Nyah Eliud
What you are actually buying
When a business asks for branding, it usually means a logo. When a designer says branding, they usually mean the whole system: the mark, the colours, the fonts, the photography, the way you write, and the rules for using them together.
The gap between those two meanings is where most disappointment lives. A business pays for a logo, gets a logo, and is puzzled that nothing else changed.
What a logo really does
A logo does one job well: it makes you recognisable. Once someone knows who you are, the mark helps them find you quickly in a busy feed, on a shelf, or in a list of search results.
It does a second, smaller job that matters more than people admit. A good logo signals that you took the business seriously enough to invest in it. A logo made in a free generator with a stock icon signals the opposite, and customers read that signal even when they couldn’t explain why.
Recognition needs repetitionA logo means nothing on day one. It gains meaning because people see it again and again, attached to good experiences. That’s why changing it often is expensive.
What a logo cannot do
It can’t make people want what you sell. It can’t fix a price that’s wrong for the market, a product that disappoints, or a phone nobody answers.
It can’t create trust on its own either. Trust comes from evidence: reviews, work people can look at, named staff, clear prices, and a website that answers questions. A beautiful mark on top of none of that’s decoration.
If sales are the problem, a logo is very rarely the answer. Any agency that tells you otherwise is selling, not advising.
The parts that matter more than the mark
- Consistency. The same colours and fonts everywhere beats a cleverer logo used carelessly.
- Being clear about what you do. A tagline a stranger understands beats one that sounds impressive.
- Photography. Real pictures of your real work, team and premises change minds faster than any mark.
- How you write. Customers read your words far more often than they look at your logo.
- Rules, written down. Without them, six months of posts by three people will undo the identity you paid for.
When a rebrand is actually worth it
There are good reasons. The business genuinely does something different now. The name no longer fits the market you serve. The identity was never really designed and it shows. You’re moving upmarket and the current look keeps you out of the rooms you want to be in.
There are bad reasons too, and the most common is boredom. You look at your own branding hundreds of times more often than your customers do. By the time you’re thoroughly sick of it, most of your market is only starting to recognise it.
What to expect for your money
| What you get | What it does | What it does not do |
|---|---|---|
| A logo | Makes you recognisable across everything you produce | Make anyone want what you sell |
| Logo plus colours and type | Makes everything you print and post look like one business | Tell anybody who you are for |
| Full identity with guidelines | Keeps you consistent as other people make things for you | Fix a price, a product or a slow reply |
Ask for the files you will actually need: a horizontal and a stacked version, a one-colour version, a small mark for profile pictures, and each in formats for screen and print. A logo delivered as a single image is a logo you will be redrawing within a year.
What to give a designer
What you get back depends almost entirely on the brief you give. Before you commission anything, be able to answer these:
- Who is the customer, exactly, and what do they think of you now?
- What do you want them to think instead?
- Who are your three closest competitors, and how should you look different?
- Where will this be seen most: a phone screen, a shopfront, a vehicle, packaging?
- What must it still work in: one colour, very small, embroidered, printed badly?
Our branding service starts with exactly those questions, and we’ll tell you honestly if your money is better spent elsewhere first.
Go further: the branding guide, our branding service, or naming checks.
Questions people ask
It ranges widely, from a few thousand francs for a template to much more for research-led identity work. The useful question is what you receive: the variations and file formats, the colours and type, and whether any research went into it.
A vector file, such as SVG or PDF, that scales to any size for print and signage, plus PNG files with a transparent background for screens. Ask for horizontal, stacked, one-colour and small versions.
For a new business, a simple, clean wordmark in a good typeface is often enough to start. Invest in a professional identity once the business works and needs to look as credible as it is.
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