Brand identity

Brand is the accumulated impression of every surface someone encounters. Consistency is most of it; the rest is having a point of view.

Establishing

Before any visual decision, settle three things in writing:

• What the brand is for — the promise it makes, in one sentence.
• Who it is for — and, more usefully, who it is not for.
• What it is not — the three adjectives it should never earn. These constrain far better than aspirational ones, because "modern" and "trustworthy" rule nothing out.

The system

Palette. One primary, one accent, a full neutral ramp, and semantic states. The neutral ramp does most of the visible work and gets the least attention — spend time on it. Every color needs a verified contrast ratio against the surfaces it will actually sit on, not against white.