What Does Creating a Corporate Design Cost?

We often experience it like this: You don’t suddenly notice that a corporate design is missing – you notice it through friction.

There's that one presentation that somehow looks different from the website. The social posts feel like they're from a different universe. Your team asks with each new graphic: “Which font was that again?” And when new people join, the problem multiplies because guidance is missing.

The Moment It Becomes Costly

The actual trigger is rarely just aesthetics. It’s mostly about clarity and efficiency: A consistent appearance saves time, protects the brand from randomness, and makes decisions easier. It sounds soft, but it’s very concrete. If every request, every ad, every slide has to be "reinvented," you consistently pay with internal time – and with inconsistent impact.

In our projects, we see three typical situations: First: You're starting something new (product, organization, initiative) and want to build trust with a solid appearance. Second: You're growing, hiring, working with partners – and need a system that works without constant back-and-forth. Third: Your offer has changed, but your look is still stuck in an earlier phase.

Fresh Perspective 1: “Costs” are Often Just Shifted Costs

A corporate design is not an expense you “pay once,” but a decision on where you lay down complexity: in the project budget or later in your day-to-day. Our experience: If a CD is thought of too small, rework occurs everywhere – on web, social, print, presentations, recruiting.

That’s why we don’t start by thinking “What does a design cost?” but “What friction needs to disappear – and where is it currently arising?” That’s the first step to a budget framework that feels not based on instinct, but on reality.

If you want to compare prices, you must first compare words. Many offers appear cheap because they mean something else.

Logo is a Building Block, Not a System

A logo is a symbol. It can be good or bad, but it doesn’t automatically solve the questions that arise in day-to-day: Which font is for headlines, which for body text? How do contrasts work on mobile screens? What does a social post look like if the text is longer? Which image style fits without resorting to stock photos?

Corporate design is the framework that holds these decisions together. It typically includes a logo and wordmark, color scheme, typography, image style, illustration principles, layout logic, icon style, and a set of rules that explain how to use everything together.

Corporate identity, in turn, is larger: It includes tone, values, behavior, culture, and often positioning. A corporate design can be part of a CI but does not replace strategic clarity.

Fresh Perspective 2: “What Calculates into the Price” is Often Usage Reality

We ask early: Where will your design actually happen? Not theoretically, but next week. Website, LinkedIn, pitch deck, recruiting, event signage, app, newsletter? The price depends less on how "beautiful" something becomes, but on how many situations it should reliably cover.

Here comes our field-tested method into play: We use a small touchpoint map (max 60 minutes), on which we collect the most important applications and sort them by frequency. This sounds simple, but it is the point at which many projects suddenly become clear. Because as soon as you see that your team creates 20 social assets every week, but print only occurs twice a year, the focus shifts – and thus the effort.

And another detail that is almost always forgotten: Digital readability is not automatically given. Since 2025, accessibility has become significantly more present in many contexts in calls for tenders and requirements. A corporate design that considers contrast, font sizes, and flexible layouts saves you painful corrections later – especially on the website and product surfaces.

When we plan a corporate design, we don’t think in “deliverables,” but in building blocks that form a language together. And as with any language, you can communicate with a few words – or you can express nuances.

What Almost Always Belongs

The core consists of a logo/wordmark (or a revision thereof), typography, color scheme, grid and layout principles, image style, and a set of basic elements such as buttons, surfaces, lines, icons, or illustration rules. This usually makes the brand already recognizable.

It becomes more expensive where design translates into real work: templates for presentations, social templates, email signatures, documents, potentially packaging or event material. Even a simple “brand kit” for partners can be useful so that collaborations don’t lead to visual excess.

The Silent Master Discipline: Guidelines that are Used

A point often overlooked in competing articles: Guidelines are not “a PDF to file away.” They are an operating concept. If your team doesn’t understand how to make decisions in everyday life, the most beautiful design won’t hold.

We often rely on lively documentation, which doesn’t just list rules but shows examples. In digital teams, this can also work in tools like Figma or as a simple knowledge page in the intranet. The format is not as important as accessibility.

Sustainability as a Price Factor – but Different Than You Think

Sustainability in design doesn’t mean “green color.” It means saving resources: fewer variants, less data load, less unnecessary production. If a corporate design contains clear rules for image sizes, illustration style, and handling of large visuals, it will directly help later with website performance and content production.

This is not a moral add-on. It’s craftsmanship. And craftsmanship costs where it saves you time and complexity later.

We would like to give you a price list that always works. But that would be dishonest because corporate design doesn’t function like a shelf product. What we can give you is orientation in ranges – and the knowledge of which questions underpin them.

Three Typical Budget Frameworks We Often See

A starter framework is suitable if you are a small team, use few channels, and want to quickly achieve a consistent look. Here it’s about a solid core and a few templates that help immediately.

A growth framework becomes relevant when you regularly produce content, test new formats, and have several people working on the brand presence. The effort lies less in "designing" and more in a robust system: variants, examples, rules that carry in everyday life.

A scaling framework makes sense if you have complex touchpoints (e.g., website plus product surface, multiple target groups, collaborations, events) or if you’re becoming more international. Here it’s about stability: A CD that doesn’t fall apart when you use it in new contexts.

Our Pragmatic Budget Test

When you ask us for a number, we ask a counter-question: What is inconsistency costing you right now? Not as drama, but as accounting. How many hours flow per month into inquiries, corrections, redesign? How often is something newly produced because it “doesn’t fit”? Many teams massively underestimate these hidden costs – and then wonder why a cheap CD doesn’t feel “cheap.”

And one more thing: Some costs seem like CD costs but are actually rollout costs. When you are simultaneously setting up your website anew or reworking content, the budget often gets mixed. That’s okay – but it should happen consciously.

If you need a hard number: We gladly give it to you in a conversation as a range, based on your touchpoint map. No show, no pressure – just as a decision aid.

When you have offers in front of you, they often look comparable: “Logo, colors, fonts, guidelines.” And still, there are worlds between the prices. The difference lies in the fine print – and in what isn’t mentioned at all.

Fast vs. Durable is Not a Moral Issue

A quick package is not automatically bad. It can be just right if you want to quickly test whether a project even gains resonance. It becomes problematic when a “quick” package is sold, but you actually need a system that survives team and channel longevity.

We like to compare packages along three questions: How many touchpoints are included? How are decisions secured (tests, examples, revisions)? And how is the handover solved so you don’t remain dependent later?

Our Experience: Few Touchpoints are Often More Expensive Than You Think

It sounds paradoxical, but it’s everyday: If only one or two applications are designed (e.g., website homepage and business card), there’s a lot of room for interpretation. Later, each new application has to be derived “from the gut.” That costs time and leads to deviations.

A package that covers a small set of typical formats from the start (e.g., social post, story format, presentation slide, document template) seems initially larger, but saves discussions later.

Tools That Should Be Considered in the Package

If you work a lot in a team, it’s worth asking: Where does the system live? In many setups, Figma as a source for components and templates is sensible, while a lightweight CMS or wiki makes guidelines findable. For font licenses, a provider like Google Fonts (if appropriate) can reduce costs – but not every brand wants or should take this path.

In the end, package comparison is less about “Who delivers more pages?” and more about “Who reduces future decisions?” That’s where true cost-effectiveness lies.