Branding is the one line on a quote that clients query most, and fairly — the range is enormous, the deliverables are hard to compare, and a lot of studios are cagey about numbers.
So here are real figures, what actually drives them, and how to tell whether what you're being quoted is reasonable. We wrote the same piece about websites; this is the branding version.
The short answer
- Logo only, freelancer or marketplace: £150–£1,000
- Logo and basic identity, freelancer: £1,000–£3,000
- Full identity for a small business: £3,000–£8,000
- Identity plus strategy, small studio: £8,000–£20,000
- Full rebrand for an established company: £20,000–£75,000+
- Large agency, multi-market rebrand: £100,000+
A wide spread, and the rest of this explains why.
What you're actually buying
The word "branding" covers at least four different pieces of work, and quotes differ mostly in how many are included.
Strategy
Before anything is drawn: who you're for, what you stand for, how you're different, what you sound like. Usually a workshop, some competitor analysis, and a written positioning.
Skippable for a small business with a clear offer. Not skippable if you're entering a crowded market, because design without a position is decoration.
Typically 20–30% of a full project.
Identity design
The visible part. Logo and its variations, colour palette, typography, graphic devices, photography direction, and how it all behaves together.
The logo is the smallest piece of this and the one everyone focuses on. The system around it does more work.
Guidelines
A document that lets other people use the brand correctly without you in the room. Minimum sizes, clear space, what not to do, colour values in every format, type scales.
The difference between a £500 PDF and a £5,000 one is whether it answers questions or just shows examples.
Application
The brand applied to real things: stationery, signage, social templates, deck templates, packaging, vehicle livery, and — usually most importantly — the website.
Often quoted separately, and worth clarifying early. "Branding" that stops at the guidelines leaves you with a system and nothing built from it.
The five things that move the price
How much strategy is involved. A logo refresh for a business that knows exactly who it is costs a fraction of a repositioning exercise.
How many applications. Fifteen deliverables is a different project from three.
Whether you're replacing something. A rebrand carries migration work that a new brand doesn't: updating existing materials, managing the transition, sometimes retaining recognition while changing the mark.
How many decision-makers. This is the quiet one. A project with one owner moves at a different pace from one with a committee, and studios price for the rounds they expect.
Who you hire. A freelancer, a two-person studio and a thirty-person agency have different overheads and different day rates. The work isn't automatically better at the top end, but the process usually is more thorough.
What cheap branding actually costs
Marketplace logos at £50–£300 have a real place: a side project, a test, something that needs a mark this week.
What you don't get is a system. You get a logo file and no answer to what the secondary colour is, what happens when it sits on a photograph, what the typeface is for headings, or how it looks at 16px in a browser tab.
The cost shows up later, when everything your business makes has to be designed from scratch because there are no rules to follow. Businesses that buy cheap and grow usually pay for a proper identity within two years, which means paying twice.
How to tell whether a quote is fair
Is the deliverables list specific? "Brand identity" is not a deliverable. "Primary logo, three lockups, favicon, colour palette with accessible pairings, two typefaces with a defined scale, 20-page guidelines" is.
How many rounds are included, and what happens after? Unlimited revisions is not a benefit, it's a sign nobody has defined done.
Who owns the work? You should own the final artwork outright. Check the fonts too — web font licences are often bought in the client's name, and should be.
Is the website in or out? The most common misunderstanding on branding projects.
Have they shown you the thinking, not just the pictures? Studios that can explain why tend to produce work that survives contact with reality.
Getting the most from your budget
Do the strategy, even cheaply. An afternoon spent deciding what you stand for improves every design decision after it.
Prioritise applications by what customers see. For most businesses that's the website, then social, then everything else. Vehicle livery can wait.
Be decisive. Consolidate feedback into one voice per round. Indecision is the most expensive thing in any creative project.
Be honest about budget. A studio that knows your number designs the best possible brand for it. One that doesn't will quote for something you can't afford.
Questions we get asked
Can I just buy a logo and sort the rest out later?
You can, and plenty of businesses do. Be aware of what you're deferring: every piece of collateral you make afterwards involves decisions nobody has taken, so you'll either make them inconsistently or pay someone to make them properly later.
How long does a branding project take?
A refresh is typically four to eight weeks. A full identity with strategy runs three to four months. The variable that moves it most is how quickly decisions get made on your side.
Should branding come before the website?
Ideally yes, because the website is where the brand does most of its work. Running them together also works well and usually costs less than doing them separately, as long as the brand decisions are made first.
Every project is different, so the best way to get an accurate number is a quick chat. Tell us what you need and what budget you're working with, and we'll give you an honest answer about what's realistic.