How much does branding cost for a startup in the UK?

For a seed to Series A technology company, a full identity from a specialist studio typically runs £15,000–£40,000. Strategy on its own is usually £8,000–£20,000. Below roughly £10,000 you are buying logo design rather than a brand system, which can be the right call very early on.

How long does a brand identity project take?

Six to ten weeks for most startups, or ten to fourteen when strategy and identity run together as one engagement.

Do you work with pre-launch startups?

Often. Pre-launch is the cheapest possible moment to get this right, because nothing has to be migrated, redirected or reprinted afterwards.

What if we already have a logo we want to keep?

That is common and frequently correct. We can build a full system around an existing mark: type, colour, layout, motion and applied use, without touching the logo itself.

Brand identity

Brand identity design for AI and SaaS startups

Somewhere between the fifth and sixth AI company website, they all blur into one. The same gradient mesh, the same Inter, the same abstract node diagram, the same feeling of nothing. That sameness is not a taste problem: it is a competitive problem, and it is fixable. Identity design is how a company that has built something genuinely different stops looking exactly like the forty companies that have not.

Identity that survives real use

An identity that only works on a moodboard is a liability. The systems we build are tested where they will actually live: a dense product UI at 13px, a pitch deck being screenshared over bad wifi, a LinkedIn ad at 400 pixels wide, a conference banner, a job advert competing with six better-funded companies for the same engineer.

That means real constraints from day one. Type that has a genuine UI weight range, not just a display cut. A colour system with accessible contrast pairs already worked out, so your engineers are not guessing. A logo that survives being placed at 24px in a browser tab and at four metres on a keynote screen. Iconography and illustration rules that a designer who joins in eighteen months can extend without asking us.

The AI startup problem specifically

AI companies converge visually for a reason: the product is invisible, so everyone reaches for the same abstractions to represent it. Neural filaments, glowing orbs, particle fields. The result is a category where the visual language communicates “we are an AI company” and nothing else, which is worthless when every competitor communicates the same thing.

The way out is to build the identity from what is actually true about your product rather than what is true about your category. For Gilagu, a regulation rule engine for financial services, that meant a hexagon-based geometric system: structure, connectivity and precision, the qualities a compliance buyer is actually purchasing. Calm and technical, not flashy. Trust earned rather than attention chased.

What you get, and how it is handed over

The deliverable is a working system, not a PDF. Guidelines cover the decisions someone will actually have to make, with real examples rather than abstract rules. Source files are organised and named so your next designer can open them. Where it makes sense we hand over design tokens your engineers can consume directly, so the brand in Figma and the brand in the product do not drift apart within a quarter.

Identity projects typically run six to ten weeks, and we usually run them straight out of a strategy engagement so the design has something firm to be about.

Where we have done this

Launches we’ve had a hand in.

Common questions

How much does branding cost for a startup in the UK?: For a seed to Series A technology company, a full identity from a specialist studio typically runs £15,000–£40,000. Strategy on its own is usually £8,000–£20,000. Below roughly £10,000 you are buying logo design rather than a brand system, which can be the right call very early on.
How long does a brand identity project take?: Six to ten weeks for most startups, or ten to fourteen when strategy and identity run together as one engagement.
Do you work with pre-launch startups?: Often. Pre-launch is the cheapest possible moment to get this right, because nothing has to be migrated, redirected or reprinted afterwards.
What if we already have a logo we want to keep?: That is common and frequently correct. We can build a full system around an existing mark: type, colour, layout, motion and applied use, without touching the logo itself.