What a good logo costs, and why

Every week someone asks what a logo costs, and every week the honest answer starts with "it depends", which nobody wants to hear. So here is what it depends on, with numbers.

€5 to €50: a picture

A generator, a marketplace, a contest. You get a file. Often a nice-looking file. It has not been tested at small sizes, on dark backgrounds, in one colour or next to your competitors' marks. There is no wordmark system, no colour specification, no rules. Fine for a hobby, a test, a market stall for one summer. Ask who owns it; sometimes the answer is nobody, or everyone.

€500 to €2,000: a logo

A freelancer or a small studio. Some conversation about the business, a few directions, a finished mark with a wordmark, the files you need, maybe a colour palette. This is a real logo, and for many small businesses it is the right buy. What it usually lacks is the system around it: what to do when the logo has to sit on a photo, how the type on the website relates to it, what the social posts look like.

€3,000 to €10,000: an identity

This is where "logo" stops being the right word. You get the mark, the wordmark, a type system, colours that work on screen and in print, rules for spacing and placement, dark and light versions, templates for the things you produce every week — and a document that lets anyone keep it consistent after the designer is gone. The mark is maybe a fifth of the work. The rest is what makes a business look like one thing everywhere, for years. Ours start around here.

€10,000 and up: a brand

Strategy before design: who you are for, what you stand for, how you sound. Naming, if needed. Research. The full identity system, then rolled out across everything — site, packaging, vehicles, signage, uniforms — with photography and tone of voice to match. For a company with staff, a product on shelves or a serious growth plan, this is the level where the money earns its keep.

What actually drives the price

Time and judgement. A good identity is a lot of drawing, most of it thrown away, and a lot of testing: does it work at 16 pixels, embroidered, in black and white, upside down on a bag? Then the decisions about everything around it. Cheap logos skip the throwing away and the testing. It shows, usually in year two.

When you need one

When you are starting and want to look serious from day one. When you have grown and the old mark embarrasses you on a van. When you are rebranding, merging, or moving upmarket. When your website, your sign and your Instagram look like three different companies.

When you don't

When the current mark is fine and the problem is somewhere else — a slow site, a bad Google listing, no reviews. A new logo is the most tempting way to feel like something is happening. It rarely moves the numbers on its own. We will tell you that if it is true, because we would rather fix the thing that is broken.