A logo is one deliverable
A logo is a mark — usually with a primary lockup, a secondary lockup or two, an icon and a monogram. It answers the question "what does my business look like when it signs its name?"
See our full logo design service.
A brand identity is a system
Brand identity includes the logo — but it also includes the colour palette, the type pairing, the icon set, the photographic style, the tone of voice, the motion principles, the usage rules, the social templates and the rollout assets. It answers "what does my business look and sound like, everywhere it shows up?"
See our full brand identity design service.
Which one do you need?
- Just a logo if you're a single-service small business with a tight budget and no plans to run a broader marketing campaign.
- Full brand identity if you need a website, social content, print, signage and vehicles to all feel like the same business.
- Evolve an existing logo if you've built real equity in the current mark but the system around it is inconsistent.
Where people go wrong
Paying logo-project prices and expecting identity-project outcomes. A $500 logo is a $500 logo. It won't survive being applied to a 20-metre shopfront, a 40-pixel favicon and an email footer.
A real-world example of design discipline
The same typographic and detail care that goes into public design work — see the Brisbane Sign design case study — is what separates a usable brand identity from a Canva template.
Logo vs brand identity — common questions
If you are a single-service small business on a tight budget with no broader marketing planned, a logo is enough to start. If your brand has to appear consistently across a website, social, print, signage and vehicles, you need a brand identity — the logo alone will not hold it together.
Yes, and it is a sensible way to spread cost — provided the logo is built properly (real vector files and lockups), so the later identity work can build on it rather than starting over.
A $500 logo is a $500 logo. It often will not survive being applied to a 20-metre shopfront, a 40-pixel favicon and an email footer. You pay again to fix it once the business grows into uses the cheap version was never made for.
Still unsure which one you need?
Tell us what you're building and where the brand has to show up. We'll tell you the cheapest honest answer.