# Maker Street Studios: Journal

> Articles from Maker Street Studios (MKRST) on branding, rebrands, naming, costs and choosing an agency.

Each page is also available as Markdown: add `.md` to the URL (for example https://mkrst.co/studio.md), or send `Accept: text/markdown`.

## Pages

- [Do You Own Your Logo? What an Australian Contract Must Say](https://mkrst.co/journal/do-you-own-your-logo-australia.md): In Australia the designer owns your logo copyright unless it is assigned to you in writing. What that means, and the clauses to check before signing.
- [Canva, AI Logo Generator or Branding Agency? An Honest Comparison](https://mkrst.co/journal/canva-ai-logo-generator-or-branding-agency.md): Canva and AI logo generators are the right call for a pre-revenue idea or a side project. A branding agency earns its price once you have something worth protecting. Here…
- [What Is AI Branding? Why Your Brand Now Has to Work for Agents, Not Just People](https://mkrst.co/journal/what-is-ai-branding.md): AI branding is the practice of preparing a brand so those tools apply it correctly. Here is what that means, and how to get ready.
- [How Much Does Branding Cost in Australia? 2026 Prices from a Brisbane Branding Agency](https://mkrst.co/journal/how-much-does-branding-cost-in-australia.md): Branding prices in Australia for 2026: freelancer, studio and agency bands, what Maker Street Studios in Brisbane charges from $8,250, and what moves the number.
- [Brand is what makes growth cheaper](https://mkrst.co/journal/brand-is-what-makes-growth-cheaper.md): Anyone can make a company look legitimate by Friday. Spin up a logo, a landing page, a founder story (fake or not!) and deploy it all in record time and…
- [7 Steps to Choose the Right Branding Agency for Your Business](https://mkrst.co/journal/7-steps-to-choose-the-right-branding-agency-for-your-business.md): Choosing a branding agency is one of the highest-leverage decisions a founder can make. Here are seven steps to evaluate partners who can deliver strategy, identity, naming, and design, not…
- [The Death of Simplicity in Branding: How Restraint Became the Sharpest Tool in Modern Branding](https://mkrst.co/journal/the-death-of-simplicity-in-branding-how-restraint-became-the-sharpest-tool-in-modern-branding.md): Minimalism dominated brand design for a decade. The sharper tool now is restraint, knowing what to leave out, what to protect, and what to let the brand system carry.
- [Why Most Rebrands Fail (How to Burn the Rulebook Without Burning Your Audience)](https://mkrst.co/journal/why-most-rebrands-fail-how-to-burn-the-rulebook-without-burning-your-audience.md): Most rebrands fail not because the design is wrong, but because the strategy skipped the audience. Here is how to reinvent your brand without losing the trust you have built.
- [Electric Island: A Sun Soaked Fever Dream](https://mkrst.co/journal/electric-island-a-sun-soaked-fever-dream.md): How we developed a fluid, immersive brand identity for a festival that needed to feel like summer, captured in colour, type, and motion across beach-side touchpoints.
- [Artificial Authenticity: Is Authenticity in Branding Dead or Just Mislabelled?](https://mkrst.co/journal/artificial-authenticity-is-authenticity-in-branding-dead-or-just-mislabelled.md): Authenticity has become the most overused word in brand strategy. The problem is not that authenticity is dead. It is that most brands confuse performance with purpose.
- [Flashback: Like a Disposable Camera, Yet Nothing Like a Disposable Camera](https://mkrst.co/journal/flashback-like-a-disposable-camera-yet-nothing-like-a-disposable-camera.md): How brand strategy and identity design helped Flashback translate nostalgia into a distinctive product brand, digital, reusable, and built to last.
- [Building a Disability-Led, Female-Owned Toilet Paper Startup](https://mkrst.co/journal/building-a-disability-led-female-owned-toilet-paper-startup.md): How brand strategy and identity design helped Shht Happens stand out in a commoditised category, with purpose, personality, and a name worth remembering.
- [Track and Measure Brand Equity: A Guide for Modern Businesses](https://mkrst.co/journal/track-and-measure-brand-equity-a-guide-for-modern-businesses.md): Brand equity is not soft metrics and vibes. Here is how to measure the value your brand development investment is actually building.
- [How to Create a Brand Manifesto That Resonates with Your Audience](https://mkrst.co/journal/how-to-create-a-brand-manifesto-that-resonates-with-your-audience.md): A brand manifesto is not a mission statement in disguise. It is the strategic articulation of what your brand believes, and why anyone should care.
- [How We Helped a Safety Consultancy Reintroduce Themselves to the World](https://mkrst.co/journal/how-we-helped-a-safety-consultancy-reintroduce-themselves-to-the-world.md): Verus needed more than a new logo. They needed a brand system that reflected their practical approach to safety, and reintroduced them to Australia's largest organisations.
- [Building a Brand That Lasts: Key Steps for Long-Term Success](https://mkrst.co/journal/building-a-brand-that-lasts-key-steps-for-long-term-success.md): Short-term brands chase trends. Lasting brands are built on strategy, systems, and the discipline to protect them as the company scales.
- [The Art of Seduction: Why Brand Connection Is Just Like Dating](https://mkrst.co/journal/the-art-of-seduction-why-advertising-is-just-like-dating.md): Great brands, like great relationships, are built on trust, consistency, and the slow accumulation of meaning, not a flashy first impression alone.
- [Brand Protection: What It Means and Why It’s the Most Important Investment in Your Brand](https://mkrst.co/journal/brand-protection-what-it-means-and-why-its-the-most-important-investment-in-your-brand.md): Brand protection is not legal paperwork filed after the fact. It is a strategic discipline that starts at naming and extends through every identity and design decision.
- [Branding for Startups: Where to Invest Before You Scale](https://mkrst.co/journal/branding-for-startups.md): Startups do not need a brand agency before they have product-market fit. But they do need brand foundations, and the earlier, the cheaper.
- [Brand Audit Workbook: How to Evaluate Your Brand Before You Invest in Change](https://mkrst.co/journal/brand-audit-workbook.md): Before you rebrand, refresh, or spend another dollar on design: run your brand through this audit. It will tell you what is working, what is broken, and what actually needs…
- [A Crash Course in Brand Storytelling: How to Make Your Brand Narrative Work Harder](https://mkrst.co/journal/a-crash-course-in-brand-journalism.md): Brand journalism is not content marketing with a better name. It is the discipline of telling your brand's story with the rigour of a journalist and the strategy of a…
- [When Is the Ideal Time to Do a Brand Refresh?](https://mkrst.co/journal/when-is-the-ideal-time-to-do-a-brand-refresh.md): Not every brand needs a full rebrand. Sometimes a refresh, updating the system without resetting equity, is the smarter move. Here is how to tell the difference.
- [Branding in a Downturn: How to Protect Brand Equity When Budgets Tighten](https://mkrst.co/journal/branding-in-a-recession-how-to-get-through-it-and-come-out-on-top.md): When budgets shrink, brand investment is the first cut, and the worst one. Here is how smart founders protect and build brand equity when the market turns.
- [Build a Minimum Viable Brand to Test Your New Venture](https://mkrst.co/journal/build-a-minimum-viable-brand-to-test-your-new-venture.md): You would not launch a product without testing it. Do not launch a brand without the same discipline. A Minimum Viable Brand gives you enough to learn, without over-investing before…
- [Brand Storytelling 101: Think Before You Speak](https://mkrst.co/journal/brand-storytelling-101-think-before-you-speak.md): Most brands talk too much and say too little. Brand storytelling starts with strategic silence, knowing what to say, what to leave out, and who you are speaking to.
- [Design Serves a Much Higher Purpose Than Its Form. Here’s Why.](https://mkrst.co/journal/design-serves-a-much-higher-purpose-than-its-form-heres-why.md): Design is not decoration. In brand development, design is how strategy becomes tangible, the system that makes positioning visible, credible, and ownable.
- [Another Advertising Agency?](https://mkrst.co/journal/another-advertising-agency.md): The world does not need another ad shop. It needs branding partners who do the thinking and the making, strategy, identity, naming, and design as one connected system.
- [9 Aussie Breweries With Banging Branding](https://mkrst.co/journal/9-aussie-breweries-with-banging-branding.md): Nine Australian breweries that prove what happens when brand identity, packaging design, and positioning work together, lessons any founder can apply.
- [How Polarised Sunglasses Killed Generic Brand Design](https://mkrst.co/journal/how-polarised-sunglasses-killed-advertising.md): When every brand in a category looks the same, differentiation is not a creative challenge. It is a strategic one. A lesson in what happens when identity fails.
- [What Uncertainty Means for Your Brand, and How to Stay Credible When the Market Shifts](https://mkrst.co/journal/what-covid-19-means-for-advertisers-and-how-you-can-stay-on-top-on-the-edge-of-a-recession.md): When the market shifts overnight, brand equity is either your safety net or your blind spot. Here is how to protect and strengthen your brand during uncertainty.
- [Why Sport Is Such a Powerful Brand Territory](https://mkrst.co/journal/why-is-sport-such-an-emotional-advertising-channel.md): Sport is not just an advertising channel. It is a masterclass in brand building. The principles that make sports brands iconic apply to every category.
- [Small Gestures Make a Big Difference in Brand Design](https://mkrst.co/journal/small-gestures-make-a-big-difference.md): The brands people love are not always the ones with the biggest budgets. They are the ones that get the details right, the touchpoints that turn a system into an…
- [New Horizons Spark a Rebrand: From Hatchet Agency to Maker Street Studios](https://mkrst.co/journal/new-horizons-spark-a-rebrand.md): Every rebrand should trace back to a strategic reason. Ours did. Anew name, a new focus, and a commitment to brand development over advertising.
- [Breaking Your Branding V-Card: What You Need to Know to Get the Most from Your Agency](https://mkrst.co/journal/breaking-your-advertising-v-card-what-you-need-to-know-to-get-the-most-out-of-your-agency.md): Your first brand development engagement sets the tone for everything that follows. Here is how to show up prepared and get the most from the partnership.
- [How to Define a Budget for Brand Development](https://mkrst.co/journal/how-to-define-a-budget-for-advertising.md): Brand development investment varies by scope and stage. Here is how to think about budgeting for strategy, naming, identity, design, and launch.
- [How Your Brand Story Is Impacting Your Bottom Line](https://mkrst.co/journal/how-your-story-is-impacting-your-bottom-line.md): Brand narrative is not soft marketing. It directly affects conversion, pricing power, talent acquisition, and fundraising, the metrics founders actually track.
- [2019’s Most Distinctive Brand Identities: What Founders Can Learn](https://mkrst.co/journal/2019-big-brand-favourites.md): A look back at the brand identities that stood out, and the strategic lessons they offer for founders building brands today.

## Optional

- [Full site index](https://mkrst.co/llms.txt)