Why the logo comes first (and why in software I wouldn't have cared)

I've been hearing the same advice for years: ship fast, ship ugly, fix it later. I've applied it and I've defended it. At Braid & Berry I'm doing the opposite: I'm not moving forward with anything brand-related until the logo is locked.

The rule I'm breaking

Design and packaging are on hold. Not because I'm not in a hurry, but because everything that comes next depends on that one piece. The colors come out of the logo. The packaging comes out of the colors. If I start at the end, I'll redo the work twice and pay for it twice.

The order is: logo, colors, packaging and everything else.

Why it does matter in food

This is food, not software. Image carries a lot of weight. When someone sees the logo of a food business, they have to understand what you're selling. It's not decoration you put at the top of a website: it's the face of the business and, if this grows, the face of the chain.

The Braid & Berry logo has to do two things at once: say it's braided bread and look good on a box, on a cart, on a sign and in an Instagram photo. If that isn't solved, no packaging is going to save it.

In software it barely matters

In my software companies I never stopped anything over a logo. The name does matter: you have to remember it, you have to search for it, you type it into an app store. But the logo you can change, improve, or simply not have at the beginning and nothing happens. Donna, in fact, used to be called WeHelp.

In software the product speaks for itself: you open it and it either works or it doesn't. In food, before tasting the sandwich, people have already decided whether your business looks good or looks cheap. They make that call based on the image.

It's a different kind of market, so I'm applying a different rule.

Why I'm not doing it with AI

Logo, packaging and all the design: around 1,000 dollars.

I tried AI first. I tested it with Nano Banana and no version worked. I didn't like any of them.

Here the detail matters enormously, and I only get that level of detail with a human review process: I say what to change, it gets changed, I look at it again. That's why I'm paying a designer.

Pausing the brand isn't pausing the business

This is what I want to make clear, because "the logo comes first" can be read as an excuse to do nothing.

What's on hold: design and packaging.

What's still moving:

• Recipe testing. We already did the first round of tastings at home, with four sandwiches. Two made it through.
• The search for someone to make the challah. I'm looking at several suppliers, but my idea isn't to hire a supplier: I want to find someone who really knows how to make challah and bring her in as a partner, with equity. We want to bake at home, not buy the bread.

None of that needs a logo. And if the sandwich doesn't work, the prettiest logo in the world is useless.

Where I'm at

Above is the version we're going with. The colors aren't final yet.

We're in final revisions. There's an initial idea and we're iterating on it. Once it's locked, color is next, and then packaging.

The rule I'm setting for myself: the logo gets locked this week, it doesn't stay open for a month waiting for the perfect version. Pausing the design is one thing; stalling the business over perfectionism is another, and I know that one well.