A Mark That Survives a
Truck Door and a Favicon.
Logo and brand work for businesses we build for. Designed to work at 16 pixels and at 40 feet, in one color, stitched into a polo, and printed on a sign in February.
Most people who land on this page do not need a new logo. The next section is how to tell, and it is the most useful thing here.
Next available build start date is Sept. 28, 2026
Do you actually need a new logo?
Five questions. If you answer yes to all five, you do not need us. You need to use what you already have consistently, and the section after this tells you how, free.
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Do you have a vector file? Start here
An .ai, .eps or .svg. Not a JPEG, not a PNG, not a screenshot of your own website. A vector scales to a billboard without going fuzzy.
If noIf the only file you own is a 400px PNG someone emailed you in 2016, that is a real problem, and it is the most common one we see.
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Is it legible at 32 pixels?
Shrink it to the size of a browser tab icon. If the words disappear, the detail muddies, or it turns into a gray blob, it fails the place it appears most often.
If noEvery phone, every tab, every app icon. This is the smallest and most frequent appearance your brand makes.
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Does it work in one color?
Print it in solid black. Then solid white on black. If it needs a gradient, a drop shadow or three colors to read, it is not a mark, it is a picture.
If noIt will fail on embroidery, on an etched sign, on a stamp, and on anything cut from vinyl.
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Can you read it from across a parking lot?
Print it at truck-door size, walk 40 feet away, and look. Thin lettering, tight spacing and script fonts vanish at distance.
If noA work truck is the most-seen advertisement most local businesses own.
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Would a customer from two years ago still recognize it? The expensive one
If yes, that recognition is an asset you have already paid for.
If noThrowing it away to look more modern is the most expensive thing on this page, and the one people most often get talked into.
Five yeses means keep your logo.
Genuinely. Spend the money on photography of your actual work instead. It will do more for your business than a new mark will, and we will say that on the call even though it pays us nothing.
Make the logo you already have work harder
Free, this week, and it fixes most of what people mistake for a logo problem. What usually looks like a bad logo is an inconsistently used one.
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Get the vector, today
Email whoever made it and ask for the .ai, .eps and .svg files. You paid for them and they are yours. Put them somewhere you will find them in five years, not in an email thread. If the designer is gone, a redraw is a few hundred dollars and worth doing before you need it urgently.
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Make three versions and stop improvising
Full color, solid black, solid white, plus a simplified mark for tiny placements. Four files cover every situation you will ever face, and having them stops the slow drift where every new piece of print uses a slightly different version.
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Pick two colors and write down the codes
HEX for screen, CMYK for print, and a Pantone if you do apparel. Put them in a note on your phone. The reason your yard signs, your truck and your website are three different blues is that nobody ever wrote the numbers down.
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Set a minimum size and a clear space rule
Never smaller than one inch wide. Always at least a half-inch of empty space around it. Two sentences, and they prevent the majority of ugly applications.
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Put it in the same corner every time
Consistency reads as professionalism far more than the mark itself does. A mediocre logo used identically everywhere looks better than a great logo used six different ways.
What usually looks like a bad logo is an inconsistently used one. Five things, one afternoon, no invoice. Do them before you pay anybody to redraw anything.
Where a logo actually has to survive
This is the difference between a $300 logo and a $1,500 one. A cheap logo is a picture. A real one is a mark that still works in every place below, and the places below are chosen before the first sketch, not discovered afterwards.
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16 pixels, the favicon
A browser tab. The smallest and most frequent appearance your brand makes.
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A truck door at 40 feet
Moving, at an angle, in Michigan light.
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Embroidered on a polo
Thin strokes disappear, gradients are impossible, and every color costs money.
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Cut from vinyl, one color
Window graphics, van lettering, door decals.
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A yard sign seen at 30mph
Three seconds, from a car, at a distance.
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Solid black on an invoice
And solid white reversed out of a dark header.
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A phone screen in bright sun
Low contrast fails outdoors, which is where your customers are.
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An app icon or social avatar
Cropped to a circle, next to fifty others.
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Photocopied badly
Still a real thing in trades, permits and municipal paperwork.
We design at favicon size first, then scale up. Nearly everyone does the opposite, which is why so many logos look great in the presentation and fall apart on a shirt.
What we do
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Brand work
Quick design asset
$250one piece
- Uses your existing brand
- A one-color variant, a simplified mark, a social template or an ad graphic
- Fast, no discovery
In shortA single asset, not a project.
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Brand work
Logo design
from $1,500the mark
- Tested against every surface above
- Full color, one-color, reversed and simplified variants
- Every file a printer, embroiderer or sign shop will ask for
- A one-page usage sheet: colors, minimum size, clear space
In shortThe mark, done properly.
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Brand work
Full brand system
from $8,000the system
- Logo, type system, and color with print and screen values
- Application rules and templates
- The components your website is built from
- For a brand that has to hold across locations, vehicles, apparel, print and screen
In shortWhen drift across channels is the real cost.
How we work
- Three directions, not forty. Forty options means nobody made a decision. Three considered directions with reasoning attached is a decision you can make.
- Favicon first. If it fails at 16 pixels it fails, and we would rather find that out in week one.
- Every file, at handover. Vector source, print formats, web formats, one-color, reversed, favicon set. Yours, permanently.
- A usage sheet you will actually read. One page, not a 60-page brand bible that gets opened once.
How this fits with a build
Brand work here exists to serve the sites we build. That is the honest framing, and it is worth saying plainly because it changes who this is right for.
You are having a site built and the brand is not ready. Done together, the design tokens on your website become the same colors, type and spacing as your print and your signage, so everything matches without anyone policing it.
You only want a logo and nothing else. We will do it, and we are probably not the cheapest or the fastest option for that. A dedicated identity designer or a good freelancer may serve you better, and that is a fine outcome.
We are a shop that builds lead engines and happens to do brand work properly. We are not a branding agency, and pretending otherwise would waste your time.
What we will not do
Six things other shops will sell you. Every one of them costs you more than it saves.
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Talk you into a rebrand you do not need
If you pass the five questions, keep your logo and spend the money on photography.
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Hold your files
Vector source at handover, every format, yours permanently. “We keep the working file” is a hostage arrangement with a nicer name.
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Show you forty options
Three directions with reasoning. Volume is what you present when you have no point of view.
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Design something that fails on a shirt
Applications are chosen before the first sketch, not discovered at the embroiderer.
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Do naming, trademark or legal clearance
We will tell you to search the USPTO database before you fall in love with a name, and then you need an attorney, not a designer.
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Use stock or AI-generated marks
A logo you cannot defend as yours is not an asset.
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None of those? Then let us draw it properly.
A business that will still be here in five years, and a mark that has to work on a truck door.
Straight answers
Do I have to buy a website to get a logo?
No. But be aware this page exists to serve the builds we do, so if brand is genuinely all you need, a dedicated identity designer may serve you better and probably cheaper. We will say so on the call rather than take the job by default.
Why is a logo $1,500 when I can get one for $50 online?
Because those are pictures and this is a mark. A $50 logo has not been tested at 16 pixels, in one color, on embroidery, or from 40 feet, and you usually do not get the vector source. If your brand only ever appears on a website, the cheap one might genuinely be fine, if it goes on a truck, a shirt and a sign, it will not be.
What files do I get?
Vector source, .eps and .pdf for print, .svg and .png for web, a favicon set, and one-color, reversed and simplified variants. Plus a one-page usage sheet. Everything a printer, sign shop or embroiderer will ask for, so you never have to come back to us for a file.
Can you match my existing brand instead of replacing it?
Often the better answer. Rebuilding a vector from a low-res file, tidying spacing and weight, or adding the variants you never got. That is usually a $250 to $600 job rather than a $1,500 one, and you keep the recognition you have already paid for.
How long does it take?
A quick asset is a few days. A logo is two to three weeks, and it runs alongside a build rather than blocking it. A full brand system is four to six weeks.
How many revisions?
Three directions, then one consolidated round of refinement on the one you pick. If none of the three is right, that is on us and we go again, but that means we misread the brief, which is a conversation, not a revision.
Do you do naming?
No. It is a genuine specialty and we are not it. What we will do is tell you to search the USPTO database and buy the domain before you get attached to a name, which is free advice that has saved people a lot of money.
Can I use the logo on merchandise?
Yes. You own it outright, no license, no royalty, no restrictions. That is what buying a logo should mean and it is worth checking with anyone else you consider.
Run the five questions first
Most people who read this page keep the logo they have and fix how they use it. If that is you, take the free section and go. It will do more for how your business looks than a new mark would.
If your logo genuinely fails on a truck, a shirt or a browser tab, or you are having a site built and want the whole thing to match, that is the conversation.
+1-248-205-6977 · Mon–Sun, 9am–9pm ET · Waterford, Michigan
- Published pricing
- Month to month, no minimum term
- You own everything
