A brand for a delivery service from scratch is more than a logo: the name, the mark, the palette, the app screens and everything from packaging to the courier uniform come together in one system with rules. That is how we worked on QADAM, an express delivery service from Tashkent: it had an idea, but no name, no mark and no interface.
Key takeaways
QADAM delivers groceries in minutes. The service had an idea, but nothing it could show a customer: no name, no mark, no interface.
For delivery that is not a detail. People choose it with their eyes: by the sign, the packaging, the icon on the phone. Until all of that exists, the service cannot be launched, shown to an investor or explained to a courier.
The full project description is on the QADAM case page. Here we cover how we reasoned and what you can take into your own project.
The lack of a name, a mark and an interface blocks three things at once, and all three are about people, not about code.
That is why for QADAM the brand, the interface and the carriers were built as one system, not as three separate tasks for three contractors.
The task was set as three requirements, and each of them can be checked by eye.
| What was needed | How to check it | What we did |
|---|---|---|
| A name and a mark that read on the move | The logo is recognised at a glance on a courier bag, on a moped and in a list of apps | The name Qadam and a mark that is the letter Q with a trolley tail |
| An interface where an order takes a couple of taps | A person opens the app, finds groceries and places the delivery without studying the menu | Screens for home, catalogue and order delivery |
| A system, not a folder of pictures | Any contractor builds a new screen or banner by the rules, not by eye | A 14-section brandbook with rules for every carrier |
The third row is what separates a brand project from a one-off drawing. A logo can be drawn once, but a system is needed so that work does not stall when the service gets a new screen or a new pickup point.
The work on QADAM can be split into four blocks, and each one builds on the previous one.
The sequence is logical: the palette does not have to be fitted to screens already drawn, and packaging and the courier uniform do not have to be invented from a blank page once the mark and the rules exist. The brandbook itself brings all four blocks together.
Qadam means “step” in Uzbek, and the whole system is built around that word: one step between “want” and “done”.
The mark is a letter Q with a trolley tail, a logo that moves. The idea reads without explanation: on a courier bag or in a list of apps it is clear that the service is about movement and delivery. We covered how names are chosen separately, in the article on naming.
Example In QADAM the word, the mark and the slogan rest on one idea. When the name speaks of a step and the mark “drives”, a designer or contractor does not have to guess how to draw packaging or a courier uniform: the answer is already built into the meaning.
The QADAM brandbook describes everything a person meets, from the mark to the courier uniform. The palette has three colours: lime, vanilla and black.
Typography, icons and app screens are collected in the same document rather than kept as separate files by different people. What goes into such a document and who needs it is described in the article on the brandbook and design system.
A short palette is a useful constraint: the fewer colours in the set, the less often a contractor drifts from the rules.
Home, catalogue and order delivery are ready in light and dark themes. Every state, colour and spacing is described in the brandbook, so the front end has nothing to guess.
States are how an element looks in different situations: normal, pressed, disabled. If they are not described, the developer picks the look on their own, and the app gradually drifts from the mockups.
Two themes solve a practical problem. In its developer guidelines Apple advises you to make sure the app looks good in both appearance modes and to check that content stays legible in each of them. When both themes are drawn in advance, that check happens on the mockup, not after the app is released.
How interface rules are built, what stages the work has and which mistakes are the most common, we described in the article on mobile app UX/UI design.
Important Building the app was not part of the project. We made the brand, the design system and the screens, and writing the code is left to the developers. It is better to say this boundary out loud at the very start.
For delivery this matters, because the service lives not only in the app: the courier, the bag, the vehicle and the pickup point also represent the brand. For QADAM we described everything a person meets in real life.
The seven carriers are described in the same brandbook as the mark and the screens, so the brand looks the same on the phone and on the street.
The main result of the project is not a logo but a system the product can be assembled from without a designer. Brand, interface and carriers are described in one brandbook of 14 sections.
The case has no figures for orders or sales, and we do not invent them: the result of the project is a finished system of brand and screens.
Such a system can also be tested without sales figures: give the brandbook to a person who did not take part in the project and ask them to build a screen or a banner. Everything they ask out loud is a gap in the rules that is worth closing before contractors start working with the brand.
You need a system when the brand meets a person in more than one place. A logo is enough while it lives on a business card and a website, but a delivery service needs more.
If even one item matches, the rules are worth writing down before the first mockups. QADAM matched on carriers, contractors, the investor conversation and two interface themes, so the result was a brandbook, not a logo.
The approach is not tied to delivery. It suits any service that launches from scratch and has to look the same on the screen, on the packaging and on staff. Check a few things before you start.
Mistake Ordering the logo from one contractor, the interface from another and the packaging from a third. Each does their part honestly, but without shared rules for colour, spacing and states they finish the project in their own way, and the parts do not add up.
To avoid this, set the task for the whole system: with the name, the screens and the carriers, and name a document of rules as the result, not a set of files. Then the question “how should this look” is answered by the brandbook, not by a contractor’s memory.
We build the brand and the interface as one system: the name and the mark, the palette and typography, icons, screens and carriers. It is one brandbook and one team, so the service does not have to stitch together the work of several contractors, and developers do not have to guess what is missing.
If you only have an idea so far, you can start from it: QADAM came with exactly that. We clarify the task and the scope after a short conversation; building a website or a platform can be ordered separately, and the page on website and platform development lists formats and prices.
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Writing the code, which was not part of the QADAM project. Home, catalogue and order delivery are ready in light and dark themes, and every state, colour and spacing is described in the brandbook, so there is nothing to guess.
You can: QADAM came with an idea that had no name, no mark and no interface. The name, slogan, mark, palette and app screens were built from scratch, and the rules were written into a brandbook.
A logo is a small part of the system. Without shared rules for colour, spacing and states every contractor finishes it their own way, while the brandbook fixes it all for them: the mark, screens, packaging, transport and courier uniform.
The word means “step” in Uzbek. The whole system is built on the idea of one step between “want” and “done”, and the same idea reads in the mark, the letter Q with a trolley tail.
The brand pattern, icon system, packaging, merch and uniform, transport, courier uniform and pickup point, seven carriers in all. All of them are described in one brandbook of 14 sections.
Both themes are described in the brandbook together with states and colours, so the front end has nothing to guess. Apple also advises checking legibility in both modes, and it is easier to do that on a mockup than after the app is released.
Any contractor: the rules are written so that a new screen or banner is built by them, not by eye. The point of the system is that the product can be assembled without a designer.
