Top 5 San Francisco Logo Design Companies

The design of a logo is very important. It’s the first thing people see when they look at your website, so it should be done well. Here are some top logo designers in San Francisco who can make you an amazing logo.

✨ They Make Design ✨
TMDesign
8 min readMay 27, 2021

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Last Updated: September 1, 2024

San Francisco, a hub of innovation and creativity, is home to numerous logo design agencies.

These firms are crucial in crafting the visual identities that help businesses stand out in a competitive marketplace.

The city’s unique blend of tech, art, and culture makes it a prime location for agencies that specialize in logo design, offering a distinct perspective that resonates with a global audience.

Best Logo Design Agencies in San Francisco, CA

1. Global Brand Works

  • Website: www.globalbrandworks.com
  • Location: San Francisco, CA, United States
  • Clients: PayPal, SFMOMA, Equinix, Kettle Brand Potato Chips, Appnovation, LifeLock, Bank of the West, American Express, GoGreen Agriculture, Charles Schwab, HRMI
  • Hourly Rate: $200 — $300 / hr
  • Team Size: 2+ employees
  • Founded: 2014
  • Services: Branding, Logo, Graphic Design, HR Consulting
  • Industries: Financial services, Advertising & marketing, Business services, Consumer products & services, Non-profit, eCommerce
  • Best for: tech companies needing to launch, recharge, redesign, or reinvent their brand, offering expert logo and visual identity system design
  • Clutch rating: 4.9 out of 5.0 (20+ reviews)

2. Theory SF

  • Website: www.theorysf.com
  • Location: San Francisco, CA, United States
  • Clients: NetGear, Riverbed Technology, Sage Software, Holonis, Usurance, Forevercar.com, Avast Internet Security, HMA, SF Museum of Modern Art, Forge, Spark
  • 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: tech companies seeking innovative branding, advertising, and logo design that harmonize to create a lasting impression and consumer desire
  • Clutch rating: 4.9 out of 5.0 (25+ reviews)

3. Emotive Brand

  • Website: www.emotivebrand.com
  • Location: Oakland, CA, United States
  • Clients: Slack, Udemy, Skyflow, AWS, VMware, Moveworks, Inc., Western Digital, Cadence Design Systems, Unum
  • Hourly Rate: $150 — $199 / hr
  • Team Size: 40+ employees
  • Founded: 2009
  • Services: Branding, Logo, Marketing Strategy
  • Industries: B2B, SaaS, Fintech
  • Best for: tech companies in sectors like SaaS and Fintech, offering branding, logo design, and marketing strategy to drive business growth and build stronger brands
  • Clutch rating: 4.9 out of 5.0 (35+ reviews)

4. Gershoni Creative Agency

  • Website: www.gershoni.com
  • Location: San Francisco, CA, United States
  • Clients: Google, Deloitte, San Francisco Art Institute, Laura Chenel, Highland Provisions, Women’s Media Center
  • Hourly Rate: $150 — $199 / hr
  • Team Size: 30+ employees
  • Founded: 1996
  • Services: Branding, Logo, Advertising, Content Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Print Design
  • Industries: Business services, Consumer products & services, Financial services, Non-profit, Other industries, Real estate, Retail
  • Best for: tech companies seeking unique logo design and branding, characterized by curiosity-driven problem-solving and creative solutions
  • Clutch rating: 4.9 out of 5.0 (5+ reviews)

How do we review these logo design agencies in San Francisco?

To objectively evaluate the logo design agencies in San Francisco, we considered the following criteria:

  • Location: Proximity to tech hubs and creative communities in San Francisco.
  • Clients: Diversity and prominence of client portfolio.
  • Hourly Rate: Affordability and value for money.
  • Team Size: Ability to handle projects of varying scopes.
  • Founded: Experience and longevity in the industry.
  • Services: Range and quality of services offered.
  • Industries: Breadth of industries served.
  • Best for: Specific niches or business sizes the agency excels in.
  • Clutch Rating: Independent client reviews and ratings.

These parameters ensure a comprehensive and fair assessment, reflecting the agency’s capability to meet diverse client needs.

How to choose a proper logo design agency in San Francisco?

Selecting the right logo design agency in San Francisco involves a few key steps:

  1. Assess Your Needs: Identify the specific requirements and goals for your logo. Consider factors like your industry, target audience, and brand personality.
  2. Research Agencies: Look into agencies’ portfolios to gauge their style and versatility. Pay attention to their previous work in your industry.
  3. Consider the Team Size and Experience: Depending on your project’s complexity, you may need a larger team or an agency with extensive experience.
  4. Evaluate Client Feedback: Read reviews and testimonials to understand past clients’ experiences.
  5. Compare Pricing: Ensure the agency’s rates align with your budget without compromising on quality.
  6. Check Location Advantage: Consider if the agency’s location in San Francisco brings any additional benefits, like understanding of local market trends.
  7. Look for a Cultural Fit: The agency should align with your company’s values and culture.

Following these steps will help in making an informed decision, ensuring the chosen agency aligns well with your business’s vision and objectives.

Choosing the right logo design agency is a lot of pressure. You want to make sure that you are spending your money wisely and getting the best possible results for your business.

Here are a few tips on how to choose the right logo designers in San Francisco:

  1. Check their portfolio and understand what types of clients they serve. Do they work with offline businesses or tech startups ?
  2. It’s important to know your audience when choosing a logo designer agency in San Francisco Bay Area.
  3. How long have they been in business?
  4. What are the rates for their services and what do you get with that package? Do they provide brand strategy or just visuals? What is their turnaround time like, how many revisions can be expected within a certain period of time.
  5. Check out some logo design company reviews to see if other clients were satisfied with the service and results. You also want to make sure that there was no plagiarism by checking on copyright protection too.
  6. The final decision should be based on your own gut feeling as well as what other people say about them — they need to feel like ‘the right fit’ from start to finish.

How Does A Logo Design Process Usually Go in a San Francisco Design Agency?

Many logo design companies in San Francisco have a process that they follow when designing a logo. The first step is to look at the client’s current logo and branding, if any. From there, the designer will typically create some rough sketches of possible designs for the company’s logo and send them over to the client for feedback. Once feedback has been given on those drawings, it will be time for refinement before presenting multiple final concepts to the client until one is chosen as their new official logo.

Here are the steps mentioned above explained in more details:

  1. Equity analysis — A logo design company will start the process by looking at what they know about their client. What does your business do? Who are you trying to reach with this logo? How has your brand been represented in the past? This way, a designer can get an idea of where to start when designing this new logo and imprint that personality into it.
  2. Rough sketches — After getting all the information they need from the client, most designers will sketch out some rough designs for consideration or ideas on paper before moving onto computer software programs like Adobe Illustrator or Sketchbook Pro to create more refined versions of those initial drawings. A good amount of these early concepts may not make it through later stages due to feedback from clients so don’t be surprised
  3. Final concepts — Once the designer has a few sketches they like, they’ll typically send finalists to the client for feedback. This is where that logo design process usually starts with clients giving their opinions on what should be changed or perhaps even making suggestions of things to change
  4. Development — After narrowing down choices and finalizing concepts, designers can then start working on development which may include: vectorization by using Adobe Illustrator; branding guidelines such as color codes, typography usage guidelines, etc.; and final refinements before sending it off
  5. Delivery — When all goes well during this phase in the logo design process, designs are sent back to the client who will review them one last time before approving it. Now comes celebrating because you’re done designing your new logo :)

There are many different types of design agencies that exist and they all serve a different purpose. Below is a list of the most common types of agencies in San Francisco: app development companies, UI/UX designers, branding agencies, website design firms and web development studios.

  • App Development Companies: App development companies are typically in the business of developing and marketing apps that can be downloaded on any mobile device. These companies have a vast knowledge when it comes to app design, coding, programming and other aspects of app creation.
  • UI/UX Designers: UI/UX designers specialize in creating interactive user interfaces for websites or applications. They use their expertise with visual artistry as well as psychology to create clean designs along with intuitive interactions between the people who will use these products and services
  • Branding Agencies: A branding agency is focused specifically on providing brand identity solutions from strategy through execution; they also provide market research, consumer insights, naming & packaging options and integrated advertising campaigns
  • Website Design agencies: These agencies are focused on creating stunning, modern websites for clients. They take care of everything from the look and feel to programming and hosting
  • Web Development Firms: Web development studios have a wide variety of expertise which includes but is not limited to app design & development, UI/UX design work, frontend web engineering projects like Angular or React as well as backend solutions with PHP frameworks such as Laravel; Finally these companies offer branding services that include logo designs and identity packages.

Disclaimer

This review is intended to guide businesses in selecting a logo design agency in San Francisco.

The information provided is based on a set of predefined criteria, and while every effort is made to ensure accuracy and impartiality, individual experiences with these agencies may vary.

Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research and consider their specific needs when making a decision.

This review is not sponsored by any of the mentioned agencies and does not endorse any specific agency over others.

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