Minneapolis has a deep agency history and a long list of shops that do branding. I worked at or ran several of them: Olson, Carmichael Lynch, Catalyst Studios, and Thread. Here is how to choose from the buyer's side of the table.
What should I look at first?
Look at work for businesses in your category and at your size. A shop that made a strong brand for a national beverage launch may not know what a twelve-person accounting firm needs, and the reverse. Ask for three projects that look like yours and ask what happened after launch. If the brand is no longer in use, ask why.
Who will do the work?
Ask to meet the people who will make your brand, before you sign. At larger agencies the senior people often win the work and a junior team does it. That can be fine if the junior team is good and the senior people stay in the room. Get the names in the proposal.
What should I get for the money?
A brand is more than a mark. A complete branding job covers:
- Naming, if you need a new name or a product name, with a check that it is available.
- Identity: the mark, type, color, and how they work on a sign, a truck, a website, and a business card.
- Voice: how the business talks, with examples of headlines, emails, and the phone greeting.
- Guidelines: a guide your staff and your next designer can follow, and all the source files, owned by you.
If a proposal covers only the mark, you are buying part of a brand.
How much should branding cost?
Ask for a price on the first call or in the first proposal. A shop that will not name a number until the third meeting will name whatever number it thinks you will pay. My prices are on the page: identity from $2,500, naming and full brand from $6,000, websites from $6,000. Anything over $3,000 can be paid by the month across the months the work takes, no interest. What a brand refresh costs breaks down each piece.
Should I hire an agency or a senior independent?
Hire an agency when the rollout needs many hands at once: many locations, a packaging line, a hard launch date. Hire a senior independent when the job is one brand for one business and you want the person you met to do the work. Freelancer or studio for my branding has the longer comparison.
I have done it from both sides. At Olson I worked on Phillips UV vodka, which won a One Show Interactive Merit. I was a partner at Catalyst Studios and executive creative director at Go East, where I renamed and rebranded the agency itself as Thread. Now I take branding jobs as an independent, from co-ops and nonprofits up to larger companies. The branding page has what I include.
What should I ask references?
- Did the people who pitched the work do the work?
- Did it come in at the quoted price?
- Is the brand still in use, and does your staff follow the guide?
- Would you hire them again for the next job?
Answered by Jared Lukes, Minneapolis. Twenty-five years in brand, UX, and technology, currently holding fractional AI and technology seats at three companies. About Jared.