Smart work for cool clients by real people.
Your brand should be getting the attention it deserves.
5+8 is a brand consultancy in Houston, Texas. We've been doing smart work (brand strategy, identity, campaigns, websites) for cool clients (nonprofits, restaurants, breweries, energy companies) with our very real people (hopefully you'll get to meet them soon).
“Organized, thoughtful, creative, helpful, the list goes on! The entire team takes great care of us and does a beautiful job with our branding and message. I’m thrilled to work with 5+8.”
Lee Scarpinato
Brand & Marketing Director
Becks Prime
What we do
Brand strategy first, and then we build all the fun stuff.
- Brand strategy
- Positioning, naming, messaging, and audience work. The part that decides what everything else says.
- Identity design
- Logos, type systems, color, and the guidelines that keep it consistent after we hand it off.
- Packaging & environments
- Cans, boxes, menus, signage, murals, and vehicle wraps. Anything a customer sees in the physical world.
- Campaigns & content
- Concepts, copywriting, photography and video direction, social, and paid creative that runs.
- Websites
- Design and build. Fast, accurate, and easy for your team to update once it's live.
- Ongoing partnership
- Retained creative for teams that need consistent output without hiring a full department.
Selected Work
From small but mighty nonprofits to brands the world uses every day, everyone gets the same thing. The truth.
How We Work
- 01
One team, start to finish.
- The people who set the strategy design the identity, write the copy, and build the site. Nothing gets lost in a handoff.
- 02
Straight answers.
- We tell you what we'd tell ourselves. If a project isn't worth pursuing, we'll say so before the contract is signed.
- 03
Let's go now.
- Most engagements produce real, usable work in 30 days. And when that goes well, we tend to work alongside you for years to come.
Common questions
Straight answers, before you ask.
- What does 5+8 actually do?
- Brand strategy first: positioning, naming, messaging, and audience. Then we build it: logo and identity systems, packaging, signage and environmental graphics, campaigns, photography and video direction, and websites. Same team on all of it.
- Are you a Houston branding agency?
- Yes. We've been in Houston since 2013 and our studio is on West Gray in Montrose. About half our work is for Houston companies and nonprofits; the rest is national.
- Do you work with clients outside Houston?
- Regularly. We've worked with Samsung, Lyft, Uber, and Marathon Oil, among others. Kickoff and a few working sessions are better in person when it's possible, but the rest runs fine remotely.
- How long does a brand project take?
- Most engagements produce real, usable work in 30 days. And when that goes well, we tend to work alongside you for years to come.
- What does a brand project cost?
- It's hard to know until we know what we're doing, but we usually start with a small test project, $5K to engage, so we can see if it's a good fit before anyone commits to more.
- Can we hire you for just a logo?
- Sometimes, but we'll usually push back. A logo without a point of view behind it is decoration. If strategy is already settled on your side, we're happy to pick it up from there.
- What size companies do you work with?
- Small nonprofits through global brands. The common thread is a decision-maker in the room, not a committee. Everyone gets the same straight answers either way.
Tell us what you're building.
Tell us what you're building: what's getting in your way, what the project needs to do, and roughly when you'd like it done. We'll read it and reply with our honest take, whether or not we're the right team for it.
