How Much Does Logo Design Cost in the UK?

Ask three designers what a logo costs and you will get three very different numbers, and all three might be right. "Logo design" covers everything from a generator that assembles stock shapes in a minute to an agency identity project that runs for months. This guide sets out what the UK market typically charges at each level, what you actually receive for the money, what moves a quote up or down, the costs people forget to budget for and how to avoid the most common mistake of all, which is paying for a logo twice. If you want to know what branding a startup needs before a website is designed, our guide to startup logos and branding covers that side; this guide is about the money.

UK Logo Design Prices at a Glance

These are typical ranges rather than rules. Location, experience and demand all move them, and London studios tend to sit towards the top of each band.

What You Actually Get at Each Level

Generators and do-it-yourself tools

You type the business name, pick a style and the tool assembles an icon and a typeface from a library. It is instant and nearly free, and that is the problem: the same icons appear in thousands of other logos, the result is often difficult or impossible to register as a trade mark, and the files are usually flat images that cannot be scaled or edited. Fine for a side project; a liability for a business you intend to grow.

Marketplaces and junior designers

Freelance marketplaces and design contests sit between £100 and £500. You may get a perfectly good logo, but the odds are uneven. Cheap work is sometimes adapted from templates or stock artwork, revisions are limited, and the files you receive may not include editable vector versions. If you go this route, ask for original work in writing, insist on vector files and check the copyright terms.

An experienced freelance designer

From around £500 to £2,000 you should expect a conversation about your business and customers, a look at competitors, two or three distinct concepts, two rounds of refinement, and a complete file set in vector and image formats with colour and single-colour versions. Many will add a one-page guide to colours and fonts. This is the level most startups need.

A small design studio

Between £1,000 and £5,000 the logo becomes part of a small identity: a primary logo and secondary versions, an icon that works on its own, a colour palette with exact values, typography for headings and text, simple brand guidelines and often applications such as business cards, social media templates or email signatures. This is the point at which a brand starts to look consistent everywhere it appears.

A branding agency

Above £5,000, and often well above, you are paying for strategy workshops, market research, naming, a full identity system, detailed guidelines and help rolling it out across everything from packaging to vehicles. Worthwhile for a funded consumer brand; rarely the right first step for a startup still finding its customers.

What Moves a Quote Up or Down

• Research and strategy. Time spent understanding your market before any drawing starts.
• Concepts and revisions. Three concepts with two rounds of changes costs more than one concept with one round.
• Deliverables. A single logo file versus a full set of variants, sizes and formats for web, print and social media.
• Naming. If the business does not have a name yet, naming is a project in itself.
• Trade mark checks. Searching the register before you commit to a mark, and advice on what is likely to be registrable.
• Guidelines and applications. A document showing how the brand is used, and designed items such as cards, signage or templates.
• Speed. A logo needed next week costs more than one needed next month.
• Experience. A designer with a strong portfolio charges more and usually gets there in fewer rounds.

The Extra Costs People Forget

The design fee is rarely the whole bill. Budget for:

• Trade mark registration. Registering a UK trade mark costs a few hundred pounds in official fees per class of goods or services, before any legal help. It is optional, but it is the only way to stop someone else using your name and logo.
• Font licences. Some typefaces need a licence for use on websites or in print, from a one-off fee to an annual subscription. Ask your designer which fonts they have used and what they cost to license.
• Stock and illustration. Any licensed imagery used alongside the logo.
• Printing and signage. Business cards, stationery, packaging, vehicles and shopfronts all need producing or replacing.
• Everything that carries the old logo. Social profiles, email signatures, documents, invoices and templates, if this is a rebrand.
• A website that matches. A new logo on an old website looks like a new logo on an old website. If the site needs updating too, our website redesign service and our guide to planning a website redesign cover what that involves.

How to Avoid Paying for a Logo Twice

The most common path we see is a cheap logo at the start, replaced within a year once the business is trading, has customers and is embarrassed by it. Everything then has to be redone: the website, the social profiles, the print. To avoid it:

• Decide what the logo has to do for the next three years, not the next three months, and buy at the level that will still look right then.
• Design it with the website in mind. The logo will live in a website header more than anywhere else, so it needs to work small, in one colour and on dark and light backgrounds.
• Check the trade mark register before you fall in love with a name or a mark.
• Get the full file set: vector files for print and scaling, image files for the web, colour, black and white versions, and a favicon and social media sizes.
• Get copyright assigned to you in writing on final payment.
• Ask for a short guidelines document, even a single page, so the logo is used consistently by everyone who touches it.

Logo and Website Together

Because we design and build websites for startups, we are often asked to design the logo as well, and we recommend it when the business does not have one yet. Logo and brand design is quoted alongside your website rather than sold as a separate package, the same people design both, and the colours and typography carry straight through to the site. The total is usually lower than paying two suppliers, because the research and the thinking are shared, and the result is one consistent brand rather than two interpretations of it. You can see how it fits with our startup website design prices, and ask for a combined quotation when you enquire about startup web design.

Deciding How Much to Spend

• Testing an idea, no customers yet: keep it simple and cheap, but make sure you own the files and the copyright, and expect to revisit it.
• A trading business with customers: the professional freelance or small studio range, so the brand is consistent across the website, social media and print.
• Raising investment or selling to consumers: a studio or agency identity, because the brand is now part of what you are selling.

The sensible test is to picture where customers will see the brand most, and spend there. For most startups that place is the website, which is why the logo and the site are worth designing as one project. If you are not sure which level you need, tell us about the business and we will give you a straight answer and a combined quotation if it helps.