Key takeaways
- Strategy before design. Know who you are and who you serve.
- Prioritise: logo, colours, fonts, voice. Skip the rest for now.
- Invest in the core. DIY the rest until you can afford more.
You don't need a six-figure brand agency to look professional. A focused identity—logo, colours, type, voice—can be built on a startup budget if you're clear about what you need.
Start with strategy
Who are you? Who's your audience? What do you want to be known for? Nail this before you brief a designer. A logo without strategy is just a shape.
Prioritise
You need: a logo (or wordmark), a colour palette, one or two fonts, and a tone of voice. You don't need: elaborate illustration systems, 20-page guidelines, or custom everything. Start lean.
Where to save
- Use a designer for logo and core elements; DIY for templates
- Stock fonts over custom type (for now)
- Simple patterns or gradients over custom illustration
- Clear guidelines over a huge brand book
Where to invest
Logo, primary colours, and voice. Get these right. They're hard to change later.
FAQs
A basic identity can run £2–5k. More if you need extensive applications or multiple concepts.
For a placeholder, maybe. For something you'll use for years, invest in a designer. Cheap logos look cheap.