Logo Designing

A logo is the smallest piece of your brand and the one that has to do the most work. It appears on your invoices, your favicon, a courier label, a pitch deck slide, an Instagram avatar, and a five-foot pull-up banner at an event. If it was designed for one of those placements and forced into the others, it breaks somewhere along the way. The reader of this page is usually a founder or marketing lead who has already gone through that pain once with a freelancer.

What you actually need is a small visual system — a mark, a palette, a typography pair, and a set of rules — backed by trademark and copyright filings so the work you paid for stays yours. This page walks through how the design, the brand pack, and the IP registrations fit together, what each stage produces, and what the numbers look like for a typical engagement.

At a Glance

• Who needs this: Founders launching a brand, businesses rebranding, or owners of an existing mark that has no usable vector files or IP protection.
• Governing law: Trade Marks Act 1999, Copyright Act 1957, and the Nice Classification (12th edition, in force from January 2026).
• Design turnaround: 15-25 working days from brief sign-off to closure ZIP, structured across six stages.
• IP timelines: Trademark examination runs 12-18 months; copyright registration takes 6-9 months once the diary number is issued.
• Trademark filing fee: Rs. 4,500 per class for individuals, startups, and MSMEs; Rs. 9,000 per class for others (FY 2026-27 rates).
• Copyright filing fee: Rs. 500 per artistic work under Form XIV via the Bharat Kosh payment gateway.
• What is included: Brand strategy brief, mood-boards, vector master files, full raster pack, brand guidelines document, TM-A filings, and Form XIV registration.

What's New for FY 2026-27

Both the design side and the IP-filing side of a logo project have shifted in the last 18 months. Some of it is process change driven by new portals and forms, and some of it is policy, especially around AI-generated artwork and data protection of brand assets.

• IP India portal upgrade: The Trade Marks Registry now runs on the refreshed e-filing system with mandatory Aadhaar-linked DSC for individual applicants; user IDs issued before 2024 no longer work without re-verification.
• AI artwork disclosure: The Registry has begun asking applicants to confirm whether the device mark was generated wholly or partly by AI tools; an unqualified AI output may face objections on the originality test under Section 9.
• Copyright Office digitisation: Form XIV is fully online with payment via Bharat Kosh; diary numbers are now issued within 48 hours of submission instead of the 7-10 days seen earlier.
• DPDP Act 2023 alignment: Brand inputs you share (audience research, customer photos, employee likenesses used in mood-boards) are personal data, and the engagement is documented to keep your obligations as a data fiduciary clean.
• Nice Classification 12th edition: Class headings have been refined for digital goods, metaverse services, and NFT-linked offerings, which matters if the brand sells anything in those spaces.
• TM examination queue: The average First Examination Report (FER) is now issued in 90-120 days, down from 180+ days a year ago, so the registration runway has compressed slightly.

Why a Logo Project Needs Strategy First

Skipping the brief and going straight to revisions is the single biggest reason logo projects drag for months. A short upfront strategy step locks the brief and the vocabulary, so every later decision has a reason behind it instead of riding on opinion.

• Positioning before pixels: A paragraph on what the brand stands for and who it serves means the designer is sketching toward a target instead of guessing.
• Audience-led tonality: A logo for a fertility clinic, a fintech, and a luxury skincare line should not be drawn from the same playbook — the audience dictates the visual vocabulary.
• Competitor mapping: A quick scan of how the top six players in your category present themselves prevents accidental lookalikes and reduces TM objection risk later.
• One mark, many placements: Knowing in advance that the logo will live on a 16px favicon and a 20-foot stall backdrop changes how much detail the mark can carry.
• Word mark and device mark planning: Deciding early whether you will register the wordmark alone, the device, or both shapes how the type and the symbol are drawn.
• Cultural and regional cues: India is a 22-language market — what reads as bold in one script reads as aggressive in another, and the brief should call this out from day one.

How It Actually Works

The engagement runs in six stages over three to five weeks for the design and brand pack, with the IP filings sitting at the back end. Each stage produces a deliverable that you sign off before the next stage starts.

Step 1: Brand Strategy Brief (2-3 working days)

You fill a structured input form covering business, audience, tonality, and references. We turn that into a one-page positioning brief plus a short keyword list — descriptive, emotional, and aspirational. Nothing is drawn until you approve this brief, because every later round refers back to it.

Step 2: Mood-Boards and Three Visual Directions (4-6 days)

Three independent concept directions are explored: a typography-led mark, a symbol-led mark, and a combination mark. Each direction sits on its own mood-board with reference imagery, a rationale paragraph, and rough sketches. You pick one to take forward — not by gut feel, but against the brief from stage one.

Step 3: Convergence, Palette, and Typography (3-5 days)

The selected direction is refined over two iteration rounds. Primary and secondary colour palettes are locked with HEX, RGB, CMYK, and Pantone values. Display and body typeface pairings are finalised, with web-safe and Indic-script fallbacks if your audience reads Hindi, Tamil, or Bengali.

Step 4: Final Files and Brand Guidelines (3-4 days)

Vector master files are delivered in AI, SVG, PDF, and EPS. The raster pack includes PNG, JPG, favicon ICO, and a social-media kit sized for Instagram, LinkedIn, X, YouTube, and WhatsApp Business. A brand guidelines document spells out clear-space rules, minimum sizes, dos and don'ts, and dark-mode variants.

Step 5: Trademark Filing (1-2 days)

Class identification is done against your actual goods and services. A public TM search is run to spot conflicts. TM-A is filed in the relevant Nice classes, with the device mark and the word mark sequenced as separate applications in the same engagement, and the Form TM-1 fee is paid online via Bharat Kosh.

Step 6: Copyright Registration and Closure (1-2 days)

Form XIV under Section 45 of the Copyright Act 1957 is filed for the final artwork. The assignment deed transferring IP from the designer to your entity is signed and uploaded as part of the application. A closure ZIP with every file, every acknowledgement, and the application numbers is shared, and the engagement is closed.

A Real Example: Khoj Studios Pvt Ltd, Pune

Take Khoj Studios Pvt Ltd, a Pune-based product-design firm rebranding from its old logo. The numbers below are typical of a mid-size engagement and assume Udyam-registered MSME status for the trademark fee concession.

• Strategy brief and three mood-board directions: Rs. 8,000 of the package value, delivered in week 1.
• Convergence into final mark plus brand guidelines: Rs. 6,000 of the package, delivered in weeks 2-3.
• Vector master files and full raster pack: Forty-five files across vector and raster, included in the base package.
• Trademark filing in three classes: Class 35 (commercial services), Class 42 (industrial design services), and Class 9 (downloadable design templates) at Rs. 4,500 per class — Rs. 13,500 for the device mark plus Rs. 13,500 for the word mark.
• Copyright filing under Form XIV: Government fee of Rs. 500 for the artistic-work registration.
• Total cash out for the founder: Roughly Rs. 14,000 in design and brand pack plus Rs. 27,500 in TM government fees plus Rs. 500 copyright fee plus the engagement charge.

Without MSME or Startup India recognition, the TM government fee per class doubles to Rs. 9,000, which is why the recognition certificate is worth getting before you file.

What Backs Up Each Certificate

Each piece of paper you receive at the end of the engagement rests on a specific document trail. Knowing which document supports which right matters the day someone challenges your mark or claims they designed it.

• Artistic-work copyright: The signed assignment deed from the designer to your entity, plus the dated artwork files with metadata intact, support the Form XIV registration.
• Device mark trademark: The TM-A application, the user-affidavit if you claim prior use, and the dated design files together establish your priority date.
• Word mark trademark: A separate TM-A with the wordmark in plain block letters protects the brand name regardless of how you render it visually later.
• Brand guidelines document: Not a registered right by itself, but the internal evidence that you have a consistent system — useful in passing-off disputes.
• Renewal calendar: The TM is renewable every 10 years from the date of application; copyright subsists for the author's lifetime plus 60 years; both calendars are handed over at closure.

Without a signed designer-to-entity assignment deed, your trademark and copyright filings rest on shaky foundations — anyone can later claim they own the underlying artwork.

Where It Goes Wrong

Most logo project failures show up months after delivery, not during it. Here are the recurring patterns we see when founders come to us for a redo, sometimes years into running the business.

• No vector files, only PNGs: The original designer delivered a 1200px PNG and disappeared; every reprint at a different size pixelates, and recovery means redrawing the logo from scratch.
• Wrong colour mode: A logo designed only in RGB looks correct on screen but shifts when printed in CMYK or matched to a Pantone book — uniforms, packaging, and signage end up off-brand.
• Single-class trademark when multi-class was needed: A SaaS founder filed only in Class 9 and later found a different company using the same mark for advertising services in Class 35, which is legal because the classes are distinct.
• No assignment deed from the designer: The mark is registered in the company name but the designer technically still owns the underlying artwork, opening the door to a future claim or licence dispute.
• AI-generated mark filed without disclosure: The FER raises an objection on originality, the application gets stuck, and the brand keeps trading under an unregistered mark.
• Logo copied from a template or stock library: An opposition is filed within the four-month opposition window after journal publication, and the entire mark goes back to square one.
• Filing the device mark without the word mark: A year later the founder updates the visual treatment, and the new look has no IP cover at all because only the old visual was registered.

What You Receive at the End

• One-page brand strategy brief with positioning, audience, and tonality keywords.
• Three mood-boards with the rationale paragraph for each direction.
• Vector master files in AI, SVG, PDF, and EPS for the final mark.
• Raster pack: PNG, JPG, favicon ICO, and a social-media kit for the five major platforms.
• Brand guidelines document covering clear-space rules, minimum sizes, palette, typography, and dark-mode variants.
• Signed assignment deed transferring full IP from the designer to your entity.
• TM-A acknowledgement numbers for the device mark and the word mark with the application status link.
• Form XIV copyright application number with the diary-number receipt.
• Renewal calendar covering the 10-year TM cycle and the long-tail copyright dates.
• Closure ZIP with every file, deed, and acknowledgement organised in one folder.

How to Get Started

Send your brand inputs — business name, what you do, who you serve, and any references you like or dislike — through the secure intake form linked on this page. A brand strategist reviews the inputs within one working day and sets up a 30-minute call to firm up the brief, decide on the trademark class scope, and confirm whether you want the word mark filed alongside the device mark.

You receive a fixed-fee engagement letter and the strategy brief is locked within 48 hours of the call. Stages two through six run as scheduled, with sign-off checkpoints at each stage. The IP filings are made within two working days of artwork sign-off, and the closure ZIP is shared once the diary number is issued by the Copyright Office.