I love to work on brand identities. It’s fun, it’s challenging, and sometimes it can be a downright son-of-a-B.
Why do I love designing brands? Well, the more involved I am with a brand, the more connected I feel, and that creates a great design space to work in. Some clients come to me needing an identity facelift, other’s need to create their brand presence from scratch. While I’m comfortable in both spaces, I’m more passionate about building brands from scratch.
So, this might lead you to ask, “what’s in a brand?” And, “why haven’t you mentioned my logo yet?” Don’t worry, it’s coming.
A brand identity is a complete communication system for your business. This includes everything from your mission and vision statement, and transcends all the way to the language used on your shopping cart check out screen. Identities include your tone of voice, messaging, positioning, as well as your design collateral – business cards, flyers, boosted Facebook posts and beyond. I still haven’t mentioned your logo – I know, it’s important.
Your logo is only one part of your brand identity. Certainly it is your distinguishing mark, and face to the world, but it has to work in harmony with all of the other aspects of the way your brand looks and feels to your audience.
Logos are subjective. There will always be lovers and haters in the design world. But there is also good process to help guide our decision making process. Logo’s are not *usually* born of instant inspiration, a voice from the sky, a lightening bolt from the heavens. They are more likely to be a product of good process, educated feedback, and critical thinking.
When working together, I take your entire business in to consideration. How is your team doing sales? What is the marketing strategy? Where are you allocating advertising dollars?
Creating a logo without thinking about your audience, positioning and messaging is like going to work without getting dressed. Ya, you’ll make an impression, but is that how you really want people to remember you? No, we need a plan, we need background, we need research (ugh). We need to think critically about your business goals, your competitors, your budget, and everything in between.
So, when a client asks how much a logo costs, I usually have a body of questions that need answered before I can give you an idea. I also need to identify where I can add value, which is deeply important for you as my client.
Some factors that are taken in to consideration with the complexity of a logo project are:
- Is it a new or existing brand?
- How does your brand want to be positioned?
- Who are your competitors?
- What are your short or long term business goals
- Does your logo need a custom icon?
- Do you need a custom font?
- Should the mark be hand-drawn?
- Do you need other design elements to be incorporated?
- Is it for manufacturing products?
- Where will your logo be used?
- Do we have budget restrictions based on production processes?
- And the list goes on.
Topically speaking, a logo, being part of a larger brand identity package, would range from $2,500 – $15,000, depending on the project’s actual scope of work. It’s rare that I do an a la carte logo design that does not address your other sales or marketing pieces.
My job is to lead you through these decision, and create a stunning brand identity that speaks to your audience and accomplishes your business goals. I’ll educate you on the process, the feedback loop, and figuring out what other items you may need to allow growth and flexibility with your brand.