Case study · 2025
Fortiter
Brand identity and a Squarespace website for an independent legal consultancy, built so a one-person practice read as established from its first day.
Fortiter is an independent legal consultancy for technology businesses, offering board-level counsel without a law firm wrapped around it. Its founder was leaving a senior legal career to go out on his own, and the practice had to read as established from the first meeting.
Law brands itself conservatively. The name comes from the Latin maxim suaviter in modo, fortiter in re, and the brand had to hold the same balance: composed on the surface, resolute underneath.
The F logomark draws two leaves into a single letterform. It is precise enough to sit at the top of a contract and distinctive enough to stand alone on a business card or a browser tab, so the practice is recognisable in the places its clients actually meet it.
The palette stays restrained, deep slate and teal held open by off-white, with one accent used sparingly so that when something needs attention it gets it. Hierarchy is carried by weight alone, which means a document the founder sets himself reads as the same practice as one set by a designer. The guidelines and the brand pack exist so that stays true whoever is applying it.
The site is built around the three things Fortiter is hired for: fractional legal support, specialist projects, and AI and cyber oversight. Someone arriving cold can work out which of the three they need and get in touch in a couple of minutes. It stays testimonial-led and plain-spoken, because a consultancy is bought on judgement. It was handed over with a walkthrough, so the founder can update a page, add a new piece of work or change a service without booking a developer.
An identity for a working practice earns its keep in the dull places. Letterhead that behaves on an actual letter, presentation templates the founder can open and fill in himself, and logo files ready for whatever a printer asks for. Nothing has to be redrawn or approximated to get a document out of the door.
Fortiter opened as a new independent consultancy that looks established, with none of the visual habits of traditional law. It went from first sketches to a live brand and website in under two months, and it leads with the line the brand was built to earn, trusted counsel for the digital age.
Trusted counsel for the digital age.Fortiter · fortiter.co.uk
