An agency works for more than one brand. That is why a single workspace can contain several brands: your own brand and the brands of your clients. Each brand has its own drafts, versions and a signed profile of its own. They don't get mixed up.
The brand profile remains the only source, as always: the colours, typefaces, logos and tone of a brand are in one place, in the profile of that brand.
Own brand and client brand
| Own brand | Client brand | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | The brand of the workspace itself. Every workspace has one. | The brand of a client, within this workspace. |
| How many | Exactly one | As many as you like |
| Versions | Its own version line | Each client brand has its own version line |
| What it drives | The brand style of your agency in the portal, and what Video, Marketing and Commerce use | Only the work you deliberately link to it |
Creating a workspace per client is still possible, and sometimes better: the client then keeps their own members, budget and files. Brands within a workspace are for anyone who serves several clients from one place and doesn't need to separate anything. A workspace remains the sharpest boundary: a brand gives no access to another workspace.
Choosing with "Check against"
At the top of the Creative Studio and the Brand Studio is Check against, with a dropdown. That is where you choose which brand you are working for. In the list your own brand has "(Own brand)" after it.
- What you do next uses that brand: a design check, a campaign, the composition gallery, the brand guide, tokens, the logo package and brand text.
- Your choice is remembered, per person and per workspace. A colleague chooses for themselves.
- If you switch brand, a form you filled in starts over. That way an assignment never silently ends up with the wrong brand.
- A result from earlier stays with the brand it was made with. An old report shows "Check against" with the name and version from back then, even if you now choose another brand or that brand has been archived.
The Video Studio, Marketing Studio and Commerce Studio have no brand choice. They use the active profile of your own brand. So you make a video for a client with a brand of their own in a workspace where that brand is the own brand.
A new brand for a client
- In the Brand Studio, under Brands, choose the New brand button.
- At the top is Who is this for?. Choose A new client brand, or New version of a brand that already exists.
- Enter the brand name, give the logo and optionally the address of the site, and start. You get a draft with colours, logo set and brand guide, usually within an hour. A person signs it, nothing goes to a client unseen.
A new client brand gets its own version line, starting at version 1. Your own brand is left alone. A new version of an existing brand always starts as a draft.
Signing only replaces the active profile of the same brand. A draft for client A can therefore never overwrite the active profile of client B or of your own brand.
"Create a separate brand from this"
Sometimes a draft ended up in the own brand while it belongs to a client, for example because it was made before client brands existed. On the overview of your own brand you then see Does a draft belong to another client?, with a button for each draft.
- Enter the name of the client brand.
- Choose Create a separate brand from this.
- You land in the new client brand, as version 1. The content has been copied: colours, typefaces, logos, shapes, rules and choices. There is a reference to the original draft.
- Check the copy and confirm the new client brand as you always do.
The original draft and all earlier results are kept. You decide what to do with the old draft. Only an administrator or owner can do this, because it affects what a profile is.
Why a draft doesn't replace the agency brand
This is the reason client brands exist. The own brand of your agency drives your own brand style, and signing a profile replaces the active profile of that brand. If a client's draft sits in your own brand and you sign it, you overwrite your own brand style with that of your client.
With a separate client brand that can't happen. The draft has its own version line, and the brand style of your agency and the colour of your portal stay with your own brand.
Via Claude or another MCP client
With these tools you can pass merk, as a name or as an id within your workspace: design_check, design_merkregels, design_tokens_check, design_merk, design_tokens_export and design_logo_opzet. Without merk your own brand applies. An unknown, ambiguous or archived brand gives an error instead of silently landing on another brand. If you also pass a profile, the two must belong together.
merken_lijst lists your brands and merk_maak creates a client brand as a draft. merk_verwijderen_voorstellen proposes archiving a client brand: a person signs that with a code, after which the brand leaves the lists and the brand choice while profiles, versions and files are kept. You do not archive the own brand. What doesn't exist yet: a brand choice on video_voiceover; you do that in the portal. See Connecting via MCP.
Who can do what
- Choosing a brand and working: anyone who works in the Creative and Design Studio.
- Starting a new brand: anyone who may submit an assignment, so maker and above.
- Signing and taking over a draft as a client brand: administrator and owner.
See also Brand Studio and Agency and workspaces.