PATINA JOURNAL

For founders opening a cafe, restaurant, or shop, we develop the concept and build the brand around it, so the whole place feels like something before you ever open the doors.

The order is the easy part. What kills brands is the gap between strategy and marketing, and who fills it.

The questions to ask, the red flags to catch, and what you should be holding when the agency is gone.

The checklist that keeps a four-month branding engagement at four months, and tells you if you're ready to start.

$26,000 to $150,000, what sits at each end, and why placemaking should start before the architect draws.

A logo signs your name, a brandmark stands alone, and an identity is the whole system. Here's which one to buy.

The threshold for hiring an agency over a freelancer, including when a freelancer is the smarter buy.

The full deliverable list for a TNA branding engagement, what's outside it, and how revisions and payment work.

Four to eight months, phase by phase, and the real reasons rebrand schedules slip.

Yes, and here is what happens when founders build the website first and do the brand later.

Real price ranges for restaurant branding, what drives the number up, and why the cheap version costs more later.

You have a business that works, or a development about to break ground, and a brand that doesn't match either one. So you start looking. Ten tabs open, ten agencies with the same serif font and the same promise, and a growing feeling that you can't tell any of them apart. That's the hardest part when you try to choose the right branding agency. Everyone looks good on their homepage. Very few can tell you what they'll do with your money once the contract is signed, or what you