Empire Ants is a studio of designers, strategists and engineers that builds the brand, product and strategy behind early-stage businesses, working from one research base so nothing gets lost between handoffs.

Brand Development

We build brands for businesses that are still finding their shape: positioning, naming, identity, and the system your team keeps using after we hand over. Every decision traces back to research you can read.

Who it's for

Founders from pre-seed to Series A who are launching, raising, or have outgrown the identity they started with.

Sound familiar?

  • You're about to raise and the brand doesn't match the product.
  • Everyone on the team describes the company differently.
  • You have a logo, not a system, so every new asset starts from scratch.

What we offer

Brand strategy, positioning & naming
Brand strategy, positioning, naming, messaging
Identity & brand guidelines
Brand identity, sonic identity, product and service branding, guidelines and systems
Campaign & digital creative
Marketing and campaign creative, digital brand experience
Packaging & physical branding
Packaging, print, environmental and physical touchpoints
Rebrand & ongoing brand support
Rebranding, brand launch and implementation, ongoing support
Sonic identities

What you get

  • Brand research base: market, audience and competitor findings, each sourced and dated
  • Positioning and messaging
  • Naming, if you need it [CONFIRM]
  • Visual identity: logo, type, colour and motion principles
  • Guidelines and core templates (deck, social, documents)
  • Source files your team can actually use

How it runs

  1. Research
    We gather evidence about your market, audience and competitors.
  2. Insights
    What the evidence means, marked as our reading.
  3. Ideas
    Directions that answer the insights, argued in the open.
  4. Execution
    The identity and the system, fully handed over.

Timeline

[CONFIRM: typically 6–8 weeks]

Price

[DECIDE: from $6,000]

Start with a Research Sprint. Two weeks, fixed price [DECIDE: from $1,500]. We build the research base for your question: your market, your audience and your competitors. Every finding is sourced and dated, and our reading is marked as ours. If you carry on with us, the sprint fee counts towards the project. [CONFIRM]

Start with a Research Sprint →

Questions

Do we need a rebrand before we raise?

Not always. The research shows whether your brand is holding you back. If it isn't, we'll say so and work on what is.

Can you keep parts of our current identity?

Yes. If the research shows something is working, we keep it and build around it.

What do we own at the end?

Everything we make for you, including the research base, once it's paid for. [CONFIRM against contract]

Case studies

Back to Yourself

Brand Development

Mononym

Brand Identity