Short answer: A professional brand identity for a small business usually costs $2,000 to $6,000. A logo, color palette and style guide sit at the lower end. Strategy, messaging and full guidelines push it higher. Agencies often start around $10,000.
That's a wide range, so here's what actually sits inside it.
What you're paying for
A brand identity is the visual system that makes your business recognizable everywhere it shows up: your website, your proposals, your Instagram grid, the sign on your door. The logo is the part everyone pictures. It's also the smallest part of the work.
Most of the time goes into decisions you never see. Who are you trying to reach? What do your competitors look like, and how do you look different on purpose? Which color reads as trustworthy to a family law client and which one reads as a nail salon? A designer earns the fee in those calls, long before anything gets drawn.
What's usually included
At the starting end, expect:
A primary logo, a secondary logo and a small submark for tight spaces
A color palette with the exact codes for print and web
Typography: which fonts, where, and at what sizes
A short style guide so anyone on your team can use it correctly
A fuller identity adds strategy and voice. That means a discovery session, positioning, brand messaging, patterns or illustration, social templates and longer guidelines that cover how you write as well as how you look.
What changes the price
Scope moves the number more than anything else. A few things push it up:
Strategy and messaging. Figuring out what you say is real work, and it's often the part that makes the biggest difference.
More pieces. Business cards, letterhead, packaging, signage and templates each take time.
Rounds of revisions. Most packages include two or three. Starting over from scratch is a different project.
Who's doing the work. A freelancer with fifteen years of experience costs more than a contest site and less than an agency with an account team.
DIY or hire a designer?
If you're testing an idea or haven't made your first sale, a clean wordmark you make yourself is fine. Spend the money on the business.
Once clients are paying you, the math changes. A brand that looks homemade costs you in ways that are hard to see: the referral who checked your website and went with someone else, or the price you didn't raise because your materials didn't look the part. That's usually when owners call me.
What my packages cost
Brand Essentials starts at $2,000. It's for owners who know their direction and want it designed well: logo suite, palette, type and a style guide. Brand Identity starts at $3,500 and adds strategy, voice and messaging. If you need a website too, Brand + Website starts at $7,500 and designs both together so they match from day one.
Every project gets a written proposal with the exact investment before we start, and payment plans are available.
Curious where your project would land? Tell me about it and I'll give you a straight answer.
