How long does a brand identity actually take?
Six to eight weeks with a studio our size. Twelve to sixteen if you go to an agency, mostly because of the layers between you and whoever is doing the work. A logo on its own takes a week or two. And if someone quotes you two days for a full identity, what they're really telling you is that there's no strategy in it.
Here's where the time goes.
The first week is talking. We get on a call and work out where the business is heading, who's buying, who else is in the market and what's driving this now. Then I write it up as a brief and you sign off on it. It's the shortest phase and it's the one that stops us all drifting sideways in week five.
Then a week or two on strategy. Positioning, audience, how you sound, what the story actually is. None of this is visible in the final work, which is exactly why it's the first thing that disappears from a cheap quote.
Two to three weeks on the identity itself. Logo, colour, type, and everything around them, then put onto real things. A cafe sees the signage and the menu. A supplement brand sees the label on a shelf. Much easier to judge that way than a mark sitting on a white slide.
A week to refine. I present it live rather than emailing a PDF, you come back with your notes in one go, I make the changes. There's a second round if we need it, though most projects don't.
Then a week to build everything out. Files named properly, guidelines written, exports for print, digital and social, all handed over in one place.
Six weeks for a visual identity, eight if we're doing the verbal side too. That extra fortnight is strategy and words, not extra logo options.
Why projects run late
Almost never the design, and I say that having caused none of the delays I'm about to describe.
The main one is slow feedback. Six weeks assumes you come back within a couple of days at each stage. Go quiet for a week twice and you've turned six weeks into eight, which usually only becomes a problem because there's a launch date attached.
Second is too many people. Five sets of notes arriving separately, two of them contradicting each other, and there's nothing to action. One person collecting the feedback and sending it once keeps everything moving.
Third is scope. Wanting packaging or a site halfway through is completely fair enough, it just needs its own timeline instead of being squeezed into the existing one.
Can you go faster?
Sometimes. If the brief is tight, the feedback is quick and the strategy is already sorted, a visual identity can land in three or four weeks. What I can't speed up is the thinking. A rushed positioning phase gives you something that looks good now and stops fitting the moment the business grows.
If you've got a hard date, say so on the first call. Working backwards from a real deadline is easy. Finding out about one in week four isn't.
And when should you start? Six months before you launch is ideal, because it leaves room for packaging, signage, a site and actual printing after the identity is locked. Three months works. If you've got six weeks, do a Brand Starter, get open, and come back for the full thing once you know what the business is.
