ll deliver a full suite of logo files in various formats, license your typefaces, compile your brand guidelines, and prepare all agreed assets as print- and digital-ready files. If any additional items come up during this phase, we can scope them for design now or revisit them further down the track.
We’ll also sit down with your core team to walk through the assets and guidelines, ensuring everyone is aligned on how the brand should be used moving forward.
Tip: We always encourage our clients to establish an internal “brand champion”—someone in your organisation who truly understands the brand strategy, knows the brand ingredients inside out, and serves as the internal go-to for templates and guidance.
Web strategy, design and build
A key part of bringing your brand to life is how it shows up digitally. In today’s world, a well-considered digital presence isn’t optional—it’s essential. We design and build digital experiences that feel like a natural extension of the brand, helping it connect, engage, and deliver impact. Our goal is to align strong strategic foundations with smart digital execution, so every interaction feels intentional and reinforces the brand story. There’s a lot to unpack here—so we’ll dive deeper into this in a separate post soon.
And that's it folks!
If you’ve read this far, you must be really into brands—so you're our kind of person.
No matter the size, stage, or sector, we follow a scalable version of this process because we've seen time and again that every step plays a role in building a brand that’s not just good-looking, but meaningful, memorable, and built to last. There are no shortcuts to clarity, and we’ve learned that skipping steps usually means missing opportunities—to connect more deeply, to stand out more clearly, and to tell your story more powerfully.
At Daymark, we exist to guide brands toward their true north. Whether you're just starting out, reimagining what's next, or carving out a bolder position in your market—we're here for the ride.
So, if you're ready to build a brand that won’t get lost, let’s talk.
Keen to chat about your brand?
Email us → ahoy@daymark.co.nz
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