Branding, corporate identity and graphic design in Thessaloniki and Athens

Before anyone finds you on Google, they see you. They see the logo on the shopfront, the card in their hand, the leaflet in the post, the ad that scrolled past on their phone. Those few seconds decide whether they are looking at a serious business.

Qbrains was founded in 2000 as a creative studio. For the first years that was the whole job, meaning branding and corporate identity, logos, graphic design, business cards, catalogues, flyers, outdoor campaigns, and alongside all of it the first websites our clients ever had. Everything that came later, from SEO to Google and Meta advertising, was built on top of that foundation.

That is the difference between us and a studio that has only ever worked in digital. We know what it means for something to be printed ten thousand times with no way back. We know how a colour behaves on a screen and how it behaves on paper, because we have stood next to the press. And we know that a corporate identity is not a nice drawing, it is a system that has to survive dozens of applications, from a stamped invoice to a banner on a phone.

Today the studio works in two ways. It either takes on a company visual identity from scratch, or it supports businesses that already have an identity and need a steady flow of new material. Either way the goal is the same. That people recognise you instantly, wherever they happen to run into you.

We have one office, in Thessaloniki, and that is where the team sits. We do, though, have clients in Athens and elsewhere in Greece, because creative work is delivered digitally and loses nothing on the way. How that kind of engagement actually runs is explained further down this page.

Branding and rebranding for businesses in Thessaloniki and Athens

Branding answers one question that comes before any drawing. Why should someone choose you rather than the business next door. Until there is a clear answer, any logo is decoration.

So the work starts with conversation and research rather than design software. We look at what you actually sell, who buys it, what your customers say when they recommend you to someone else, and how your competitors present themselves. In Thessaloniki and in Athens that last part matters more than people expect. Whole sectors look alike, with the same colours, the same icons and the same stock photography. Anyone willing to look like themselves instead of like their industry stands out with very little effort. In the Athens market, where every sector is more crowded, that difference counts for even more, because the customer compares more options before deciding.

Rebranding is a different job from starting with a blank page, because something recognisable already exists. The expensive decision is what to keep. Sometimes we keep the symbol and change everything around it. Sometimes the drawing has aged so badly that only the name survives. We show you both routes side by side on real applications, so the decision is made by looking rather than imagining.

And because a rebrand touches everything, from the rubber stamp to the social profiles, we build a list of every place the old identity still appears and put the changes in order. First what the customer sees, then what partners see, last what only you see.

Ad creatives for Google, Meta and social

Campaigns rarely fail in the settings, they fail in the artwork. The same audience, the same budget and the same targeting produce completely different results once the creative changes, because the creative is the only part a human being actually sees.

Since the agency runs Google and Meta campaigns every day, ad creatives are not designed blind. They are built knowing where they will appear, what aspect ratios each placement wants, how much copy it can carry and what has already worked with that audience. We deliver variations, meaning more than one execution of the same idea, so there is something to test and something to swap in when a creative burns out.

Social works the same way. The visuals on a page are not isolated posts, they are a set that someone will see as a grid. We build templates with fixed colours, positions and typefaces, so day to day production is fast and still looks like you, even when the content changes every week.

Graphic design and branding in Athens and across Greece

Qbrains has one office, in Thessaloniki. We do, however, have clients in Athens and in other cities, and that changes neither the process nor the result. A logo, a colour palette, a catalogue layout and a press-ready file do not travel anywhere, they are delivered digitally. The only point where geography genuinely matters is production, and there are two concrete ways we handle it.

Briefing and presentations happen over video call

The first meeting and the brief take place on a call where we go through whatever is currently out in the world together, meaning the logo, the printed material, photographs of your sign and of your premises. Concept presentations work the same way, with a shared screen, so you see every direction on a card, on a sign and on a screen, and comment with the artwork in front of you. Whatever gets approved is confirmed in writing, so both sides know what was locked and when. When a project genuinely needs a face-to-face meeting, we schedule the trip instead of asking for one every week.

Printing and prepress for clients in Athens

There are two routes here and we tell you which one makes sense for the job in front of us. Either you keep your own printer in Athens and we take on the prepress, meaning CMYK and spot colours, image resolution, bleed and safe areas and embedded fonts, reviewing the proof before the press starts. Or the printing goes to a printer we work with in Thessaloniki and the finished material is shipped to you. Which route works out better depends on the print run, the deadline and the freight, and we work that out with you before you decide. Either way the printing is paid directly to the producer, with no mark-up from us.

Outdoor and signage in the client city

Signs and large formats are not couriered anywhere, they are fabricated and installed on site. So we prepare the artwork to the specification of the installer who will actually build it, meaning their dimensions, the resolution they ask for, proper vector files and the colour references for the material they will use. We speak to them directly and check the sample before production runs. The same method works whether the fabricator is in Athens or in a small town with a single sign shop.

The result is that a business in Athens gets exactly the work a business in Thessaloniki gets. The same phases, the same deliverables, the same brand guidelines and the same source files in its own hands.

What you actually receive

The point is not to admire a nice layout in a presentation. It is to walk away with a folder that belongs to you and covers you for years, even if you work with someone else tomorrow.

• The logo in vector form as AI, EPS, SVG and PDF, plus transparent PNG and JPG versions for everyday use
• Every approved version of the logo, meaning stacked, horizontal, symbol only, single colour and reversed for dark backgrounds
• A colour palette with exact codes for screen and for print, so your colour is the same at every supplier
• Typography with the typefaces, sizes and their licences, in both print and web versions
• Brand guidelines with examples of correct and incorrect use, as a PDF you can send to any partner
• Print pieces as press-ready PDF with bleed, together with the working files for future changes
• Templates for whatever you produce yourself, meaning posts, offers and internal documents
• Ad creatives in every aspect ratio Google and Meta ask for, with their test variations

The source files are yours from day one and they are handed over without conditions. We do not keep anything back as a guarantee that you will stay. It is the most honest reason for a client to stay, which is that they want to.

What it costs and how it is priced

We do not publish a price list for creative work, for a practical reason. A logo and a card for a new sole trader, and a full visual identity with guidelines, a print suite, a catalogue and outdoor for a company with three branches, have nothing in common in terms of work. Any number shown here would be wrong for half the people reading it.

Pricing is quoted after a study, following the introductory conversation and the free identity review. The quote sets out the scope in detail, meaning how many concept directions you will see, which applications get designed, how many revision rounds are included and which files are delivered. That leaves no room for misunderstanding on either side.

When you need ongoing support rather than a project, we work on agreed monthly hours. That suits businesses with a constant flow of artwork, offers and posts who want a designer available without building a department. Printing and fabrication costs are always separate and paid directly to the producer, with no markup passing through us.