Studios like Koto: how to compare fit and budget

If Koto is a reference for the kind of brand work you want, start with what you see in that work: a distinctive character, a particular way of expressing the company, or an identity that holds together across very different situations. Use those observations to explain the change you want for your own company.

This guide looks at Koto and four other studios through that lens. heartbeat publishes the guide and is included in it. The descriptions draw on the studios' public work and services, checked in November 2026; suggestions about fit are editorial judgments, not an independent ranking or a comparison of verified prices.

A Series A round is context, not a design brief

Your product may now serve different customers, support a larger part of their work, or introduce a way of thinking that the current identity does not express. Start with how people perceive the company and what using the product tells them. Funding can make the work possible; it does not decide what the design should be.

Tell each studio what you already understand about the company, what feels unresolved, and which work made you consider them. Ask how they would approach that specific situation. A team with settled positioning may need creative expression and applications; a team still debating its audience needs to acknowledge that uncertainty first.

Look for a direction that works beyond the presentation

A brand can look convincing on a presentation board and still leave important everyday moments unexplored. Ask to see how an identity behaves in a product screen, a transactional email, a customer presentation, or a website page. Those examples can reveal more about the studio's judgment than a long list of deliverables.

There will be familiar building blocks, including typography, colour and imagery. The useful question is how their combination belongs to this company and how the team can make the next design decision from it. A design-token library or an AI context document can help carry a direction forward; neither creates the character of the identity by itself.

• Ask why a particular visual direction fits the company and its customers.

• Look at applications people actually encounter, as well as polished mockups.

• Ask what the client team continued to use after the first project.

• If product design or development matters, review work showing those contributions rather than infer them from a client logo.

Koto as a reference point

Koto presents work across brand strategy, identity, digital experiences and marketing. Its portfolio includes both large brand systems and more focused expressions of a brand. Review the work closest to your situation and discuss which team and approach would be proposed for your company. Explore Koto's services and work.

A public portfolio does not establish a price for your brief or how long your project would take. Ask Koto directly before using it as a budget benchmark. The same applies to every studio below.

Four other studios to explore

heartbeat

heartbeat works with technology founders to give their vision a distinctive identity and carry it into the way customers encounter and use the product. Brand Sprints start from $35K. There is no standard deliverables list: we choose the important points of contact for the particular company, then work through them so the team can carry the direction further.

We aim to take a Sprint from start to finish in a month and do everything we can to make that happen. Founder Dima Lepokhin is involved in every project, alongside the senior designers creating the work. Explore our approach and the HYROS case to decide whether the creative work and way of collaborating fit your company.

The Branx

The Branx focuses on technology startups, including AI and SaaS. Its public offer starts with identity and presents websites, messaging, motion and brand assets as additional areas of work. Review how the identity-led approach appears in relevant projects. Explore The Branx.

In a conversation, ask how it would find the character of your company and which customer encounters should receive attention first. Confirm the current commercial proposal directly.

925Studios

925Studios presents a product design focus for AI and B2B SaaS teams. Its portfolio is a place to investigate when the product experience is central to your brief. Explore 925Studios.

Ask the proposed team to show how it connects identity with the product itself. Look for a comparable customer journey and discuss how it would work alongside your own product and engineering team.

Ramotion

Ramotion publishes work and services across brand, websites, interfaces, design systems and development. That breadth makes it worth exploring when several experiences need to come together. Explore Ramotion.

Check the contribution behind each relevant example and meet the people proposed for your project. A portfolio of several disciplines does not tell you which of them your company needs first.

Compare the work behind the price

Give your finalists the same company context and explain the moments you want to improve. Ask each team to explain its creative approach, the first applications it recommends, and what it would leave for later. Then compare the fee in relation to that work.

A price attached to a studio's starting offer is not a market rate for a complete identity, website and product redesign. A particular company may need a different mix of work. This guide does not establish current prices or delivery times for Koto, The Branx, 925Studios or Ramotion.

Questions for the first conversation

• What do you think people should understand or feel about this company that they do not today?

• Which parts of our existing thinking would you build on, and what would you question?

• Can you show a creative decision in a relevant project and explain why it fitted that company?

• Which customer encounters would you work through first, and why?

• Who will shape the direction with us, and how will our team take part?

• What will help our team use and develop the identity after the first project?

The shortlist gives you places to look. The decision comes from the work, the conversation and confidence in the people who will make the creative decisions with you. You do not need a studio that copies Koto's style; you need a direction that belongs to your company.