Quick answer
- You need the basics of a brand before your website is designed: a final name, a logo or a clear direction for one, two or three colours, a font choice and an idea of tone. You do not need a full brand book.
- A designer can plan the site structure without branding, but the visual design should wait for the logo and colours or you will pay for revisions later.
- UK logo design costs range from almost nothing with a DIY generator to £5,000 and up with an agency. Most startups pay £500 to £2,000 for a professionally designed logo.
- Having the same people design the logo and the website keeps everything consistent and usually costs less than using two suppliers.
One of the first questions we are asked by founders is whether they need a logo before they can have a website. The honest answer is "a bit of one". A website is designed around a brand: the logo sits in the header and the browser tab, the colours drive every button and heading, and the typography sets the tone of every page. Start the visual design with none of that in place and the designer is guessing, which usually means a second round of design once the branding arrives.
That does not mean you need an expensive branding project before you can start. This guide explains what branding actually means for a startup, the minimum a web designer needs to begin, what logo design costs in the UK, what you should receive, and why having the logo and website designed together tends to produce a better result for less money.
What Branding Actually Means for a Startup
Branding gets talked about in grand terms, but for a new business it comes down to a handful of practical decisions that make everything you produce look like it came from the same company:
- Name. Final, checked against Companies House and trade mark registers, with a matching domain name secured.
- Logo. A mark and wordmark that work large on a sign and tiny in a browser tab, in colour, in a single colour and reversed out of a dark background.
- Colours. A primary colour, one or two supporting colours and a neutral for backgrounds and text. Three or four in total is plenty.
- Typography. One or two typefaces, with a decision about which is used for headings and which for body text.
- Tone of voice. How you sound in writing: formal or relaxed, technical or plain, playful or serious. Three or four adjectives are enough to guide a designer and a copywriter.
- Imagery. The style of photography or illustration you will use, and whether you have any real photographs of your people, products or work.
A full brand identity project also produces guidelines, stationery, social media templates and so on. Those are useful later. None of them is needed to design a good first website.
The Minimum a Web Designer Needs Before Starting
To design a website that looks finished rather than provisional, a designer needs the following from you:
- Your final business name and the domain you will use
- A logo in a vector format, or a brief for one to be designed first
- A primary colour and at least one supporting colour, or permission for the designer to propose a palette
- One or two fonts, or again, permission to propose them
- A few words describing the feel you want and the feel you want to avoid
- Any photography you already have, even if it is rough
Everything else can wait. If you are gathering material for a website project, our startup website checklist lists what else to have ready, from the domain to the legal pages.
Can the Website Start Before the Logo Is Finished?
Parts of it can. The early stages of a website project, understanding the business, agreeing the pages and sketching wireframes of each page, do not depend on the logo at all. Our guide to what pages a startup website should have can be worked through before any branding exists.
The visual design is different. Colours, type and the logo are the raw material of that stage, so the sensible order is logo first, then palette and typography, then the website visuals. When one studio handles both, the stages overlap naturally: the logo concepts are developed while the site structure is being agreed, and by the time visual design starts the brand is settled. When two suppliers are involved, the website usually has to wait for the logo, or be revised when it arrives.
What Logo Design Costs in the UK
Logo prices vary even more widely than website prices, because the same word covers everything from a five-minute generator to a months-long identity project. These are typical UK ranges:
| Route | Typical cost | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| DIY logo generator | £0 to £50 | A generic icon and wordmark shared with thousands of other businesses, often with limited files and unclear ownership |
| Marketplace or junior freelancer | £100 to £500 | A quick logo with a couple of revisions; quality and originality vary a great deal |
| Experienced freelance designer | £500 to £2,000 | Research, two or three concepts, revisions, full file set and a basic colour and font palette |
| Small studio brand identity | £1,000 to £5,000 | Logo plus colours, typography, imagery direction and a short set of guidelines |
| Branding agency | £5,000 and up | Strategy workshops, naming, full identity system and guidelines, usually for funded or larger businesses |
What moves a quote within those ranges is the amount of research, the number of concepts and revision rounds, the deliverables, and whether trade mark checks or naming are included. As with websites, the cheapest option is rarely the best value: a logo that has to be replaced costs more than one done properly the first time. Our dedicated guide to logo design costs in the UK goes through what you get at each price and the extras to budget for. For a wider view of what a startup should budget overall, see our guide to how much a website costs in the UK.
What You Should Receive From a Logo Project
A logo is only useful if you have the right files and the right to use them. Whoever designs yours, make sure you receive:
- Vector files (SVG, EPS or PDF) that scale to any size without losing quality. This is the master version of your logo.
- PNG files with transparent backgrounds in several sizes, for the website, documents and social media.
- Colour variations: full colour, single colour and a reversed version for use on dark backgrounds or photographs.
- Favicon and app icon versions that still read clearly at sixteen pixels.
- Colour values for screen and print, and the names of the fonts used along with where to license them.
- A short usage sheet showing clear space, minimum sizes and what not to do.
- Written confirmation that you own the design once the final payment is made.
If a designer only supplies a single JPEG, you do not really have a logo yet.
Why the Logo and Website Work Better Designed Together
Startups often buy a logo from one place and a website from another, then discover the two do not quite fit: the logo was designed for a letterhead and loses its detail in a header, the colours clash with the photography, or the font is not available for the web. Designing the logo and the website together avoids all of that:
- The logo is tested where it will actually live: in a header, in a browser tab, on a phone screen and on a dark background.
- The palette and typography are chosen once and carried straight through to every page, button and form.
- There is one brief, one conversation and one point of contact, rather than two suppliers interpreting your business separately.
- The total cost is usually lower than two separate projects, because the research and thinking are shared.
If you already have a logo you are happy with, none of this means replacing it. A good web designer will build the website around the brand you have and tell you honestly if any part of it will cause problems on screen.
Common Startup Branding Mistakes
- Chasing trends. Gradients, mascots and whatever is fashionable this year date quickly. A simple, well-drawn mark lasts.
- Too many colours. Five or six colours make a site look busy and amateur. Three or four, used consistently, look considered.
- A logo that fails small. Fine detail and thin lines vanish in a browser tab or on a phone. Test every logo at a tiny size before you approve it.
- Inconsistency. One colour on the website, another on the email signature, a third on social media. Every touchpoint should look like the same company.
- No ownership of files. Logos bought through generators or without an agreement can leave you unable to trade mark, reproduce or even prove you own your own mark.
- Branding before the business is settled. Changing the name or the offer after the logo is designed means paying twice. Settle the fundamentals first.
A Simple Branding Checklist for Your Startup Website
- Confirm the business name and secure the domain and social media handles.
- Decide the three or four words that describe how your brand should feel.
- Commission or finalise a logo, and make sure you receive vector files and own the design.
- Settle a palette of three or four colours and one or two fonts.
- Gather any photographs of your people, products or work, or plan a short shoot.
- Hand all of it to your web designer before visual design begins.
- Apply the same logo, colours and fonts to your email signature, social profiles and documents at launch.
How We Handle Branding at DigitalPod
Because we design and build websites for startups, we are regularly asked to design the logo as well, and we are happy to. Logo and brand design is quoted alongside your website rather than sold as a separate package, and it is created by the same people who design the site, so the logo, colours and typography are developed with the website in mind from the first sketch. Several of the startups in our Trustpilot reviews came to us for a logo and website together.
If you already have branding, we build the website around it. If you have nothing yet, ask for a combined quotation when you enquire about startup web design; you can see how branding fits alongside our packages on the startup website design prices page, or simply contact us and tell us where you have got to. We will give you a clear view of what you need before the website starts and what can wait.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a logo before I build my website?
You need at least a logo direction, your main colours and a font choice before the visual design of a website starts, because the design is built around them. Planning, page structure and wireframes can begin without them. If you have no branding at all, the simplest route is to have the logo and website designed together by the same studio.
How much should a startup spend on a logo?
Most UK startups that want a professionally designed logo pay between £500 and £2,000. Marketplace and junior designers charge £100 to £500, small studios producing a fuller brand identity charge £1,000 to £5,000, and agencies charge £5,000 and up. Free generators cost nothing but produce generic marks that are hard to own and rarely work at small sizes.
Can I use a free logo maker for my startup?
You can, and for a side project it may be enough. For a business that wants to look established, a generated logo is a false economy: the same icons appear on thousands of other sites, the files are often low quality, and you may not have clear ownership of the result. Most startups that begin with a generated logo replace it within a year or two.
What files should I get with my logo?
At minimum, vector files such as SVG, EPS or PDF, PNG files with transparent backgrounds in several sizes, colour, single-colour and reversed (white) versions, a note of the exact colour values and the fonts used, and written confirmation that you own the design. Without vector files the logo cannot be reproduced cleanly at larger sizes.
Should the same designer do the logo and the website?
It usually works better. The logo is designed knowing where it will live, the colours and typography carry straight through to the website, there is one brief and one point of contact, and it typically costs less than paying two suppliers. If you already have a logo you like, a good web designer will build the website around it.