Branding and Naming Agency

The name: check it before you fall for it

The hardest moment in any naming project is when a founder falls for a name, then discovers the domain is taken and someone has owned the Instagram handle for years. So we check before we recommend.

We start with a session on your business, audience and market, map competitor names and agree a direction: a descriptive name that explains what you do, an invented name that’s easier to own, or something in between. Then you get a shortlist with the idea behind each name and how it’s said and spelled in Arabic and English. Every name on it has passed three checks:

• Domain: is a suitable domain free, on .com or the country extension?
• Social handles: is the name available on Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, X and LinkedIn, or in a close, clear variation?
• Preliminary trademark check: a first search of public databases for identical or very similar marks in the same field.

A preliminary check doesn’t replace the official search. Registration happens with the authority in each country: the authority that registers trademarks in Egypt and the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property (SAIP) in Saudi Arabia. We don’t file on your behalf, but we hand over the name and logo in formats ready for filing, and we recommend a lawyer or trademark agent for the process.

Visual identity: what a branding and naming agency should hand you

Some businesses only need a logo at the start, and that’s a fair call on a tight budget. But a logo alone stops working the moment your team or a freelancer starts producing posts, ads and print. Everyone improvises with colors and fonts, and a few months later your accounts look like three different brands.

A full identity includes:

• The logo in primary, horizontal and compact versions, plus an icon that works as a profile picture or app icon.
• A primary and secondary color palette with codes for print and screen.
• Matching Arabic and English typefaces, with free alternatives for everyday use.
• Supporting elements: patterns, icons and a photo style.
• A brand guide that shows correct and incorrect use with examples.
• Post, story and cover templates your team can edit without breaking the identity.

How your brand speaks

A customer in Cairo doesn’t read like a customer in Riyadh, and someone searching in English expects something else again. The voice guide is two or three pages: simplified MSA or dialect, how you address the customer, words you use and words you avoid, and the same message written in Arabic and English without literal translation.

That guide is what keeps your content and social media sounding like one brand, whoever is writing.

Refresh or start over?

If your name is known in its market and customers recognize your logo, our advice is usually to keep it. We hold on to what people recognize and fix the problems: a logo that can’t be read at small sizes, colors that drift from post to post, no consistent English version. If the name itself causes a real problem, such as a clash with a competitor or a pronunciation issue in a new market, changing it costs less than patching it.

The question comes up a lot with businesses moving from Egypt into Saudi Arabia or the other way. Your business is doing well in the real world and deserves a digital presence of the same size. We don’t start your success, we amplify it.

From first session to handover

Most projects take four to eight weeks, longer when they include a new name and packaging. The usual order:

1. Discovery: a session on the business and audience, a competitor review and a written direction agreed before any design.
2. Naming: the shortlist and checks, if the project needs a new name.
3. Design directions: more than one route for the logo and colors, then a fixed number of revision rounds.
4. Testing: the logo at small sizes, on different backgrounds and on real mock-ups: a web page, a post, a sign and product packaging if you have it.
5. Handover: files in every format, the guide and the templates.

The most common delay is slow feedback on revision rounds, so we put a date on every stage at the start. More on our method page.

Before you sign off the final design

Don’t judge an identity on taste alone. Ask:

• Can the logo be read in a second on a phone screen, and as a small icon?
• Does it work in black and white?
• Is the English name easy for Arabic speakers to say, and does the Arabic name have one fixed Latin spelling?
• Is the guide clear enough for a designer who never attended a meeting to follow?

A week after launch, ask five customers about the name. Do they remember it and spell it right?

Cost comes down to a few clear things: whether you need a new name, the number of design directions and revision rounds, the size of the guide and template set, and extras such as packaging, signage and uniforms. Branding is a one-off project under our Name and Identity offer, and you can continue on a monthly plan afterwards. Ask for a quote or see our plans. If an opening is coming up, start the identity well before the launch campaign, then move on to your website.