People use "logo" and "brand" interchangeably, but they're not the same thing and understanding the difference will help you spend your money in the right place.

What a logo is

A logo is a mark. It's the symbol or wordmark that represents your business visually. It might be your business name in a specific font, an icon or a combination of both. A logo sits on your business cards, your website header, your invoices and your signage. It's one piece of your identity an important one, but just one.

What a brand identity is

A brand identity is the complete visual system your business uses to communicate. It includes your logo, but also: your colour palette (the specific hex codes you use consistently everywhere), your typography (which fonts you use and how), your photography style, your tone of voice, your icon set and the rules for how all of these things work together. A brand identity is what makes your Instagram, your website, your packaging and your receipts all feel like they come from the same place.

Which do you need?

If you're just starting out, a logo is usually enough to get moving. Get something clean and professional that works across the formats you need and build from there. If you're slightly more established and finding that your business looks inconsistent across different touchpoints your social media looks different from your website which looks different from your printed materials that's the point where a full brand identity is worth investing in.

What does it cost?

A decent logo from a professional designer starts at around £150 £300. A full brand identity logo, colours, typography, usage guidelines and templates starts at around £500 and goes up from there depending on scope. At Wellington Web Co., our brand packages start at £149 for a logo and include a full identity pack for clients who need it.

The thing worth remembering: a good brand identity pays for itself. Consistent, professional presentation builds trust and trust converts browsers into buyers.

DIY vs hiring a designer

Tools like Canva have made it possible to put together something that looks passable without any design experience. For a business just testing an idea, that's fine. The problem comes when a DIY logo or brand gets carried forward as the business grows and ends up on everything from a vehicle wrap to a shop front. At that point, the limitations of a Canva logo become very obvious. Fonts don't scale properly, colours weren't set up for print and the mark looks similar to dozens of other businesses using the same template.

A professional designer will give you files in the right formats for every use case, set up your brand colours as proper Pantone, CMYK and hex values and make sure the logo works in black and white as well as colour. These things matter more than they seem when you're staring at a 3 metre banner printed in the wrong shade of blue.

The most common branding mistake

Using too many fonts and too many colours. Pick two fonts (one for headings, one for body text) and two or three brand colours. Then use them consistently everywhere. Inconsistency is what makes a brand look amateur, not the quality of the logo itself. A simple, limited palette applied consistently will always look more professional than a complex design used differently on every platform.

Need a logo or full brand identity? Get in touch and we'll talk through what's right for your stage of business.