Top Branding Agencies in San Francisco (SF)

Find the best branding agency in San Francisco, CA (SF) for your startup, B2B, SMB, enterprise or SaaS project.

✨ They Make Design ✨
TMDesign
23 min readJun 26, 2019

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UPDATED: July 2, 2024

San Francisco, a vibrant hub of innovation and creativity, stands out as an ideal location for branding agencies.

The city’s diverse cultural landscape and booming tech industry make it a breeding ground for unique and impactful branding strategies.

In this review, we delve into the essence of San Francisco’s branding agencies, unraveling their significance in a city that is at the forefront of global business and technology trends.

1. Ramotion

  • Website: ramotion.com
  • Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
  • Clients: Stripe, Firefox, Oppo, Descript
  • Hourly Rate: $100 — $149 / hr
  • Team Size: 50+ employees
  • Founded: 2009
  • Services: Branding, Web Design, UX/UI Design
  • Industries: Consumer products & services, Financial services, Information technology, eCommerce, Business services, Retail
  • Best for: Tech SMB and Startups
  • Clutch rating: 4.9 out of 5.0 (25+ reviews)

2. BayCreative

  • Website: baycreative.com
  • Location: San Francisco, CA, United States
  • Clients: Cisco, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Docker, Twitter, McKesson Corporation, Fujitsu, Motorola Mobility, Intel, Oracle
  • Hourly Rate: $100 — $149 / hr
  • Team Size: 20+ employees
  • Founded: 1997
  • Services: Branding, Content Marketing, Video Production, Advertising, Marketing Strategy, Web Design
  • Industries: Information technology, Financial services, Business services, Telecommunications, Utilities, eCommerce
  • Best for: businesses seeking a comprehensive B2B marketing strategy, offering a “marketing department-in-a-box” approach
  • Clutch rating: 4.8 out of 5.0 (25+ reviews)

3. Catchword

  • Website: catchwordbranding.com
  • Location: Oakland, CA, United States
  • Clients: Aetna, Allergan, Amazon, Corning, Dunkin’ Brands, Fitbit, GE Healthcare, Hitachi, The Home Depot
  • Hourly Rate: $300+ / hr
  • Team Size: 35+ employees
  • Founded: 1998
  • Services: Branding, Logo,
  • Industries: Business services, Consumer products & services, Financial services, Information technology, Manufacturing, Medical, Arts, entertainment & music, Automotive, Media, Non-profit, Other industries, Real estate, Retail, Telecommunications
  • Best for: clients from startups to Fortune 500 companies seeking creative and strategic naming and branding services
  • Clutch rating: 5.0 out of 5.0 (95+ reviews)

4. Evviva Brands

  • Website: evvivabrands.com
  • Location: San Francisco, CA, United States
  • Clients: ABInBev, Alaska Airlines, Amazon, Atlassian, Blackrock, Chevron, City National Bank, DocuSign, E.ON
  • Hourly Rate: $150 — $199 / hr
  • Team Size: 10+ employees
  • Founded: 2009
  • Services: Branding,
  • Industries: Information technology, Energy & natural resources, Business services, Financial services, Medical
  • Best for: for global companies seeking a full-service branding agency with a strong focus on market research, strategy, and positioning
  • Clutch rating: 4.9 out of 5.0 (20+ reviews)

5. Theory SF

  • Website: theorysf.com
  • Location: San Francisco, CA, United States
  • Clients: NetGear, Riverbed Technology, Holonis, Forevercar.com, Avast Internet Security, HMA, SF Museum of Modern Ar
  • Hourly Rate: $150 — $199 / hr
  • Team Size: 5+ employees
  • Founded: 2015
  • Services: Advertising, Branding, Digital Strategy, Logo, Broadcast Video, Market Research, Marketing Strategy, Social Media Marketing
  • Industries: Advertising & marketing, Information technology, Hospitality & leisure
  • Best for: brands looking for a creative agency focused on crafting a harmonious and compelling brand identity
  • Clutch rating: 4.9 out of 5.0 (25+ reviews)

How Do We Review These Branding Agencies in San Francisco?

To ensure a comprehensive and unbiased review, we’ve employed a set of criteria to assess the branding agencies in San Francisco.

These criteria encompass various facets that are crucial in determining the effectiveness and reliability of an agency. The parameters include:

  • Location: Proximity to key business districts and accessibility.
  • Clients: Diversity and prestige of the client portfolio.
  • Hourly Rate: Affordability and value for money.
  • Team Size: Expertise and resource availability.
  • Founded: Experience and market presence.
  • Services: Range and specialization of services offered.
  • Industries: Industry-specific expertise and adaptability.
  • Best for: Ideal client or project types for the agency.
  • Clutch Rating: Independent, verified client reviews and ratings.

How to Choose a Proper Branding Agency in San Francisco?

Selecting the right branding agency from a list of options in San Francisco involves a thoughtful approach. Here’s a guideline to assist in making an informed decision:

  1. Assess Your Needs: Define the scope, objectives, and unique aspects of your branding project.
  2. Match Services with Goals: Ensure the agency’s services align with your branding goals.
  3. Consider Agency Experience: Look for agencies with a proven track record in your industry.
  4. Evaluate Client Testimonials and Portfolio: Review past work and client feedback to gauge effectiveness.
  5. Discuss Strategy and Creativity: Understand how the agency plans to approach your project creatively.
  6. Consider Budget and Value: Align the agency’s cost with your budget, seeking the best value for investment.
  7. Meet the Team: Engage with the team who will be handling your project to ensure compatibility.
  8. Review the Agency’s Location and Accessibility: Proximity can be crucial for in-person meetings and collaborations.
  9. Check Clutch Ratings: Refer to independent reviews for unbiased opinions.

There exist numerous professional branding firms that are specializing in everything that concerns a company’s branding. Local branding companies in the San Francisco can assist you in growing your business through brand planning, product naming, and visual identity design, among other services.

Exactly they can create and launch brands from the ground up, assisting in the creation of brand awareness and exposure among the target customers.

Branding firms can assist your corporation by promoting your brand, comprehending your objectives, and conveying them to the appropriate audience.

They will develop a solid identity and positioning for your brand that will let the company speak freely its mission, beliefs, and promises to attract your target audience. Additionally, branding companies may aid brands in rebranding to renew their overall image, differentiate them from the competition, and boost their reputation.

However, before going all out into the specifics, let’s start with the basics terms and slowly move on to the details that surround the success of branding companies San Francisco Bay Area.

What does a branding agency mean?

These agencies or firms are highly specialized in the services they provide, more specifically a company’s branding. Their primary objective is to assist in the creation, development, maintenance, and improvement of business brands. Creativity, design assets, and innovative statements may fall under their services, their primary focus is settled on the brand strategy through the development or refreshment of different brands.

A branding agency will assist you in building your brand by gaining an understanding of your business, defining your aims and objectives, and conveying them effectively to the appropriate audience. They will produce a methodology to enlarge your brand based on this knowledge and offer you the necessary tools to integrate your brand’s purpose, values, promises, positioning, and identity throughout your organization.

Therefore, if this is what you’ve been looking for, then by all means a branding agency is the way to go. One single and united image that promotes one of your many items or even services is probably best put with a brand image where these fellows are the professionals.

Core differences between a brand and branding?

In a nutshell, a brand is the personality of your business that enables consumers to recognize you or to be more specific about your products, or services. Branding, on the other hand, is the process through which you establish that identity.

Brands’ visual assets, copywriting techniques, graphic content, and color palettes should be consistent across all platforms, as they form one entity that gets attracted and recognized by a customer. This thing is typically defined by a single unique visual identifier — the logo.

So, businesses can and actually should undergo a branding process, which involves the creation of a new brand identity, or rebranding (which involves refreshing or improving the current company’s brand to increase its effectiveness).

Difference between a logo design and a branding

There is a widespread misconception that “logo design” and “branding” are very similar terms and can be even called synonymous. However, even if ultimately both of these names may be considered as “similar” and are closely related to each, they are quite distinct processes that function in unison.

In a nutshell, the process of creating a logo is called logo design. While branding refers to the process of developing a brand. To better comprehend the distinctive features between logo design and branding, let’s define and review each term individually.

What is a logo?

A logo is a graphic mark that quickly identifies a business, a commercial product, or any other public or private body. It is one of the ways to differentiate a business in a competitive market filled with graphic elements that attract the attention of a target audience daily. Generally, a logo is composed of typography, graphics/symbols, and colors. It is a graphic element that is used in a brand’s visual identity.

What is branding?

A brand is a concept or image that people have in mind when they consider a company’s specific products, services, or even activities, both practically and emotionally. This mixture of physical and emotional cues is elicited when a person is exposed to all touchpoints with a particular brand. These include the brand name, logo, products, visual identity, personnel, and advertising.

So what’s the difference between these terms?

The process of creating a logo is called logo design.

Branding, on the other hand, is the creation process of an entire brand. To be more precise, it is a strategy developed by businesses to assist customers in rapidly identifying their products and organization. In addition, branding serves as a company image that highly distinguishes business services/products for customers to provide them with a reason to prefer their products over those of their competitors. A branding strategy establishes the distinctions between what a brand is and is not.

Branding can be accomplished through the use of a variety of tools. A branding plan may include the following elements:

  • Brand definition: purpose, values, promise
  • Brand statement
  • Brand identity
  • Brand Promotion (Advertising)
  • Collaborations and partnerships
  • Physical and Visual Design
  • In-store Experience
  • Workspace Experience
  • Management Style
  • Customer service
  • Pricing strategy

Alas, as we can see, logo design is one of the tools used during the branding process, to produce and construct the brand’s visual identity.

What do branding companies in San Francisco do?

The majority of branding firms do combine lots of different people specialized in specific studies, that include: business, customer psychology, and outreach strategy. All of these people assist businesses in reaching and retaining clients by demonstrating definite brand values and positioning. Additionally, they also excel in managing, monitoring, and evolving different companies’ brands in response to changing market conditions.

Most of the time it is a huge team that is working to achieve the desired brand goals. It does include such people as designers, copywriters, marketers, analysts, brand strategists, and programmers who work as a singular unit, to create and evolve brands. Their core duties include:

  • Market and competitive analysis — Branding companies in the San Francisco Bay Area do execute extensive market research on your target market to get critical information about your audience and competitors. They carefully monitor the market and identify any industry trends changes to develop brand strategies. All of them should be both relevant to the current market state and long-term viable.
  • Brand Definition — Apart from performing deep research, branding firms San Francisco assist you with defining your brand’s purpose, goal, vision, and values. These qualities are essential when it comes to expressing your brand’s narrative effectively and gaining immediate attention.
  • Brand Identity — The identity of your brand is a very core part of any business. As it is not only the process of creating a brand’s name, voice, and logo that makes it unique. But it is also the alignment of all these things with your company goals, target market, and narrow industry field. And branding agencies San Francisco do have good expertise in producing highly valuable brand identities.
  • Brand Positioning — The positioning of your brand will differentiate your own company’s image from the vast competition pool while increasing its relevance and authenticity.
  • Brand Promotion — Branding firms in San Francisco can build marketing strategies that extend the promotion power of your brand far beyond the creation of simple advertisements. They analyze various stages of the sales funnel to develop customized branding strategies that move your leads from the awareness stage to brand loyalty.

Why should you hire a brand agency San Francisco?

A good and core question that you might be asking yourself: “Why in the first place should I consider hiring a brand agency San Francisco?” The key to this question lies in the afterward effects that will significantly enhance your web platform. Here are the core benefits of cooperating with a brand agency.

Brand Recognition

Be prepared to be amazed and confused at the same time, but colors alone do have a huge impact on the target audience. They influence the subconscious assumptions that buyers make about your brand in a matter of seconds.

However, at the same time, they are just a piece of the entire impactful puzzle of your brand image. There are plenty of other factors to consider when it comes to growing your brand’s reputation and trust. Creative branding companies in San Francisco do understand precisely which components to link with your brand to increase brand recognition and perception. These are the two critical variables that impact your customers’ purchasing decisions when deciding between you and your competitors.

Brand Loyalty Enhancement

In a nutshell, a typical branding agency San Francisco is frequently concerned with expanding into new and unoccupied market segments. Its primary objective is to nurture existing clients, earn their loyalty, and establish long-term partnerships.

These very specific organizations have a thorough understanding of your existing consumer base, their social profile, and how one should correctly interact with them. That’s one of the core reasons for choosing a San Francisco brand agency. They serve and act as a direct link between you and your customer, considerably increasing client retention.

Sales Boosting

A critical matter that every businessman should consider is his business brand equity. The consumers of today make purchases based on their perception of a brand image. The more familiar people are with a brand, the more faith they have in it.

Thus in a way, branding affects not just your brand’s reputation, but also your sales. By keeping up a consistent brand image on all digital and physical formats, and maintaining various strategies for achieving solid interaction between customers and your brand, a branding firm may assist you in increasing your business revenue profits.

How much do branding companies in the San Francisco Bay Area charge?

Typically, most of the expenses for branding companies in San Francisco are mostly determined by the amount of work required for the project. For instance, if you require a new company name, brand logo, and distribution across several channels, a professional branding agency San Francisco may charge between $20,000 and $250,000 or even more.

However, on the other hand, if you only require a new logo or to refresh a brand image, your approximate costs could range from $4,000 to $150,000. Typically, most of the businesses that are either located in San Francisco or are looking through the list of brand firms can anticipate spending this amount on the following services:

  • Brand Name: $12,000 to $78,000
  • Website & Marketing: $10,000 to $300,000
  • Advertisement: from $10,000 to $1 million

Everything that you’ve read above is connected with the flat fees that lots of branding agencies San Francisco provide. Other branding agencies prefer to make charges by the working hour. It is estimated that the vast majority of branding companies in San Francisco often take for their services between $125 and $200 per hour. So, in short, these branding firms do assist you in creating your brand image and producing digital assets for both your company product/services and the marketing website. But they do also aid your organization in building a strong brand and successfully distributing it across all channels.

How to choose the right San Francisco brand agency?

There are a lot of different brand companies in San Francisco and the process of choosing one may not be as simple as you might think. There are certain factors an entrepreneur should strongly consider before making a final judgment. Therefore, we prepared a few pointers that can greatly assist in the selection process of a correct branding agency.

Area of expertise

Numerous professional branding organizations are specialized in narrow and specific industry fields with their relevant services. Therefore, you should always ensure that they have experience building strategies according to your requirements and the specifics of your business industry. Plus brand positioning procedures can potentially bring brands to life and drive constant traffic.

Experience

Probably the same point that keeps repeating on its own, but does examine the agencies’ professional portfolios and customer lists. Learn what kind of team members do they have that may match with your business. This will provide you with a better understanding of what exactly your potential partners can deliver to you in the end. Whether it is the design, campaigns, and the results that are worth your time and consideration.

Return On Investment (ROI)

Whenever you choose among different branding companies in San Francisco, you are paying a high rate of return on your investment. It may be difficult to look past a hefty upfront fee, but take your time to analyze the potential benefits for your business growth before signing a contract. Examine their services, ask detailed questions, become familiar with the pricing levels, and ensure you have a firm grasp of each employee’s competence.

Check quotes

While pricing or quotes should not be the primary concern in your decision-making process, being aware of the future fees that you will need to pay, may ease things up on your end. As you’ll be dealing with a lot of work, tasks, and discussions not only with the branding firm but also your team, if you stress out your budget limits will assist you in finding a partner you can afford. So, in a nutshell, establish a reasonable budget for branding, and you will receive exactly what you invest.

Well-defined Processes

Stunning branding processes require strategic approaches, proven techniques, and evidence-based approaches. Each shaped and defined process does contribute to the essential skills of a professional branding firm. By partnering with an agency that is capable of providing research-based strategies, you can ensure that your work will be delivered on time and budget along with quality results.

Marketing & Compassion

Given the centrality of digital marketing channels management, the potential candidate for a branding agency San Francisco should have a creative brand strategy, implemented exclusively for your requirements.

Another criterion to note is compassion since it is very critical when telling your brand’s story. As a result, you may use creative strategy as a deliberate and strategic method to develop and implement growth strategies for your firm.

Therefore, don’t be afraid to be unique and let your San Francisco branding agency spread the power of creativity by developing a strategy that is uniquely yours. Otherwise, if you desire to review other branding companies in other areas of the US, we highly recommend you a list of Los Angeles branding agencies and the branding agencies NYC. Both of these articles contain prominent and professional agencies in their respective areas. In addition, you might want to take a look at each best brand design agency all across the globe!

10 core questions to ask branding firms San Francisco, before hiring one

As the urge or even temptation arises in the veins of an entrepreneur for hiring a branding consultant, one must interview them beforehand. This process is inevitable and very vital to your business essence. For that reason, one should always prepare a list of questions for a first-time interview. The following questions can assist you in determining a branding firm’s skills, prior experience, and prospective return on investment:

  1. What are your thoughts on our existing brand identity? What are our strengths and areas for improvement?
  2. How will the new branding affect platforms, mediums, marketing plans, and designs?
  3. How do you intend to ensure that each area maintains a consistent new identity? Do you have a consistent methodology for that?
  4. Are you planning an entire campaign for launching our fresh logo or brand identity?
  5. Who will function as a point of contact for me?
  6. How will you establish a timeline and ensure that the project stays on track?
  7. How frequently should our meetings, updates, and deliverables be expected?
  8. Which individuals of our team will be responsible for our branding project? How much experience do they have and how much time will they devote to our project?
  9. Are there additional fees for meetings, further strategy support, or further drafts, for example?
  10. How will you establish, monitor, and report on our objectives?

What should you evaluate in the branding agencies San Francisco?

After you have already sorted out your first pool of potential candidates for the role of brand agency San Francisco, it is time to evaluate the results and try to find out which one you should choose. It is completely fine if you have already made the first discussion with them, as these points serve as a base ground for making your final decision.

Creativity

Creativity practices and guidelines have to be produced continuously with a different number of options. Utilizing this approach, you will review and pick out the most favorable options that can be suitable for your branding image. That’s why this process has to be done together with your San Francisco branding agency. That way, both of you can reach the desired results and collect all of the other brand components altogether during this process.

Vision

Every single brand strategy is not completely restricted to a production of a basic logo. However, keep in mind that a company’s branding assets must be consistent and distinctive. Try to partner with a branding agency whose aesthetics and vision align with yours. That way you’ll have more time to attend to your other significant tasks.

Experience

Working alongside a professional and an expert San Francisco branding agency can be advantageous in a variety of ways, like gaining access to various premium tools, producing extensive analysis, etc. Thus we advise you to make your choice wisely while considering different brand firm options.

References

If you are in the middle of your major rebranding work, you should partner with a branding agency San Francisco that has previously executed successful rebranding works or produced new ones in the same industry field. That way, you will study the references to discover how past rebranding initiatives were handled or how new ones emerged.

Strategy

Every single brand agency out there must develop a documented brand plan with your creative brand image that explains who you are, what you want to let your target audience know, and the feelings your customers will evoke. Branding is about much more than aesthetics, it is also about planning, trust, and consistency.

What’s the process for hiring a branding agency San Francisco?

The hiring process of a branding agency San Francisco is really basic. However, do not judge it too quickly, as it does involve a few specific steps that an entrepreneur should carefully examine. Take a look at the breakdown below.

  1. Consider brands that you admire but also reflect your brand image and build a list of these brands.
  2. Ascertain which branding agencies conceptualized or produced brands that you chose.
  3. Make contact with these branding firms and arrange for an initial consultation.
  4. The most critical step: establish a firm timeline and budget. It is critical that, during the consultation, you can present a timeframe with particular dates by which you require drafts or versions of the brand to be completed, as well as a realistic budget within which you can operate. It is critical to have a firm grasp of time and financial constraints to avoid misunderstandings during an initial consultation.
  5. Make a list of all the concepts you have for your brand and company’s identification. What are you attempting to create? Target audience? What kind of person are you? Which brands do you prefer or despise?
  6. Be prepared to ask the following topics while on the initial discussion: the branding agency’s budget and timeframe projections, an opportunity to meet the team who is going to work on your brand, a chance to study their portfolio, and references from previous clients.
  7. Check their references and review their portfolio works. Inquire other references about their experience in your business industry field.
  8. Compare and contrast the offers made by the agencies with whom you have already met.
  9. Choose the branding agency with the most reasonable timetable, budget, portfolio, and glowing ratings.
  10. Make contact with the agency, approve their proposal, and initiate the branding process.

Here is a more detailed look into a brand identity design process in a SF brand design agency:

Your brand is the face of your organization, and brand identity (or lack thereof) can make or break a company. Especially when we talk about tech brands from the Silicon Valley aka San Francisco Bay Area. Projects related to branding may be undertaken for many reasons, a new organization or product, lack of traction with the current branding, dated positioning, or mergers to name a few. Regardless of the reason, following a process for your company’s brand identity initiative (or your clients’) can keep things going smoothly and provide better results.

Your process doesn’t need to be complex or involved to improve stakeholder/client interactions, set clear expectations, and ensure all the various elements of brand identity are addressed. Planning, research, an interactive design phase, and delivering proper assets and documentation are the key steps.

Image from “Designing Brand Identity: An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team” by Alina Wheeler

Planning

The first stage of any project is planning. This establishes the scope, timeline, and deliverables. It’s a level set for the design team, stakeholders, and clients. Everyone knows what to expect and when.

Different clients and organizations have different needs based on the reason and intent of the project, their size, and their budget. Your skills, and the skills of your team if you have one, vary as well so it’s important not to overpromise.

Is your client looking to hire your agency just for essentials like a logo design, color palette, and fonts? Or do they require more extensive help like a web site? Here are a few areas that should be discussed for inclusion or exclusion.

  • Graphic assets and guidelines — At a minimum, this is the all-important logo. It may also include variations like black and white or different orientations and sizes. Other graphical elements to discuss are icons, photographs, and illustrations.
  • Color selection — Typically a full coordinated palette is defined; one or two primary colors and accent colors.
  • Typography — Fonts are defined for the logo and/or organization name, online, and print elements.
  • Design, Voice, and Style Guides — Based on the overall scope your client or company may need a variety of guidelines established. If web design is in scope reusable assets, style sheets, interactive elements may be needed. Print needs range from marketing materials to corporate publications so a style guide defining layout standards as well as logo, color, font usage is often needed. A tone of voice guide is helpful for ensuring that all messaging, in all mediums, is consistent and accurately represents the persona of the brand.

Research

The research phase has two basic parts, getting to know your client/defining your brand personality, and competitive or market research. Some work may already be complete for the first part in the form of mission and vision statements, a brand persona, or a marketing strategy. Get your hands on this stuff. If you or your client don’t already have this groundwork, you can include it in the scope of the project. Interviewing management teams, employees, and loyal customers can help you identify key identifying traits. This is also a great time to ask stakeholders about expectations and preferences for and over style and feel.

  • Are there other brands they absolutely love? A website or log they can’t stand? Why do they feel that way? What feelings do these examples evoke for them?
  • Is the brand personality funny? Serious? Young? Established? How does the management team want to be perceived by their target market? There are a few different frameworks out there, such as Aaker’s 5 Dimensions of Brand Personality. Or you can create your own.
Aaker, Jennifer Lynn, Dimensions of Brand Personality (August 1997). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=945432
  • What keywords and descriptors represent them? Are they whimsical like Disney? A little off-color like Duluth Trading Company? Prestigious like Mercedes?
  • What is their niche? What do they do better than anyone else? Why do they do it?

The second step continues this work but looks more outside the organization instead of within it. You probably received or elicited basic target market demographics and information about the sector or business area in the first part of the research phase. Now you can look into competitors and customers in more depth. In addition to customer demographics, be sure to ask about target psychographic traits (drivers for the customer base, rather than gender, age, and household income). Look at which competitors are thriving and which are just limping along. Are there common themes among them that you can break out of to differentiate your brand? Or would it be smart to stick to something familiar to your customers? This could be colors, attitudes, or positioning.

At the end of this phase start pulling together your findings for a creative brief that you can use to guide discussions with your stakeholders further in the process. Include things like:

  • A summary of your impressions of the organization and its target market
  • A brand persona
  • Several mood boards (used as a basis for later concepts)

Documenting this and sharing it fairly early on will help make sure you are staying in sync with the stakeholders.

Iterative Design

Now you can begin letting the creativity flow. You are sure to have a plethora of ideas spinning around your brain based on all that groundwork and research. It’s time to get it all out in the open and see where you can take it. It’s important to get all ideas down on paper, or on a whiteboard. The whole design team should participate in sketching and brainstorming at the beginning of the design phase. Your ideas will cross-pollinate and evolve through collaboration. Then, a few really great ideas will emerge for further development.

Before going much farther, touch base with those stakeholders again. Keep concepts pretty general for now, skip adding depth and color. Keep them a little raw and rough, you just want to make sure you are in the same ballpark as your client.

Next, flesh out your top 3 or so concepts. Add color, polish them. Package each concept to near completion, and make it as professional as possible. Hit the big elements like logo, color schemes, and fonts. Aim for distinct and memorable for each of these concepts. From these concepts, your stakeholders should select one to run with, or tweak a bit. Your timeline and scope should have a little padding to allow for one last iteration with your client.

Asset and Documentation Delivery

Finally, take the approved concept and document it using your agreed scope. Create final graphical assets, complete any style guidelines agreed to, build the website. Whatever deliverables were included in the plan get built and handed off in the delivery phase.

Summary

Processes don’t have to add a lot of overhead. Scale your process to hit the major phases and add oversight as complexity and scope increase. This will save time, money, and aggravation for you and your stakeholders.

Quick FAQ for choosing a branding agency in San Francisco Bay Area for a startup or an established business.

Some of the common questions people ask while looking for an agency

Q: How much does branding cost?

A: The price depend on the package. It may include things like tone of voice, mission, vision, values, communication style, verbal identity, visual identity, corporate website, bran application, collateral and much more. We’d recommend allocating a budget of around $60K on brand strategy and visual identity and around $150K and more on the previous scope plus marketing website (aka corporate website).

Q: How long a branding project usually take?

A: Based on our research it takes from 3 months to 12 months depending on the scope.

Q: How does the branding process look?

A: No matter what’s the final delivery, the process always begins with collecting information about the product/service, the audience and the ultimate goal of the rebranding. Then branding audit and equity analysis. What works right now, what doesn’t work and should be removed. Competitive reviews and where the product currently fits and where it should be in future. Then based on that information the either brand strategy or brand identity design process begins. The final output of that work is brand strategy and/or brand identity document aka brand-book that sets a foundation for the the future web design and product design work. It includes logo, colors, typefaces, tone of voice, etc.

Key Takeaways

All in all, the vast majority of the branding firms San Francisco can assist and help you in strengthening your brand image while ensuring that your brand character is effectively expressed across all channels. Their role is to assist in solidifying your brand recognition in the competitive environment while increasing consumer loyalty and increasing sales. Whether you are considering between selected options of branding companies or you are still trying to find the potential candidates for this role, do follow these core steps.

  • Understand what is the core area of their expertise
  • Get to know their experience
  • Confront the potential return on investment
  • Check quotes
  • Observe whether they do have well-defined processes

Disclaimer

This review is constructed with the intent to provide an expert, unbiased opinion on branding agencies in San Francisco.

The information provided is based on a set of predefined criteria and does not endorse any specific agency. The review aims to guide readers in making informed decisions but does not guarantee the success of any engagement with the agencies mentioned.

The final choice should be based on individual business needs and thorough personal research.

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✨ They Make Design ✨
TMDesign

A team with 10 yrs of experience in branding web design and UI/UX.