A food delivery startup asked a design agency for a brand identity. Quote: RWF 3 million. For a business making RWF 200,000/month in revenue. They didn’t need a full brand identity system. They needed a logo, a colour scheme, and consistency. Total cost: under RWF 50,000.
The four things you actually need
1. A simple logo
Your logo doesn’t need to be a masterpiece. It needs to be clean, readable at small sizes, and work in one colour. Think of the biggest brands: Apple, Nike, Google — simple shapes and clean text.
Options: Canva’s logo maker (free), Fiverr (from USD 5), or a local designer (from RWF 30,000–50,000 for a basic logo).
2. Two brand colours
Pick one primary colour and one accent colour. Use them everywhere: website, business cards, social posts, packaging. Two colours are easier to maintain than six and create a more cohesive look.
Canva’s colour palette generator or Coolors.co can help you find combinations that work.
3. One font
Pick one clean, readable font for everything. Google Fonts has thousands of free options. Inter, Outfit, and DM Sans are all excellent for business. One font, consistently used, looks far more professional than five fonts mixed together.
4. Consistency
Apply your logo, colours, and font to everything: your website, email signature, social media profiles, invoices, business cards. The consistency is what creates the “brand” feeling, not the individual elements.
What you don’t need (yet)
- A full brand guideline document
- Multiple logo variations (horizontal, vertical, icon-only)
- A brand “story” or “mission statement” workshop
- Custom illustrations or photography
- Business stationery (headed paper, envelopes)
These can come later when your revenue justifies the investment. For now, a clean logo and consistent colours are enough.
Where to apply it
- Website — services like Kisimenti build your brand colours into the site design
- Email signature — add your logo and brand colours to every email
- Social media — use your logo as profile picture, brand colours in post templates
- Business cards — keep them minimal with logo, name, title, contact
- WhatsApp Business — upload your logo as the profile photo
Visual branding on a budget isn’t about cutting corners — it’s about focusing on what matters. Logo, colours, font, consistency. Everything else is optional until you’re ready.