Brand consistency: the questions we get asked most

It comes up on almost every project, usually later than it should. The questions about brand consistency that come up most often on our calls.

Consistency is the quiet half of design work: it rarely gets complimented, and its absence is noticed immediately. It is the sort of thing that looks like polish right up until it costs you an enquiry.

Do we need to care about this?

Consistency is what makes a small company look established. The reasoning matters more than the rule, because the rule has exceptions. Anything you cannot measure here, you are deciding by taste, which is fine as long as everyone knows it.

Can it wait until after launch?

Occasionally. More often the post-launch version costs several times the pre-launch one. The reasoning matters more than the rule, because the rule has exceptions.

How do we know it is working?

Consistency is not sameness, it is predictability. This is the sort of thing that compounds, quietly, in both directions. Check it against what you would want a competitor's site to get wrong.

What this looks like day to day

Design decisions are the ones clients feel most confident arguing about, which makes it worth separating taste from evidence early. Three things worth confirming about brand consistency before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Consistency is what makes a small company look established — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

If you are not sure where your systems currently stand on this, it takes us about an hour to find out.