What a brand identity actually includes (and what it costs) in Ireland

Most people asking us for "a logo" actually need a brand identity. The logo is the part you can point at. The identity is everything that makes the logo mean something, and it's the part that quietly does the selling.

Here's what's genuinely included in a proper identity project, what moves the price, and how to spot the difference between a system and a nice picture.

The logo is about 10% of it

A logo on its own is a signature with nothing above it. What you're really buying is a system, a set of decisions that stay consistent everywhere your business shows up, so that a stranger sees your Instagram, your van, your invoice and your website and understands they're the same company run by people who care.

A real identity project includes:

• A primary logo plus the variations you'll actually need, a stacked version, a horizontal version, a single-colour version, and a tiny "icon" mark for app tiles and social avatars.
• A colour palette with exact values, defined for both screen and print, and rules for which colour does what.
• Typography, the fonts for headlines and body, licensed correctly so you're not breaking terms by using them commercially.
• The way it all goes together, spacing, sizing, do's and don'ts, written down so the next designer, printer or intern can't wreck it.

If a quote is only for "a logo", ask what happens the first time you need it in white on a dark background. The answer tells you whether you're buying a system or a single file.

What actually drives the price

Irish studios vary enormously, but the number is driven by four things, in this order:

1. Scope. A single wordmark is a different job to a full system with sub-brands, packaging and templates.
2. Strategy. Whether the work starts from research and positioning, or from "we like green". The thinking is where the value is; the decoration is cheap by comparison.
3. Who does the work. In a small studio you work directly with the people making the thing. In a larger agency you're often paying for account managers between you and the designer.
4. Rounds and rollout. How much revision, and how much of the applied material, website, social templates, print, is included versus quoted separately.

The honest ranges

For a Dublin or wider Ireland market, as a rough guide: a considered logo-plus-basics sits in the low thousands; a full identity system with strategy and rollout runs from there into the low tens of thousands depending on scope. Anything advertised as a €50 logo is a template someone else already owns.

How to buy well

Ask to see the system, not just the logos, in a studio's past work. Ask who you'll actually be talking to. And ask what you leave with, you want the source files, the fonts sorted, and a short guide, so the work is genuinely yours and doesn't fall apart the first time you brief someone new.

That's the difference between something that looks good in the pitch and something that still looks good, and works, two years later.

If you're weighing up a rebrand and want a straight answer on scope and cost for your business, tell us what you're working on, we'll tell you what we'd actually do.