Key facts
- A registered trademark search is a separate, specific step from a logo design, and it should happen before a new name or logo is finalized, not after; a vendor's design process does not by itself check whether the name is already in use in your category.
- Logo files should be delivered in vector format (typically an AI, EPS, or SVG file), not only as a PNG or JPG, since a vector file can be resized and reprinted at any size without going blurry, and a business without one usually has to pay to have the logo recreated later.
- A brand guideline document, covering logo usage, colors, fonts, and tone of voice, is what keeps a website, a sign, a vehicle wrap, and a social media page looking like the same business when different people or vendors touch each one over time.
- Combining brand and website work under one contract with two internal teams, a design team and a development team, is common at larger agencies, and the RFP should ask directly whether the same people who set the brand also build the site, since a handoff between teams is where inconsistency creeps in.
- A brand refresh on an existing business carries a real cost beyond the design fee: reprinted signage, updated vehicle wraps, new business cards, and a period where the old and new look coexist, so the RFP should ask the vendor to flag anything outside the digital scope that the brand change will trigger.
Scope boundaries
Separate the two halves of the work in writing even if one vendor does both: the brand deliverables (logo, color palette, font selection, a short brand guideline document) and the website deliverables (page count, page types, platform, and whether copy and photography are supplied by you or the vendor). State whether this is a brand new business getting its first identity or an existing business refreshing an old one, since the second case needs a plan for phasing out the old look.
Out of scope unless separately priced: printed collateral, signage, vehicle wraps, and social media profile updates, all of which a brand change touches even though they are not part of a website contract. Say so now, so the vendor can at least flag the cost rather than you discovering it after the logo changes.
What the vendor must be given
Anything you already have: an existing logo in its original files if one exists, past marketing materials, and a list of colors or fonts you are attached to for reasons the vendor should know before proposing something different. Access to your domain registrar and hosting, or a clear statement that new accounts will be created in your name.
A short list of three to five businesses whose look you admire and three you specifically want to avoid resembling, which does more to align a first design round than a page of adjectives. Decision-making authority named up front: one person who approves the logo and one who approves the site, so revisions do not restart every time a different stakeholder sees the work for the first time.
Ownership and exit clauses
State plainly that on final payment you own the logo in every delivered format, including the vector source file, the color and font specifications, the website code and content, and the domain, hosting, and analytics accounts, all registered in your name rather than the vendor's. A trademark search, if one was run, and its results belong to you as a record even though a trademark itself is filed separately with the appropriate government office.
On exit, require delivery of the full logo file package and the brand guideline document within a set number of days, along with the same website handover terms as any other build: source files, database export, and account access transferred, with the vendor's own access removed once you confirm receipt.
Milestones and acceptance tests
Logo concepts presented and one direction chosen before website design begins, since building a site around a logo that later changes wastes both budgets. Brand guideline document delivered and approved. Website wireframes or design approved on the chosen brand direction. Content loaded on a staging site. Final review on the live domain.
Acceptance test: check that the delivered logo package includes a usable vector file, that the color and font choices match what actually appears on the live site pixel for pixel, not approximately, and that the brand guideline document is specific enough that a different vendor could follow it later without guessing.
Scoring rubric
Weight the brand and website halves separately, then combine.
Brand and logo portfolio quality for businesses similar in size to yours, 25 percent.
Website portfolio and technical approach, 25 percent.
Whether one integrated team handles both halves or there is a handoff, and how that handoff is managed, 20 percent.
Price across the combined scope, including any flagged non-digital costs, 20 percent.
Timeline realism, 10 percent.
Ask to see one past client where the same vendor did both the brand and the site, not two separate examples stitched together in the pitch.
Questions every bidder must answer
Get written answers before scoring.
Do the same people design the brand and build the website, or is there a handoff, and how is that handoff managed?
What file formats will I receive for the logo, and is a vector file included?
Do you run or recommend a trademark search before finalizing a name or logo?
What non-digital costs, signage, print, vehicle wraps, will this brand change trigger that are not in your quote?
Who owns the logo files, the brand guideline document, and the website code once the final invoice is paid?
How many logo directions and revision rounds are included before an additional round costs extra?
Related questions
It can work well when one integrated team handles both, since the site is then built to match the brand from day one rather than adapted to it afterward. It works less well when a design team hands off to a separate development team with little continuity, so ask directly how the vendor structures that handoff before assuming one vendor means one team.
It is worth doing before the name or logo is finalized, not as an afterthought, since discovering a conflict after printing signage and launching a website is far more expensive to fix. A trademark search is a separate legal step from the design process itself, and the RFP should ask whether the vendor runs one or expects you to arrange it.
At minimum a vector file such as AI, EPS, or SVG, plus common raster formats like PNG with a transparent background, in both full color and a single-color version. A vector file is what lets you resize the logo for anything from a business card to a billboard without it going blurry.
It depends on scope on both sides. SearchPod's website packages run from $1,500 to $20,000 or more depending on the build, with brand work priced separately against the specific deliverables, logo, guidelines, and any collateral, named in this pack's scope section.
That should be planned as part of the project, not discovered afterward. Old printed materials, signage, and vehicle wraps do not update themselves, and a reasonable brand and website contract flags what outside the digital scope the change will trigger, even if that work is priced separately.
SearchPod is a vendor for this kind of work and would answer this RFP; the acceptance tests here are the ones we agree to.
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