Never start with visuals
It’s tempting to begin a branding project with visuals — logos, colours, type, and moodboards. But the most successful branding work rarely starts with design.
It starts with listening.
- Listening to leadership ambition
- Listening to internal teams
- Listening to customers, the market, and the competitive landscape
Without this stage, design becomes guesswork. It may look polished, but it’s often disconnected from reality, reflecting assumptions rather than insight.
Listening creates clarity. It reveals what a brand truly stands for, where it needs to go next, and what needs to change (or stay the same). It also surfaces tensions and misalignment early, before they become expensive to fix.
When brands skip listening, they often end up redesigning symptoms instead of solving problems.
Branding is less about aesthetic refresh and more about strategic alignment. Design should be an expression of understanding, not a starting point. Because when brands listen first, design decisions become clearer, more confident, and far more effective.
At Courts, every branding project begins with listening. We work with ambitious organisations to understand their reality, challenge assumptions, and define clear strategic direction before design begins — ensuring brands are built on insight, not instinct.
