Journal · Money
What branding actually costs
Nobody publishes this, so everybody guesses. Here are real ranges, what you get at each level, and how to work out which one you need.
The most common question we get is also the one the industry is most evasive about. Ask five studios what a brand identity costs and you get five versions of "it depends on scope". True, and also a way of avoiding the question until they have worked out what you can pay.
So here is the actual landscape, in US dollars, as of 2026. Some of it is unflattering to us.
$300 to $1,200. The freelance logo
A single designer, usually part-time, delivering a logo file and possibly a colour palette. Turnaround of a few days. Sourced through Instagram, a friend, or a marketplace.
What you get: a mark. Usually one Latin wordmark, sometimes a rough Arabic version, delivered as PNG and maybe AI.
What you don't: positioning, a type system, application rules, bilingual consideration, or any answer to what happens when you need signage.
When it's the right call: quite often. If you are testing a business, running a market stall, or launching something you will rebrand in eighteen months anyway, spend the $600 and put the rest into product. Anyone who tells you every business needs a $15,000 identity is selling.
$2,000 to $6,000. The small studio starter
A one-or-two-person studio doing a compressed identity project over three to four weeks. This is where most new businesses with any ambition end up.
What you get: a logo suite with variations, a defined colour palette, selected typography, a lean guidelines document, and usually a social media kit. Often a second script drawn properly at the upper end of the range.
What you don't: serious strategy. At this price nobody is doing competitor research or writing a positioning statement, there isn't time in the budget, and honestly there usually isn't in the brief either.
When it's the right call: you know exactly who you are and what you're selling, and you need it expressed well. This is the sweet spot for cafés, boutiques, small services and second locations.
$9,000 to $25,000. The brand system
Six to eight weeks. Strategy first, then identity, then application. This is the first tier where anyone is asking about your margins before drawing anything.
What you get: positioning and competitor landscape, audience definition, messaging and tone of voice, a full type system, pattern and iconography, complete guidelines, collateral, and art direction for your website.
What you don't: naming, packaging design, photography, or a launch campaign, those are usually scoped separately.
When it's the right call: you're hiring people who need to make brand decisions without you, opening multiple locations, or selling something where the purchase decision is influenced by how credible you look. If a customer would hesitate to spend $500 with you because you look small, this tier pays for itself.
$18,000 to $60,000. The full build
Ten to eighteen weeks, sometimes a small team. Naming, verbal identity, packaging or environmental design, motion, photography direction, launch campaign, and supervised rollout.
When it's the right call: you're exporting, raising money, entering a category where everyone already looks expensive, or the packaging is the product. Below roughly $1m annual revenue this is very hard to justify, and any studio that encourages it at that stage is prioritising their portfolio over your balance sheet.
Above $60,000. Network agencies
The named agencies and the local offices of international networks. Corporate rebrands, banks, telecoms, government. A different business entirely, and not one most readers of this need to think about.
How to work out which tier you're in
Three questions, answered honestly.
- Does anyone other than you make brand decisions? If yes, you need a system, not a logo, $9,000 and up. A system is what lets someone else make the decision correctly.
- What is one customer's first impression actually worth? A coffee shop's is worth a few dollars. A dental practice's is worth thousands. Scale your spend to the value of the impression, not to the size of your ambition.
- Would you rebrand this within two years? If plausibly yes, buy the cheap version now and the real one later. This is a completely legitimate strategy and studios rarely say so out loud.
Three ways people waste money here
Buying a logo when the problem is positioning. If you can't explain in one sentence why someone should choose you, a new mark will not fix it, it will make the confusion look more expensive.
Paying for guidelines nobody implements. A 60-page PDF that sits in a Drive folder has changed nothing. Budget for rollout, or don't budget for guidelines.
Treating a second script as a line item. Getting the Arabic done cheaply after the fact costs more later, because you end up redoing it, and everyone can tell.
Our own prices, since we're arguing for transparency
We publish everything on the pricing page: $1,200 for Essentials, $2,800 for a Brand System, $4,000 and up for a Full Build.
That places us below where a project of this scope usually lands, which is deliberate. We would rather be judged on the work than on the invoice, and you can tell before you email us, which is more than most studios will give you.