Capability 01 · Logo Design
Logo design, drawn until it holds.
A logo is the smallest, hardest-working thing a company owns. It goes on the invoice, the shopfront and the app icon, and it has to hold in all three. We draw one properly, then hand you everything you need to use it for the next ten years.
- Engagement
- Fixed scope, quoted per project from your brief
- How we work
- Remote and worldwide. Brief, review and delivery by email
- You receive
- Vector masters, full export set, written usage rules
What custom logo design actually is
Custom logo design is the process of drawing an original mark for one specific company. The mark is researched, constructed to a deliberate geometry, tested at every size it has to work, and delivered as editable vector artwork you own outright.
The exclusions are the point. A template with your name set in it is not custom design. Neither is a generator, dealing you shapes from a library that a dozen other companies are being dealt from the same afternoon. Nor a contest, where fifty strangers guess at a brief none of them were allowed to ask a single question about.
The difference never shows on day one. It shows in year two. On a drawn mark, someone decided the exact angle of every cut and the exact weight of every stroke, which is why it survives being shrunk to a favicon, embroidered on a shirt, engraved in one colour and laid over a photograph. An assembled mark comes apart at the first of those.
Our own mark is the worked example. The construction diagram on the cover shows the 45° geometry, the rounded outer terminals, and the single notch that breaks the symmetry on purpose. Every line, arrow and movement on this site comes from those three decisions.
What you receive
Everything arrives as one organised package, named so that someone who was never in the room can still find what they need at ten to six on a Friday.
- Primary logo, in full colour, black, and whiteVector
- Secondary lockups: horizontal, stacked, and icon aloneVector
- Vector masters for print and future editing, including the editable originalSVG · AI · EPS · PDF
- Raster exports at web and presentation sizesPNG · WebP
- Favicon and app icon setSVG · PNG · ICO
- Clearspace, minimum size and misuse rulesPDF
- Written transfer of ownership on final paymentDocument
The rest of the system sits on top of the mark: colour, typography, layout and voice. That is brand identity, and whether you need it alongside the mark depends on how many places the brand has to appear. If those places are mostly a feed, a social media kit is the smaller answer; if the brand gets handed across a table, it is stationery and collateral.
Which logo file is for what
The rule is short. SVG on the web, EPS or PDF for print and for any supplier, PNG only where a raster is unavoidable. Guard the vector files: they are the artwork itself, and every other format can be made again from them.
| Format | Type | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| SVG | Vector | Websites and apps. Scales infinitely, stays sharp on any screen, and the file is tiny. |
| EPS | Vector | The universal handover format. Any printer, signmaker or embroiderer can open it. |
| Vector | Print-ready artwork and anything you need to email to a supplier as-is. | |
| AI | Vector source | The editable original. You should be given it even if you never open it. |
| PNG | Raster | Slide decks, documents, and platforms that reject vectors. Supports transparency. |
| WebP | Raster | Web images where a raster is required and file size matters. |
| ICO | Raster | Legacy browser favicons. Generated once and rarely thought about again. |
| JPG | Raster | Almost never. It cannot hold transparency and it compresses edges badly. |
We go through this in more detail, including the warning signs that you were handed the wrong thing, in which logo files you should receive.
How the work runs
Four stages, the same every time. The brief comes first, and we keep asking until we understand the company about as well as you do. Then directions: a small number of genuinely different answers, each presented in context and argued for. Refinement is where the chosen one gets drawn and redrawn until it sits exactly right. Delivery is the files, the rules and the ownership, handed over together.
You will always know what changed between rounds, and why. No round arrives as a surprise. Each stage is described in full on the process page.
Whether this is right for you
This is a good fit if:
- You are naming or renaming a company and want the mark to last past the first funding round.
- You have an existing logo that no longer holds up at small sizes, in one colour, or against the company you have become.
- You care about the reasoning behind a design and want to be able to defend the choice to a board, an investor, or your own team.
- You would rather have one mark that is right than fifty that are available.
It is a poor fit if:
- You need something by Friday for a deadline that cannot move.
- You want the cheapest available option. That market is well served, and we are not competing in it.
- You already know exactly what you want drawn and need a pair of hands rather than a studio.
We would rather tell you that up front than take a project that was never going to work. If you are not sure which of those you are, read how the agency is set up or write anyway and describe the situation.
Common questions
What files should I get from a logo designer?
You should receive vector masters, which means SVG and either EPS or AI. Then raster exports (PNG at several sizes, WebP for the web) and a print-ready PDF. The vector files are the ones that matter: they are the actual artwork, and everything else can be regenerated from them.
If a designer hands you only PNGs or JPGs, you do not own a usable logo. You own pictures of one.
Do I own the logo after the designer delivers it?
With us, yes. Full ownership of the final mark transfers to you on final payment, in writing, source files included.
This is worth checking everywhere else, because it is not automatic. In most jurisdictions copyright stays with the person who created the work unless it is explicitly assigned. Paying an invoice is not the same as being given the rights.
How many logo concepts will I be shown?
A small number of genuinely distinct directions, each presented in context and argued for. You will not get a contact sheet of thumbnails.
A high concept count is a warning sign. Producing thirty options is only possible if very little thought went into any of them, and it moves the real work of deciding which one is right onto you.
Is a logo enough, or do I need a full brand identity?
A logo is enough if you need one mark in a small number of places. If you are building a website, decks, packaging and social channels at the same time, you need the system around it.
Without colour, type and layout rules, every new asset becomes a decision made from scratch by whoever happens to be making it. That is how a brand drifts. The difference is worth understanding properly before you commission either.
Can I trademark a logo a designer made for me?
Yes. Registration turns on whether the mark is distinctive and actually used in commerce, not on who holds the copyright. You still want the copyright assigned to you in writing, since those are two separate rights.
Registration is a separate process from design: filed per class of goods and services, in each territory where you want protection, either directly or through a trademark attorney. Do not treat a delivered logo as a registered one. This is a description of how it generally works, not legal advice.
Every brand here started as an email.
Tell us what you’re building: the name, the audience, the ambition. We read every brief ourselves and reply with how we’d approach it, what it costs, and when you’ll have it. You are writing to the people who will do the work.
inquire@xstudioz.com