Branding a new Texas LLC, in order.

Forming the entity and building the brand are two separate processes that overlap at exactly three points, the name, the artwork and who owns it. Get the order wrong and you pay for the same work twice.

Two processes, three collision points.

There is a great deal written about forming a Texas LLC, and a great deal written about branding a small business. Almost nothing is written about the join between them, which is unfortunate, because that join is where the expensive mistakes live. A founder follows good formation advice and good branding advice, in the wrong order, and ends up redrawing a wordmark around a name that was not available.

The two processes touch at three points and only three. The name, because the Secretary of State decides whether you can have it and the logo has to carry whichever one survives. The artwork, because a trademark application asks for it and a flattened image will not do. And ownership, because the entity that paid for the design is not automatically the entity that owns it. Everything else in both processes runs independently.

What follows is the sequence those three points imply. It is written from the design side. We are a studio, not a law firm, and nothing here is legal advice. Every procedural claim points at the Texas Secretary of State rather than restating a fee or a deadline, because those change without notice and a page that quotes them goes quietly wrong.

The sequence

Six steps, and the order is the point.

Each one is cheap to do in this position and expensive to do out of it.

  1. 01

    Clear the name before anything is drawn

    The Secretary of State will reject an entity name it does not consider distinguishable in its records from one already filed. Check availability first, because this is the step that most often forces a change, and a mark drawn around a name you cannot use is the most avoidable waste in the whole sequence.

  2. 02

    Decide whether you are also trading under a different name

    If the business will operate under anything other than its exact registered entity name, that is an assumed name and it is a separate filing with the Secretary of State. It matters for branding because the name on the sign is the name the logo has to carry, and that is frequently the assumed name rather than the entity name.

  3. 03

    Commission the mark against the cleared name

    Only now is there a settled thing to draw. The brief covers what you sell, who you compete with, and every surface the mark has to survive: signage, an app icon, one-colour print, embroidery. How the logo work runs is set out in full on the logo design page.

  4. 04

    Get the copyright assigned in writing, at handover

    This is the step almost nobody is told about. Paying an invoice does not transfer copyright in commissioned design by default. Ask for a signed assignment naming the entity, not a reassurance, a document. Every project here includes one on every tier.

  5. 05

    Then, if it is worth it, register the mark

    With a settled mark and clean vector files you are in a position to file, at state level with Texas under the Business & Commerce Code, federally with the USPTO, or both. Which of those makes sense depends on where you trade and is a question for an attorney. Current forms, requirements and fees are at the Texas Secretary of State, which is the only source worth trusting on figures that change.

  6. 06

    Specify the rest before a second supplier touches it

    The moment anyone else produces material, a printer, a developer, a marketing hire, an unspecified brand starts to drift. A palette in all four colour spaces and a type scale is usually enough at this stage. The brand identity page covers the full sequence and what it costs.

What goes wrong

Six mistakes we see repeatedly.

None of these are careless. Every one is a reasonable assumption that happens to be wrong.

Assuming the LLC filing protects the brand

It is a filing-office distinguishability check, not a grant of brand rights. Two businesses can hold similar-sounding registrations and still end up in a dispute the Secretary of State has no role in resolving.

Drawing the logo before the name clears

The commonest sequencing error and the one with the clearest cost. Wordmarks in particular are drawn around specific letterforms; change the name and the work restarts.

Taking a trademark registration as proof of owning the artwork

The Secretary of State registers marks and states plainly that it does not register copyright. A registration plus no assignment means you hold rights in the mark and not in the drawing.

Accepting a logo with no vector source files

Without the editable originals the next designer traces a flattened PNG and quietly redraws the brand slightly wrong. It also weakens a trademark application, which wants clean artwork. Which file belongs with whom.

Buying a website before the brand is specified

A developer with no palette and no type scale will pick both, reasonably and differently. Retrofitting a brand onto a built site costs more than designing the site from a finished system.

Diarising the state and federal renewals together

A Texas state registration renews in five-year terms and the federal cycle is longer, so if you hold both they fall due in different years. Nobody reminds you about a lapsed registration.

What a new Texas business receives from us.

First draft
24–36 hours
Packages
$90, $175 and $295 USD
Revisions
Unlimited, every tier
Vector sources
AI, EPS and SVG, filing-ready
Copyright assignment
Signed, naming your entity
Trademark filing
Not included. That is a legal step
Average reply time
about an hour
Rating
4.9 from 2,604 reviews

Questions

The ones Texas founders actually ask.

Do I need a logo before I register my Texas LLC?

No, and doing it in that order wastes money more often than it saves time. Entity registration asks for a name, not a mark. If the name you wanted turns out not to be distinguishable from an existing filing and you have to change it, a logo drawn around the old name is wasted work. Clear the name first, then draw.

What is the difference between my LLC name, a trade name and a trademark?

Three separate things that people routinely treat as one. The LLC name is the entity registered with the Secretary of State. An assumed name, a DBA, is a different name the entity trades under, filed separately. A trademark is a mark identifying the source of goods or services, registered either with Texas at state level or with the USPTO federally. Holding one of the three does not give you the other two.

Does registering my LLC name stop anyone else using it?

Not in the way most founders assume. Entity registration stops another entity filing a name the Secretary of State considers not distinguishable in its records. It is a filing-office check, not a grant of brand rights across Texas, and it does not stop a business trading under a similar name without an entity filing. Trademark rights are the separate system that addresses that.

Should I file a Texas trademark or a federal one?

It depends on where you actually trade, and it is a question for a trade mark attorney rather than a design studio. The short version is that the state register covers use inside Texas and the federal register covers interstate commerce, and businesses doing both often file both. Either application will ask for the artwork, which is what the vector files we hand over are for. <a href="/logo-design-texas/">The Texas logo design page</a> covers the two registers in more detail.

If I pay a designer, do I own the logo?

Not automatically, and this is the single most expensive misunderstanding on this list. Commissioned design is rarely "work made for hire" by default, so without a written assignment the designer usually keeps copyright, which means the business paid for a mark it cannot fully control. Every project here ships with a signed assignment naming your company. <a href="/blog/who-owns-your-logo/">Who actually owns your logo</a> explains the mechanism.

Does a Texas trademark registration mean I own the artwork?

No. The Secretary of State is explicit that it registers trade and service marks and does not register copyright. Registration is evidence of rights in the mark as a brand signal; it says nothing about who owns the drawing. That gap is exactly what the signed assignment closes, and it is why we issue one on every project rather than as an upsell.

What branding does a new Texas business actually need on day one?

Less than most sellers suggest. A cleared name, a logo that works small and in one colour, a specified palette and typeface, and the ownership paperwork. Guidelines and a website design matter once more than one person is producing material, before that they are a document nobody reads. <a href="/blog/startup-branding-budget/">What to spend on branding at each stage</a> works through it by stage rather than by package.

You are not in Texas. Does that matter for this?

For the design work, no, and we would rather say that plainly than pretend to an address we do not have. This studio is in Pakistan and works with clients across the US on the same terms. For the filings, it makes no difference either, you or your attorney file those wherever you are. What it does affect is the clock: Texas is ten to eleven hours behind us, so expect one considered reply per day rather than rapid back-and-forth. Average reply time across 2,604 projects on Fiverr is about an hour.

Do you charge Texas clients differently?

No. Packages are $90, $175 and $295 in USD, the same everywhere. Your card converts at the day's rate.

Next, depending on where you are

Just formed the entity? Send the brief.

Tell us the name, cleared or still being checked, and what the business does. You get questions, a sequence and a quote back. First draft in 24–36 hours, no charge for the conversation.

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