Yes. On final payment the rights pass to you and you get every source file: vector originals, mono and inverse versions, and exports for screen and print.

Brand identity design, Austin

A drawn wordmark and an identity your front desk can use without calling us.

Q: How many logo options will I see?

One direction, argued for in writing, shown in use. Then two rounds of revisions on it. We do not send six options for you to pick from.

Logo design and brand identity design in Austin, Texas, for businesses that need one name set properly and used the same way everywhere. Three pieces of work: the logo and wordmark, the identity system around it, and the brand guidelines that keep it intact once we have left.

website
wordmark
letterhead
menu
guidelines
business card

Logo design, identity systems and guidelines.

You can buy the wordmark alone. Most clients add the system within a year, so we draw the mark knowing it will have to carry one.

Fig. 05Letterforms drawn on tracing paper before they are traced as vectors. Spacing is settled here, not in software.

I.01

Logo and wordmark

$1,800–2,900per mark, indicative band

A wordmark is the business name, drawn. We start from a typeface that fits, then redraw the letters until they belong to you alone: adjusted joins, tightened pairs, one character with a quirk you will recognize across a street. Then a single symbol for the places the full name will not fit, like a favicon, a stamp or the corner of a van.

The test is size. The mark has to hold at 16 pixels on a browser tab and at six feet across a storefront sign. We print it at both before showing you. A logo that only works on a presentation slide is the most common thing we are asked to replace.

Custom-drawn wordmark plus one symbol
Color, mono and inverse versions
SVG, PDF and EPS originals, PNG exports at three sizes
Three to four weeks including two revision rounds

I.02

Identity system

$4,200–7,400per system, indicative band

The system is everything around the mark: a palette of four to six colors with exact print and screen values, a type pairing with licenses you can actually buy, secondary marks, and one pattern or graphic device for surfaces that need texture. It includes the wordmark.

We do not show it on mock-ups. We apply it to six real items you will use, chosen together in the brief. For a bike shop that was a tote, stickers, a receipt, tags, a card and a paper bag. For a law office it was letterhead, an engagement letter, an email signature, a door plate, a folder and a website header. If the system cannot survive a receipt printer, it is not finished.

Wordmark and symbol from I.01 included
Palette in Pantone, CMYK, RGB and hex
Type pairing with license notes and costs
Applied to six real items, proofed on paper

Fig. 07A 24-page guidelines booklet open at color and type, with the one-page use sheet tucked beside it.

I.03

Brand guidelines

$1,200–2,400per document, indicative band

Brand guidelines design for whoever touches the brand after us: the sign maker, the next web developer, the new hire making an event flyer at 6 p.m. A 16 to 32 page PDF covering clear space, minimum sizes, color values, type hierarchy, photography direction and a page of mistakes to avoid, shown, not described.

Length depends on how many people will use it. A single-location café needs sixteen pages. A clinic with three sites and an outside print vendor needs closer to thirty. We add guidelines to an identity system or to a mark we did not draw, as long as the source files exist.

16–32 page PDF, screen and print versions
The one-page use sheet, explained below
Editable source so you can add pages later
Two to three weeks after the system is signed off

The use sheet

One page, taped inside the reception drawer.

Nobody at the front desk reads a 24-page PDF. They read one page if it is in reach.

Every identity job ships with a single letter-size sheet, printed on heavy stock and laminated if you ask. It answers the five questions people actually have when a vendor emails asking for "your logo": which file, which color, how small, how much space around it, and what never to do.

Which file: File names printed on the sheet, matched to the folder: SVG for screens, PDF for print, PNG only when nothing else is accepted.
Which color: The full-color mark, the mono version for one-color jobs, the inverse for dark backgrounds. Each shown at actual size.
How small: Minimum width in millimeters for print and pixels for screen, below which the symbol takes over.
Clear space: Drawn as a box around the mark, measured in the height of one letter, so nobody needs a ruler.
Never: Four thumbnails: stretched, recoloured, outlined, placed on a busy photo. The four we see most.

The clinic in our third case handed the sheet and the files to a new sign vendor. The sign arrived right on the first attempt. That is what the sheet is for.

Handover

You get the source files. All of them.

We do not hold a logo hostage. On final payment the rights pass to you, and so does the folder. That includes the working files, not only the exports, so another designer can pick the work up in five years without redrawing anything.

What is in the handover folder
Folder	Contents	Used for
01 Source	Vector originals, layered working files	Future edits by any designer
02 Print	PDF and EPS, CMYK and Pantone	Printers, sign makers, embroidery
03 Screen	SVG and PNG at three sizes, RGB	Website, email signature, social profiles
04 Favicon	SVG favicon and app icon set	Browser tabs, phone home screens
05 Guidelines	PDF, use sheet, editable source	Everyone after us

How an identity job runs, from brief to folder.

Revision rules in full

01BriefWeek 1
What the name must say, who sees it first, where it will appear. We list the six real items for a system at this stage.
02DrawingWeeks 1–2
Pencil first, then vectors. You see one direction, in use at real sizes, with a page explaining each decision.
03Two roundsWeeks 2–3
Each round is one consolidated list of notes. A third round usually means the brief was wrong, and we fix the brief first.
04Proof and hand overWeek 3 onward
Applications proofed on the real stock in the studio. Folder, use sheet and rights transfer on final payment.

Before you ask

What buyers ask about a new mark.

This work is not for a business that wants twenty concepts to vote on, or a logo by Friday. If the name might change in the next six months, wait. Drawing a mark for a name you are unsure of is money spent twice.

How many logo options will I see?

One direction, argued for in writing and shown in use. Then two rounds of revisions on it. Six options mostly measure how long a studio can spend not deciding, and the client ends up doing the designer's job.

Do I own the logo outright?

Yes. On final payment the rights pass to you along with every source file. We keep the right to show the work in our portfolio, and you can ask us not to.

Can you redraw our existing logo instead of replacing it?

Often, yes. If the mark has years of recognition behind it, we redraw and tidy it rather than throw it away. That usually lands at the lower end of the $1,800–2,900 band.

Do you check whether the name is trademarked?

We run a basic visual search for marks that look too close. A legal trademark clearance is a job for an attorney, and we say so in writing rather than pretend otherwise.

Will the identity work on my website and print too?

That is the point of doing it here. The same type and palette run into the website and the cards, menus and social templates, so the pieces stop contradicting each other.

A mark alone, or the whole system?

Pick the identity tier in the estimator, tick guidelines, add the print pieces you will need first. You get a planning band in dollars and a week count, not a quote.

Estimate a project