The Three-Layer Brand Model for Web3 Projects
Web3 branding follows a pattern. It begins with energy, aesthetic, and large ideas. It ends with a roadblock as these projects attempt scaling. A project begins with being able to sustain itself on symbolism, memes, and feelings. As it evolves, there is a transition in who it needs to appeal to. It begins appealing to institutional sources, coders, and authorities. These sources don't rely on feelings but on clarity.
Dozens of Web3 projects later, and watching them either succeed or spectacularly blow up with redesigns and scaling efforts, I have determined that problems with most misbranded projects have one thing in common: Web3 brands are too two-dimensional. They offer too much with one voice and one message. That’s fine for an initial token drop but not a global platform competing with giant tech.
To address these issues, I created something I call The Three-Layer Brand Model. It’s specifically tailored for ecosystems and will allow these Web3 projects to build on their vision and help them attain trust without sacrificing what made them unique.
Why Web3 Brands Break As They Grow
Web3 faces distinctive challenges with regards to branding:
Anonymous contributors with differing views
Rapid product evolution and changes in roadmaps
Various audiences (constructors, traders, businesses, society
Decentralized governance that changes direction
Protocol-level complexity that is hard to visualize
Narratives driven by market cycles, not marketing teams
Putting it all into solutions with just a single expression. A single color scheme, a single tone, a single brand. But Web3 brands aren’t startups. Web3 brands are ecosystems. And ecosystems have layers. Not monumentality.
The Three Layer Brand Model breaks down a Web3 brand into three complementary components: Symbolic Identity, Product Clarity, and Ecosystem Narrative. By understanding these components and properly identifying when it's necessary to emphasize one or more, it establishes a scalable brand as the project evolves.
L1. Symbolic Identity
This is exactly what Web3 does well. Symbolic branding takes concepts like decentralization, freedom, and revolution and represents them as images. It’s very emotive and artistic.
Examples:
Illustrations, mascots, emojis
Mythology-inspired visuals
Bold color palettes
Meme culture and shared symbols
Playful or ideological storytelling
Why it matters: A symbolic identity allows people who believe something to rally around. It speaks before an implementation. It makes something very complex, very human.
Limitations: Pure symbolism will not scale. That which inspires a Telegram channel will not reassure a risk-averse CTO.
L2. Product focus
As the product becomes more stable, there needs to be an understanding of what the tech actually does. It’s here that Web3 faces a challenge. There needs to be an understanding among developer communities on what they want. Differentiation is required among enterprises.
The Product Truth layer contains:
Technical diagrams and architecture visuals
Messaging frameworks
UX patterns and interface language
Performance claims, security assurances, benchmarks
Onboarding flows and documentation
Why it matters: This level represents the area that removes friction, establishes trust, and helps people grasp what the protocol is about, beyond mere buzzwords. Big tech recruiters, investors, and enterprise buyers look here first.
Limitations: Too much clarity without emotion becomes sterile, bureaucratized, and unrememberable.
L3. Ecosystem Story
As soon as a project transcends its immediate circle, it becomes necessary that the brand itself expands. You will then have:
Independent teams
Parachains / L2s / subnetworks
Product suites
Partnerships
Hackathon communities
Developer tooling
Content creators
It is a level that coordinates the plot within the whole ecosystem. It will include:
Design systems and design tokens
Narrative pillars
Partner enablement kits
Multi-product brand architecture
Governance communication
Templates and shared assets
Why it matters: A protocol without an ecosystem narrative becomes fragmented. It loses coherence as more teams build under it. A strong ecosystem layer ensures consistency without dictating creativity, crucial for decentralized environments.
A Framework for Web3 teams
To apply the Three-Layer Brand Model:
Audit your current assets
Which layer dominates?
Which layer is underdeveloped?
Map each audience to a layer
Community → Symbolic Identity
Developers → Product Truth
Partners/enterprises → Ecosystem Narrative
Align brand investments with roadmap maturity
Pre-launch: symbolism and storytelling
Post-launch: product clarity
Scale stage: multi-team systems
Create a governance model
A brand without governance collapses once contributors multiply.
Brands That Survive Market Cycles Have Depth
Since market cycles are The next generation of Web3 will be shaped by protocols that communicate clearly and inspire genuinely and scale cohesively. The three-layers model of brand enables projects to have a structure that precisely accomplishes that, merging creativity and clarity and vision and trust. Web3 doesn’t need more branding “vibes.” It needs more layered frameworks for communications so that actual users, devs, and partners will be better educated on what Web3 can and will do.
If your brand moves smoothly across these levels, it won’t only make it through the next cycle but become category leader.
