What is included in a brand identity package (and what is not)

What is included in a brand identity package? The short answer: a logo in several versions, a color palette, typography, a brand guide that explains the rules, and a set of templates you can edit. The better packages also include the research and the concept behind those choices. Most leave out naming, copywriting, the website and printing.

That list is the same everywhere, so it will not help you choose. What helps is one test, and I will defend it for the rest of this article: a package is worth what you can do alone the day after delivery. If you still need the designer to make an Instagram post, you bought a logo, not an identity.

What a brand identity package should include

Here are the six parts, in the order I would check them on a proposal.

• Research and concept. A short study of your market and the idea the brand stands on, presented with the reasons. Without this, the rest is decoration.
• The logo suite. The main logo plus a horizontal version, a stacked version, a small symbol for profile pictures, and one-color versions for dark and light backgrounds.
• Colors. A main palette with the codes for screen (HEX and RGB) and for print (CMYK). Two or three colors you actually use beat eight you never touch.
• Typography. One or two fonts, with the sizes for titles and text, and the license so you can use them legally.
• The brand guide. A document with the rules: how much space around the logo, what never to do with it, which color goes where.
• Templates. Editable files for the things you make every week: social posts, a presentation cover, a business card.

Try this today: take any proposal you have and mark each of the six. Anything not written down is not included, no matter what was said on the call.

What is usually not included

Packages differ more in what they leave out than in what they put in. A good example is a US$ 9,000 brand identity service on Dribbble (checked in October 2026). It is a full identity with guidelines, and it still lists as not included: naming, full marketing copy, extensive market research, printing, editable templates for social media and swag, and website design.

None of that is wrong. It is simply a different product from what many people think they are buying. These are the five things to ask about by name:

• Naming. If you do not have a name yet, that is a separate job.
• Copy and messaging. A tagline is sometimes in. The text of your website almost never is.
• The website or sales page. Usually a second project, with its own price.
• Editable templates. Some packages show the brand applied to mockups but do not hand you the working files.
• Printing and production. The design of a business card is in. Getting it printed is not.

Why templates matter more than a thick guide

Here is where I disagree with a lot of the market. People are impressed by a 60-page brand book. A small business owner reads it once. After that, what keeps the brand consistent is the file you open on Tuesday to make a post.

Marty Neumeier defines a brand in The Brand Gap as "a person's gut feeling about a product, service, or organization". You do not create that feeling with a document. You feed it every time someone sees your business look the same way again. The Nielsen Norman Group lists consistency and standards among its ten usability principles for the same reason: people should not have to wonder whether different things mean the same.

So I keep my guide between 10 and 20 pages and put the effort into about ten ready-to-edit templates instead. If a rule matters, it is already built into the template, so you cannot break it by accident.

A real example: a construction brand

The cover of this article is from JPB Construtora, a construction and real estate company whose brand I designed. A brand like that lives on very different surfaces: a website, a sign on a building site, a sales presentation, a uniform. That is why an identity has to be a system and not a logo. A copper logo on a dark wall looks great on the cover. The work is making sure it still holds up on a white invoice, on a small profile picture and printed on a fence.

In my process, the concept and the logo come first. Once the logo works, I build the system around it: colors, type, the guide and the templates. You can see JPB and other projects on the brand identity page.

What my brand identity package includes

For transparency, here is mine, so you have one fixed reference to compare against. It costs US$ 2,900 and takes two weeks:

• research and the concept, presented with the reasoning;
• the logo and its versions;
• colors and typography;
• a brand guide of 10 to 20 pages;
• about ten ready-to-edit templates;
• two rounds of revisions;
• all the source files, which are yours.

It does not include the website. If you need the sales page too, brand and landing page together are US$ 5,900, and the page is built on the brand instead of next to it. If you want to know how this compares with the rest of the market, I put the public price ranges in how much a brand identity costs for a small business.

Is a logo the same as a brand identity?

No. The logo is one piece. A brand identity is the logo plus the colors, fonts, rules and templates that make everything you publish look like the same business. If you only have a logo, every new post or slide is a fresh guess.

Does a brand identity package include a website?

Usually not. Most packages stop at the identity and its guide, and the website or landing page is a separate project with its own price. Some studios sell both together. Mine does, as an option: brand and landing page for US$ 5,900.

What files should I get at the end?

The logo in vector (SVG or PDF) and in PNG, in every version, the color codes, the font names with their licenses, the brand guide as a PDF, and the source files of every template. Ask for ownership of all of it in writing.

What to do before you sign

Write down the three things you make most often for your business. A weekly post, a webinar slide, a sales page header, whatever it is. Then ask each designer one question: "Will I be able to make these alone after delivery, and with which files?" The answer tells you more than the price. If you are still deciding whether you need an identity at all this year, read what a small business needs from branding in year one first.