The answer most designers give is “it depends” — which is true but not very useful. So here’s a more honest breakdown of what actually takes the time, and what you can expect at each stage.
For a focused SME brand project — strategy, identity, guidelines — you’re typically looking at six to ten weeks from kick-off to delivery. Here’s how that breaks down.
Strategy: one to two weeks
Every project I run starts with strategy, and it’s the stage that most affects the quality of everything that follows. This is where we work through the positioning questions: who the brand is for, what makes the business genuinely different, what it needs to make people feel, and what the clear brief for the design work looks like.
Done properly, this phase involves a structured workshop or series of conversations, followed by a written strategy document that defines the brand clearly enough that design decisions can be made against it. It’s also the stage that’s hardest to rush — not because it’s complicated, but because good answers to big questions take a little time to surface.
In practice, this phase runs across one to two weeks, depending on how quickly both sides can commit to the work and how much clarity is already in place before we start.
Identity development: three to four weeks
This is the design phase proper — where the logo, colour palette, typography, and visual language get developed, presented, refined, and finalised.
I present a focused set of creative directions rather than an enormous range of options, which means the decision-making is cleaner and the outcome is sharper. After the first presentation, there’s typically one round of refinement before the identity is signed off. For most projects, two rounds of feedback is enough to land on something right.
What stretches this phase out is usually unclear or changing requirements, or feedback that arrives slowly. What shortens it is a client who knows what they want, has the authority to make decisions quickly, and engages with the work as it’s presented.
Delivery and guidelines: one to two weeks
Once the identity is approved, the final files get prepared and the brand guidelines get written. Guidelines aren’t just a file of logos — they’re a practical document explaining how the brand works and why: how to use colours and typography correctly, how not to use the logo, what the brand sounds like in words.
Depending on the scope of the project, this phase also covers any collateral — business cards, letterheads, social templates, pitch deck templates — that need to be produced at launch.
What speeds a project up
Having a clear sense of your positioning before we start. Decision-making that doesn’t require committee sign-off at every stage. Feedback that’s specific (“the blue feels too corporate”) rather than general (“not sure it’s right”). A project lead on your side who can move quickly.
What slows a project down
An unclear brief that evolves significantly once the work has started. Feedback that takes two weeks to arrive. Approval processes that involve multiple stakeholders with conflicting opinions and no agreed decision-maker. Starting a project before the positioning is genuinely settled.
None of these are unusual — they’re just worth knowing about before you commit to a timeline.
What about a logo-only project?
If the brief is genuinely just a logo — no strategy, no guidelines, no wider system — the timeline is shorter. A focused logo project can often be completed in two to three weeks. But as I’ve written elsewhere, a logo without a system to support it tends to create more problems than it solves in the medium term.
A clear sense of timing before you commit
If you’re planning a launch, a rebrand, or any project with a fixed date attached to it, it’s worth having the timeline conversation early. Projects that run up against unmovable deadlines are harder to do well — and a Discovery Call is the right place to establish what’s realistic given where you are.
I work with founders and SMEs across the UK — based in Surrey, with clients in London, South London, and further afield. Wherever you are, if you want a clear sense of what a project with me looks like and how long it’s likely to take, book a call.
