Practice
Branding
Scope
Strategy; Identity; Collateral; Guidelines
Year
Client
Sable & Co.
Link
Sable & Co.
Identity suite for an independent legal practice.
Sable & Co. was founded by two solicitors leaving a mid-size firm to practice independently. Their specialism was creative and media law — contracts, IP, rights management — for clients in the arts, entertainment, and design industries. Their clients were, almost uniformly, people with strong aesthetic sensibilities and a healthy suspicion of anything that looked too corporate.
The brief had one central tension written into it: the identity needed to signal legal credibility — rigor, trustworthiness, permanence — to an audience that would instinctively distrust anything that looked like a law firm. They needed to look serious without looking like every other practice that communicated seriousness the same way.
The challenge
Legal branding often fails in two ways: the traditional dark serif look that signals credibility but alienates many, or the overcorrection that tries to seem creative and approachable but loses authority. Sable & Co.’s audience was sophisticated enough to spot both. They needed a brand that balanced authority with distinctiveness — neither conventional nor gimmick, but confident and differentiated.
The work
Sable & Co.’s brand turned tension into strength: lawyers who understood clients culturally, not just contractually. The identity drew from editorial design — high‑contrast serif, near‑black and warm white with forest green, letterpress cards, magazine‑like typography. Naming as “& Co.” signaled a studio, not a firm. Built on truth, the brand expressed their genuine difference rather than inventing one.
The outcome
Sable & Co. launched with clients from record labels, a design agency, and a TV production company — referrals activated by the new brand. The identity eased the boutique‑versus‑big‑firm conversation: much of the “why choose us” case was already answered visually before meetings began, signaling authority and distinctiveness without compromise.
More work
