The single most common first question we get on a discovery call is some version of “what does this cost?” – usually with an apology attached, as if asking is rude. It is not rude. It is the most useful first question you can ask, because the answer tells you whether the conversation is worth continuing at all.
This piece sets out the honest ranges for a brand refresh in the South African market, what moves the number up or down, and what a credible studio should include at each tier. It is not a price list – every project gets a tailored quote – but it should let you walk into any studio conversation knowing whether you are being quoted reasonably.
The headline ranges
Working in South African rands, in 2026, the realistic bands for a brand refresh from a credible studio (not a logo-mill, not a Big Six agency) are roughly:
- R30,000 to R70,000 – logo refresh and a one-page set of rules. Suitable for sole traders, side projects, sub-brands within a larger group.
- R70,000 to R150,000 – working identity. New mark, a small system (type, colour, basic voice principles), short guidelines document. The right scope for most growing SMEs.
- R150,000 to R350,000 – full identity system. Mark, full type and colour system, photography and illustration direction, motion principles, voice and tone, comprehensive guidelines, rollout assets across primary channels.
- R350,000+ – strategic rebrand. Includes brand strategy work (positioning, audience research, naming if needed), full identity system, and rollout across multiple channels. Usually the right scope when the business is repositioning, merging, or scaling internationally.
These are ranges, not prices. We’ve quoted as low as R45k for a tightly-scoped refresh and as high as R600k for a multi-month strategic rebrand. The work decides the number, not the other way around.
What moves the number
Six things explain almost all of the price variation between two ostensibly similar projects.
1. Whether strategy is included
A pure design refresh – take the existing positioning and refresh how it looks – is faster and cheaper than a strategic rebrand. Strategy work involves stakeholder interviews, audience research, competitor mapping and positioning workshops. It typically adds 30 to 50 percent to a project’s cost and four to six weeks to the timeline.
For most brand refreshes we recommend at least light strategy work – a positioning audit, not a full strategic rebrand. It is the cheapest way to make sure the new look is solving the right problem.
2. Number of stakeholders
A refresh with one decision-maker (a founder) takes half the time of one with a steering committee. Every additional approver adds rounds, meetings and revisions. This is not a complaint – it is just the maths. If you have a board or a partnership, the studio’s price has to account for it.
If you are using a steering committee, the kindest thing you can do is appoint one person with final say. The work gets faster and cheaper, and the result usually gets stronger because nobody is averaging everyone’s preferences.
3. How much existing brand to honour
A blank-page rebrand is paradoxically often easier than one that has to honour 70 percent of an existing brand. “Refresh but keep the equity” is delicate work – evolving the mark, the type, the colours just enough to feel new without losing the audience that already recognises you. That nuance takes longer than starting fresh, and it should.
4. Number of rollout assets
The identity itself is one cost. The rollout – website, social templates, stationery, signage, vehicle wraps, packaging, presentation deck – scales with the number of touchpoints. The studio should ask you upfront what is in scope and quote them as a line item, not slip them in later.
For most projects we quote rollout in tiers: core (website + social templates + business essentials), extended (the above plus presentation deck, email templates, environment), and full (everything you need to launch).
5. Speed
Standard timelines for the work above are roughly:
- Logo refresh: two to four weeks
- Working identity: four to six weeks
- Full identity: eight to twelve weeks
- Strategic rebrand: twelve to twenty weeks
Compress those timelines and the price goes up – not because the studio is being opportunistic, but because faster turnaround often means dedicated resourcing, parallel workstreams, or working evenings. We try to avoid quoting rush projects at all, because they tend to produce work nobody is proud of.
6. The studio itself
Senior studios with a dozen years of work behind them quote differently from junior studios doing brilliant work but still building a portfolio. Big agencies with overheads quote differently from independent studios. Freelancers quote differently from both.
None of these are inherently right or wrong. A junior freelancer might do a refresh for R20k that is genuinely good – we have hired junior designers ourselves who produce work above their rate card. A senior studio quoting R150k for the same scope is paying for fewer surprises, faster turnaround, and better odds the result is fit for purpose. You are paying for risk reduction as much as you are paying for craft.
What a credible studio should include
Whatever the tier, a credible quote should specify:
- A clear list of deliverables, with file formats and what you’ll own at handover.
- The number of strategic and design review rounds included.
- The timeline, with milestones.
- A change-of-scope policy – what happens if the brief expands mid-project.
- The studio’s terms around source files, IP and ongoing support.
If a quote is a single number with no breakdown, ask for one. Not because the studio is hiding something, but because the breakdown is the conversation. It tells you where to push, what to drop, what to add.
What you should not be paying for
A few things should not appear on a brand refresh invoice, or should at least raise questions:
- “Discovery” billed as a separate deliverable for a small project. For a logo refresh, discovery is a 30-minute call, not a R15,000 phase.
- Generic moodboards and competitor screenshots presented as strategy. Strategy is a written argument about positioning. If the strategy phase is just a Pinterest board, you are paying for inspiration, not thinking.
- Endless revision rounds. Good projects work because the studio gets the brief right early, not because they iterate forever. Three rounds of feedback is usually the right ceiling. More than five is a sign something is wrong with the brief or the team.
What this looks like in practice
A typical Creature of Habit brand refresh, for an SME with 10 to 50 staff and a single decision-maker, runs about six weeks and lands in the R120,000 to R180,000 range. That covers a positioning audit (not full strategy), a new mark, type and colour system, voice principles, a 25 to 35-page guidelines document, and a core rollout pack (homepage redesign, social templates, business essentials).
If you are budgeting for something more ambitious – a strategic rebrand with new positioning, a website rebuild and a campaign launch – plan for R400,000 to R700,000 over three to four months. Less common, but the right shape for a business at an inflection point.
If your budget is under R50,000 and you need everything – mark, system, website, social – we will be honest with you that you cannot have it all. Pick the one thing that matters most this quarter and do it well. Spreading R50k across five deliverables produces five weak ones.
Before you brief
Three things to bring into the first conversation:
- A real budget range, not a single number. R80k to R150k is more useful to a studio than “around R100k”.
- A clear sense of what is in scope and what is not. Honest about what you can defer.
- A sense of urgency. “Three months from now” produces a different quote than “as soon as possible”.
The studios you want to work with will respect a real budget number and will tell you if the scope you want does not fit it. The studios you don’t want to work with will say yes to anything and figure it out later.
If you have an upcoming brand refresh and want a quick sense of what a project would cost from our end, send a short note describing the business, what’s in scope, and your rough timeline. We reply within two working days with a real range, no commitment to engage.