Logo and Brand Identity Design Cost in Dubai (2026): Real AED Prices and the 50% Arabic Rule

Short answer: a logo and brand identity in Dubai costs AED 500–3,000 for a template or budget logo, AED 3,000–15,000 from an experienced freelancer, AED 5,000–15,000 for a real identity system at a mid-tier agency, and AED 15,000–40,000 once strategy, naming and a full guideline document are in scope. Enterprise and multi-brand programmes run AED 40,000–120,000+. Add 15–25% for a bilingual Arabic–English identity — which in Dubai is not a nice-to-have, because Article 11(7) of Decree No. (6) of 2020 requires Arabic to occupy at least 50% of your signboard. Updated September 2026.

Here is the part most Dubai businesses get wrong. They buy a logo, love it, print it, and only discover at the signage permit stage that the mark has no Arabic lockup, that the wordmark does not match the trade name on the DET licence, and that a Latin-only logotype cannot legally carry a shopfront in this emirate. The design was never the problem. The order of operations was.

Key takeaways

Most Dubai SMEs land between AED 5,000 and AED 40,000 for a usable identity system — logo suite, colour, type, and guidelines.

Arabic is a legal specification. Decree No. (6) of 2020 makes Arabic the primary language on advertising media, at a minimum of 50% of the medium, positioned top or right.

Your logo is not your trademark. Government trademark fees are roughly AED 6,500 per class under Cabinet Resolution No. 102 of 2025, with a 50% reduction for registered SMEs.

Design before naming is backwards. A DET trade name reservation is AED 620 and holds for 180 days — secure it before the designer draws anything.

The market is crowded and getting louder. Dubai processed more than 230,000 licensing transactions in H1 2026 alone.

Dubai is minting brands faster than it can approve signs

Start with the competitive picture, because it explains the price. In the first half of 2026, 58,337 licences were issued across Dubai and 173,652 were renewed — more than 230,000 licensing transactions in six months. Every one of those is a name, a fascia, an Instagram handle and a delivery bag competing for the same eye-line as yours.

The supply side has scaled with it. Dubai counted 14,771 creative and cultural enterprises in 2020, up from 10,351 in 2018, employing 108,444 people, with the sector contributing about 4% of Dubai GDP and AED 17.6 billion in value added in 2019. The Dubai Creative Economy Strategy targets 5% of GDP, 15,000 companies and 140,000 creative jobs. Translation: you are not short of people willing to draw you a logo. You are short of people who know what Dubai Municipality will reject.

That gap is the whole article. Design talent is abundant and cheap. Design that survives a signage permit, a trademark examination, an Arabic typesetter and a print run is not.

What logo and brand identity design actually costs in Dubai (2026)

Pricing in this market is not one number, it is five tiers, and the difference between them is scope, not talent. The table below reflects published 2026 pricing from Dubai branding studios and agencies.

Tier	Typical AED	What you actually receive	Right for
Template / marketplace logo	AED 500–3,000	One logo file, limited revisions, often no source vectors, no Arabic	Pre-revenue tests, internal projects
Experienced freelancer	AED 3,000–15,000	Custom logo, 2–3 lockups, colour and type picks, basic usage sheet	Solo founders, single-outlet shops
Mid-tier agency identity	AED 5,000–15,000	Logo system, palette, typography, iconography, 10–20 page guidelines	Most Dubai SMEs and startups
Strategy-led identity	AED 15,000–40,000	Positioning, naming, bilingual lockups, applications, 40–80 page guidelines, digital tokens	Funded startups, franchises, rebrands
Enterprise / multi-brand	AED 40,000–120,000+	Research, architecture, sub-brands, motion, environmental and packaging systems	Groups, hospitality portfolios, regional rollouts

Two costs sit outside the table and catch people out. First, the bilingual premium: Dubai studios commonly add 15–25% for Arabic–English work, because a bilingual mark is not a translation, it is a second piece of lettering that has to match the Latin one in weight, rhythm and optical size while reading right-to-left. Second, application design — menus, packaging, vehicle livery, the shopfront — is almost always quoted separately from identity.

The 50% Arabic rule that decides whether your logo is legal

This is the single most expensive thing to learn late. Under Article 11(7) of Decree No. (6) of 2020, Arabic must be the primary language on advertising media in Dubai, occupying at least 50% of the medium, positioned at the top or to the right, and free of language errors. On top of that, the name displayed must match the trade name on your DET licence — abbreviations, spelling variants and logo-only fascias are standard grounds for rejection.

The financial consequence is not the fine, it is the rebuild. Signboard fabrication in Dubai runs AED 300–1,500 for flat acrylic, AED 1,500–8,000 for illuminated 3D channel letters and AED 15,000–40,000+ for a facade installation, plus an annual permit of roughly AED 500–5,000. Displaying an unpermitted or non-compliant sign draws AED 1,000–15,000 per violation, doubling to a AED 30,000 ceiling on a repeat within twelve months, plus removal at your cost with a 25% surcharge and a minimum AED 2,000 charge. Our Dubai signboard permit guide breaks the whole approval chain down.

So the brief to your designer is not “make it look premium.” It is: this mark must hold at 50% Arabic on a six-metre fascia, at 32 pixels as a favicon, embroidered on a polo shirt, and foil-blocked on a box. A logo that only works as a Latin wordmark on a white slide is a logo you will pay to redraw.

Name first, logo second: the sequence that saves money

Dubai punishes teams who design before they secure. The correct order is boring and cheap.

Reserve the trade name with DET. The government fee is AED 620 and the reservation holds for 180 days. Premium and restricted names cost more, and the fee is non-refundable if the name is rejected.
Check trademark availability in the classes you will actually trade in.
Design bilingually — Latin and Arabic lockups developed together, not retrofitted.
File the trademark. Government fees are about AED 6,500 per class under Cabinet Resolution No. 102 of 2025, in effect since November 2025 — AED 750 examination, AED 750 publication, AED 5,000 registration. SMEs registered under the national programme pay 50%. Expect 4–6 months to certificate and ten years of protection, renewable. Every application filed on or after 27 January 2026 uses the 13th edition of the Nice Classification. Full detail in our UAE trademark cost guide.
Then order signage, packaging and print.

Reversing steps 3 and 4 is how a founder ends up paying AED 6,500 per class to protect a mark they are about to abandon — or worse, discovering a conflicting registration after the shopfront is installed.

Typography: you probably do not need to buy an Arabic typeface

Arabic type licensing is where quotes quietly inflate. Two facts worth knowing before you approve that line item. Dubai Font, commissioned by the Executive Council of Dubai with Microsoft, is free for personal and commercial use and was purpose-built to pair Arabic and Latin in one family. Google Fonts also carries 30+ Arabic typefaces at zero licensing cost, including Noto Naskh Arabic and Cairo, both of which sit comfortably next to common Latin sans-serifs. A custom or licensed commercial Arabic family is a legitimate choice for a hospitality or luxury brand — it is not a requirement for a Dubai SME, and nobody should be charging you a font licence for a free face.

What a 2026 identity has to ship (and what usually gets skipped)

An identity that only exists as a PDF costs you money every month afterwards. Insist on these deliverables in writing before you sign:

Vector source files (AI or SVG) plus SVG, PNG and favicon exports — and full ownership of them.
Arabic and English lockups: horizontal, stacked, icon-only, and a 50%-Arabic signage variant.
Monochrome and single-colour versions for embroidery, engraving and one-colour print.
Minimum sizes and clear space, tested at favicon scale and at fascia scale.
Digital tokens: hex values, type scale, spacing and RTL rules your developer can implement directly. If your site needs a proper right-to-left build, see our Arabic RTL localisation guide.
Social and OG assets at current platform dimensions, plus an app icon if you have a product.

The commonly skipped items are the last two. A brand handed over without web-ready tokens and social templates gets rebuilt informally by whoever runs the Instagram account, and consistency dies in month three.

The payoff, and how Aquarius prices it

Consistency is the measurable part of branding. The widely cited Lucidpress brand-consistency research associated consistent presentation with revenue increases of 23–33% — an older study, but the mechanism holds: recognition compounds, and inconsistency resets it. In this market there is a local multiplier too. Roughly 63% of UAE internet users prefer Arabic content when making local purchasing decisions, which means a brand that only exists in English is invisible to a large share of the buyers standing in front of it.

Our approach is deliberately unromantic. We treat identity as a specification your signage contractor, printer and developer can each execute without calling us. Bilingual from the first sketch. Tokens, not just pictures. Files you own outright.

Practically, a brand-and-web engagement at Aquarius starts around the Business Site tier at AED 2,500 when you need an identity refresh delivered straight into a live EN/AR site, and moves to the Custom App tier at AED 10,000 when there is a product, dashboard or booking flow to brand as well. Full ranges sit on our pricing page, and delivery scope under services. Fixed AED quotes, no retainer lock-in, and you keep every source file.

The cost of getting this wrong is not abstract: a rejected fascia is a second fabrication invoice of AED 1,500–8,000, a refiled trademark is AED 6,500 a class, and a reprinted packaging run starts again at its minimum order quantity. Designing bilingually on day one is the cheapest insurance in the whole sequence.

FAQ

How much should a small Dubai business budget for a logo and brand identity?

AED 5,000–15,000 buys a proper identity system from a mid-tier Dubai agency: logo suite, colour, typography and guidelines. Below AED 3,000 you are buying a single file, not a system. Add 15–25% if Arabic lockups are included, which for any business with a shopfront they must be.

Is Arabic really mandatory on a Dubai logo?

Arabic is mandatory on the advertising medium, not on the mark itself. Article 11(7) of Decree No. (6) of 2020 requires Arabic to be primary and to occupy at least 50% of the signboard, placed top or right. In practice that means your identity needs an Arabic lockup designed to sit alongside the Latin one, or your signage permit application fails at technical review.

Does registering a trade name protect my logo?

No. A DET trade name reservation (AED 620, valid 180 days) secures the name for licensing purposes. Legal protection of the mark requires a trademark registration at roughly AED 6,500 per class, with a 50% reduction for registered SMEs and 4–6 months to certificate.

Do I need to buy an Arabic font licence?

Usually not. Dubai Font is free for commercial use and designed to pair Arabic with Latin, and Google Fonts carries 30+ Arabic families at no licensing cost. Paid or custom Arabic type is a premium choice, not a compliance requirement.

How long does a brand identity project take in Dubai?

Two to three weeks for a freelance logo package, four to eight weeks for a mid-tier agency identity system, and eight to sixteen weeks for strategy-led work with naming and bilingual applications. Layer trademark filing on top: 4–6 months, running in parallel once the mark is locked.

Building or rebuilding a brand in Dubai this quarter? Send us the trade name and the sectors you trade in, and we will tell you in one reply what the identity, the Arabic lockup and the digital rollout should cost — in AED, fixed. Talk to Aquarius.