What a small brand really needs on day one

This is the short list we give founders on a first call. The costs are typical ranges in USD for a small business in a US city. Your numbers will differ, but the order rarely does.

The short list

1. A name you can use

Before any design, check that the name is free. Search the federal trademark database and your state’s business register, and check the domain and the main social handles. A search you do yourself is free. An attorney’s clearance search costs about $500 to $1,500. That is cheap next to renaming after launch.

2. A logo that works small

One wordmark or symbol, in your color and in black. It must still read at 16 pixels in a browser tab and on the side of a pen. A focused identity with a studio like ours takes about six weeks, at a fixed price agreed before we start.

3. Two typefaces

One for headings, one for text. Sometimes one family does both. Licenses for a small business usually come to $0 to $800 for desktop and web together. Free fonts can be excellent. Check the character set and the license before you fall for one.

4. One color, plus black and paper

One brand color is enough to be recognized. Write down its values for print and for screen from the start, so every supplier uses the same one. Color behaves differently on every paper, and yellow most of all.

5. One template set

A business card, a letterhead, an email signature, an invoice and one social post template. That covers most of what a new business sends in its first year. 500 cards on a good uncoated stock cost about $80 to $250.

6. A simple website

One to five pages: what you do, who it is for, proof, process and how to reach you. We build in Framer and train your team to edit it, so you never wait on us to change opening hours. Plan four weeks and about $15 to $30 a month for hosting. A single page is enough if it answers those questions clearly and loads fast on a phone.

What can wait

Everything below is good to have. None of it should hold up a launch.

• A full brand book. Two pages of rules is enough for year one.

• A photo shoot. Honest phone photos will do until you know what sells.

• Extra logo versions, patterns and icon sets.

• Merch, stickers and packaging beyond the first run.

• An animated logo, and a blog.

Done properly, most of these cost $1,500 to $5,000 each. By year two you will know which ones earn their cost, because real customers will have told you.

Carter & Lowe on day one

When Sarah Carter and Michael Lowe moved their law firm to Fifth Avenue in 2024, they had six weeks before the new office opened. We did not try to build everything. We made a wordmark with a blue ampersand, two typefaces, one blue, cards, a letterhead, a door sign and a one-page site. All of it fit inside the fixed price we agreed in the first week.

A Carter & Lowe billboard in pink sand dunes under a blue sky

The name on a billboard, the week the firm opened.

The ampersand does a lot of the work. It sits alone on the door and on the back of the cards, so the brand is recognizable even when the full name is too small to read. A proposal template and a longer site came the next spring, built from the same few parts.

Two fingers hold a Carter & Lowe business card against a cobalt sky

Carter & Lowe letterhead on warm white paper with a blue ampersand in the corner

The business card and the letterhead. One blue, two typefaces, nothing extra.

A six-week order that works

1. Week 1: name check, goals and the short list agreed.

2. Weeks 2 and 3: logo, typefaces and color.

3. Week 4: templates and print files.

4. Weeks 3 to 6: the website, built once the logo is approved.

5. Week 6: print run and launch.

Before a first call, write your own list of everything you think you need. Bring it with you. We will go through it line by line and mark what has to exist on day one and what can wait for month six.