When the team behind a Sheffield board game café decided to leave their franchise, they had a business but no identity. No name, no colours, no brand, and a fast-approaching need to open their doors. Lobo Digital helped them turn a set of scattered ideas into a complete, distinctive brand, quickly enough to launch on schedule.
The two-person team behind The Gamers Guide Cafe had a clear vision for the kind of place they wanted to run: a warm, welcoming board game café built around community rather than profit. What they didn’t have was a brand to hang it on. Having made the decision to leave a franchise, they were effectively starting from scratch. They needed a name, colours, fonts, an identity, the fundamentals of a business, and they needed them fast.
Leaving a franchise means walking away from a ready-made identity and building your own. For a small, independent café preparing to open, that’s a significant undertaking with real time pressure.
No Name or identity:Â The business existed as an idea and a passion, but had none of the basic building blocks: no name, no visual identity, nothing a customer could recognise.
Difficulty putting the vision into words: The team knew how they wanted the café to feel, but like many founders, they struggled to translate that instinct into concrete brand language, the name, the look, the tone.
A tight timeline: This wasn’t a leisurely rebrand. With an opening to work towards, the brand had to come together quickly without cutting corners.
The team found Lobo Digital the way their own future customers would find them: through Google. As they put it, if Marcus knew how to rank first on Google, he probably knew what he was doing. It’s a small detail, but a telling one, our own search visibility became the first proof point of our expertise.
The first job was helping the team organise their own thinking. Through careful questioning, we drew out what the business actually stood for and who it was for. Crucially, this was a collaborative process, not a prescriptive one. We guided and advised, but always made clear that this was their business and their decision, which built their confidence with every session.
From those conversations came the name: The Gamers Guide Cafe. A name that captures both the product and the promise, a place that guides you into the world of games, whoever you are.
With the name in place, we developed the full visual identity: colours, fonts, and the look and feel that would carry across everything from the shopfront to the menu. The goal was an identity that felt unique, cohesive, and true to the welcoming, community-first spirit of the café.
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We brought it all together in a set of brand guidelines, the moment the client singled out as the standout of the whole project. Seeing everything they’d discussed captured in one document was when the business became real to them. In their words, looking through it made them think: “wow, this café sounds pretty cool.”
For a brand-new business, the most important result is simple: they were ready to open, with an identity they were proud of.
A brand they’re proud of
The team went from a blank page to a complete, distinctive brand identity, one they described as cool, unique, and a perfect fit for who they are.
They opened
With the fundamentals in place, The Gamers Guide Cafe launched. The brand did its first and most important job: it got the business out into the world.
Early customer response
While it’s early for sales comparisons, the response has been overwhelmingly positive from customers, staff, friends and family alike. The café’s Google reviews reflect a brand and experience that’s landing exactly as intended, warm, welcoming, and community-focused
This project worked because of how we work. We listened first and imposed nothing. We were patient through the back-and-forth it takes to get a brand exactly right, and we moved fast enough to hit a tight timeline. Above all, we kept the client in the driving seat, so what they ended up with was authentically theirs, delivered with the polish of a professional agency.
We aim to build long lasting relationships with our clients so that we can help grow their business. We constantly adapt and improve their marketing strategy to the new best practice so they are always innovative market leaders.
Whether you're leaving a franchise, launching something new, or finally giving your idea the identity it deserves, Lobo Digital helps you turn scattered thoughts into a brand that works. Quickly, collaboratively, and built entirely around you.
