Brands, like apple crumbles, only come alive when the right ingredients come together. Mistaking a logo for a brand is like confusing a bag of flour for a crumble. Essential, but incomplete on its own.
Creating a brand means bringing together typography, photography, colour, tone of voice and sound – like gathering crumble ingredients. And just as a crumble needs time in the oven before it’s ready to serve, a brand needs patience and consistency before it’s recognised and remembered.
If you’ve ever had one of my crumbles, you’ll know the crumble itself is not some over-refined, sandy topping. No, it looks like a lunar landscape, all rocks, uneven and rugged, because that’s what a proper crumble should be.
So, let me break down each ingredient and show you how they work together to create something greater than the sum of their parts.
Step 1:
Logo Flour – 4oz
Plain and foundational, no one eats a bowl of flour on its own. Similarly, a logo is essential, but meaningless on its own, it needs the other ingredients in combination to matter.
Step 2:
Typography Oats – 2oz
Typography provides structure and texture. The choice of style (serif, slab-serif or sans-serif), case, tracking and weight gives type its voice, and often you can recognise a brand from the typography alone, even before the logo appears.
Step 3:
Colour Butter – 4oz
Colour is richness and warmth. A consistent palette becomes shorthand for instant recognition, such as Coca-Cola red or Cadbury purple, which trigger instant associations.
Now work it all together until it resembles a rocky lunar landscape, then add the sugar — see step 4.
Step 4:
Sound/music Sugar – 3oz
Like sugar, sound dissolves but transforms the whole. From Intel’s chime to Netflix’s tudum, audio cues give rhythm and memorability, getting stuck in your head without you even seeing anything.
Step 5:
Imagery Apples – 1lb
Imagery, such as photography or illustration, adds freshness and flavour. A consistent style, whether cinematic and moody or bright and cheeky, can subtly reinforce a brand ‘s identity and can be as distinctive as a logo.
Step 6:
Voice and storySpices – 1tsp
Like spices*, your voice and story carry a small but transformative power to change perception. Playful, serious or irreverent, the tone you set, coupled with the story you tell, can change not only the taste, but the aroma that lingers.
*Cinammon or cloves are great! Or both together!
Step 7:
Validation Baking – 45mins/180°c
Validation is where test marketing happens, or the oven where your brand’s ingredients fuse. Undercooked brands launch too soon, overcooked ones burn out* chasing trends. Getting it just right takes patience, consistency and serving it to the right people.
*Don’t do what I did and put the timer on, go to the pub, come back to an overcooked crumble because the oven had switched off but the heat was still circulating.
Step 8:
The brand Crumble – serve hot
Each part alone is unremarkable, but together they’re unmistakable. A proper crumble is lunar and uneven, not some over-refined, sandy topping. A proper brand is layered and textured too, and isn’t complete without the addition of custard…
The flourish:
Brand champions Custard – as much as you like
…because in branding, custard isn’t another ingredient. It’s the brand champions — the people, such as marketers, brand guardians and customer-facing staff, who live and communicate it every day.
So, next time someone tells you they need ‘just a logo,’ think about my crumble. Would you serve someone a bowl of flour and call it dessert? Don’t think so. A delicious brand combines all these different ingredients into something that lasts and is valued.