Most people associate branding with a logo, which although logos are a part of the branding experience, they are as relevant as the size of your salad fork. In the end, they really don’t matter. What does matter, however, is the invisible brand.

Logos do not make a company. It’s the company that makes the logo. Myself and the team at ZURB do brand design, but we encourage our peers and clients to look beyond the visual brand. The visual brand—the logo, the typeface, the colors, etc—is only as powerful and prolific as you and your team make it.

As members of a continually developing team, the team members at ZURB have all realized early on that we never could rally around just a logo. After all, when it comes down to it, it is just a graphic. Instead, we rally around the idea of ourselves, ZURB, the invisible brand that is the crux of who we are, what we stand for, and how we get it done.

The invisible brand encompasses all the things you’d probably never expect to be part of your brand. It’s your team’s people, process, atmosphere, expertise, and so much more, but the most important is the people you work with. You are not defined by your brand. You and your team define your brand.