About
We build brand identities for businesses who want to stand out. Backed by strategic thinking and design that delivers work built to last.
We’re an independent brand strategy agency based in Southsea, Portsmouth. We believe that lasting brands are built on solid strategic foundations, backed by research and insight.
Why us
OVERTONE is deliberately small. We’re purposfully independent. We don’t have a layer of account management, and we don’t pass your project around between people.
You deal with Sam from the first conversation to the final file handover. When a project needs a skill we don't cover, a photographer, a developer, a copywriter, we bring in a specialist and tell you who they are.
Who we work with
Businesses with something good already built, who can feel the brand isn't saying so. Founders who want it done properly rather than quickly. Marketing leads who know the brand could be working harder than it is.
You don't need a finished brief. Working out what you actually need is part of our job.
We believe lasting brands are built on solid strategic foundations, backed by research and insight.
Lasting
Brands should still make sense in 10 years’ time. Trends date, so we don’t design to them. Your brand is built for the business you’re becoming as much as the one you are today.
Reasoned
The work starts with research into your market and your competitors, and a position agreed before any design begins. Everything afterwards answers to it.
Considered
Every decision earns its place. Nothing is added for effect. The last round of any project is usually spent taking things out.
Work
Overtone
No specialism, by choice
We don't need ten years in your sector to be useful. What matters is curiosity and perspective, not time served in one industry. Repeating a category's playbook is how brands end up looking like their competitors.
Sectors we've worked in include food and drink, technology, consumer goods, utilities, hospitality, healthcare, education and the public sector.
Position
Research into your sector and your competitors, based off what they're actually saying rather than what the category is assumed to sound like. Out of it comes a position your business can get behind.
Create
We create brands that are defined by conceptual thinking and distinctive design. They’re also built to scale. Whether it’s a system for a campaign or a fresh rebrand. We craft by hand, and never deliver average.
Grow
Once your brand is set, we work with you to bring your brand to life across all your brand touchpoints. Digital systems, packaging, campaigns, print, and more.
OVERTONE was founded by Sam Leonard-Rendell, who has worked in brand design since 2013. It started with a print studio set up straight out of university, and carried on agency-side, most recently as a Head of Design.
Sam has designed brand identity work for Tilda, SEGA, Vimto, FUJIFILM and KFC. Some of it full rebrands, some a sub-brand or an app that needed an identity of its own.
OVERTONE works from Southsea, Portsmouth, with clients across the UK.