Every agent who builds a personal brand runs into the same tension. The brokerage has a brand, and it has rules about it. The agent wants to be recognized as an individual, with a look of their own. The two have to share the same page.
Done well, the brokerage name supplies credibility and the personal brand supplies character, and neither fights the other. Done badly, it produces pieces that miss the Illinois identification rules, annoy the brokerage's marketing department and leave the agent with a stack of unusable printing.
This article lays out the rules that shape the relationship, a way to design the lockup once, and an approval routine that keeps surprises out of the print run.
This is not legal advice. Rules change, and your brokerage may have stricter policies of its own. Confirm anything that matters with your managing broker before you rely on it.
What the Illinois rules require
Section 1450.715 of the Illinois Administrative Code, Title 68, Part 1450 is titled Advertising. For co-branding, subsection (b) is the one to know.
It begins: "All advertising must include the sponsoring broker's name and conform to the following requirements." The first requirement is that a logo, emblem, label, trademarked image or similar identification used by the sponsoring broker "is not considered a part of the sponsoring broker's name unless it contains the sponsoring broker's name." So a brokerage symbol with no name in it does not identify the brokerage for this purpose.
The second gives three alternative tests. Advertising meeting any one of them is considered in compliance:
- the letters in the brokerage name are as large or larger than the letters used in the team name or individual licensee name;
- the area, in height and width, containing the brokerage name is as large or larger than the area containing the team or individual name; or
- a logo or similar identification incorporating the brokerage name is as large or larger than the team or individual name.
In short, your personal brand may be present and distinctive, but the brokerage name has to hold its own beside it. Our article on brokerage name size on flyers works through the three tests.
Subsection (e) adds a note in the other direction: "Nothing in Section 10-30 of the Act shall require a sponsoring broker to include the name of one of its sponsored licensees on the sponsoring broker's signs or other advertising." The brokerage is not obliged to put your name on its own materials.
For digital pieces, Section 1450.720 adds lines on top: the licensee's name as licensed, or a team name, the sponsoring broker's name, and the office city and state or a direct link. See what to include on social posts.
What the brokerage will probably add
The state rules are a floor. Most brokerages publish brand standards of their own. They commonly cover:
- approved logo files and color values
- minimum sizes and clear space around the logo
- where the logo must sit on printed and digital pieces
- fonts used for the brokerage name
- how an agent's name or team name may appear beside it
- which pieces need approval before use
We have not read any particular brokerage's standards, and they differ. What matters is that you get yours before design begins, not after printing.
Designing the lockup once
A lockup is a fixed arrangement of your name or team name and the brokerage name, with set proportions and clear space. It is the most useful single thing in a co-branded system. The lockup is one part of the larger personal brand system.
The elements
- The brokerage name, in the brokerage's approved logo or wordmark, spelled out.
- Your name or team name, in your own type.
- The office city and state, in supporting type.
- Clear space between the elements, defined as a unit based on the height of a letter.
The proportions
Decide the relationship between the brokerage name and yours, write it down, and test it against the three tests above. We aim for the brokerage name to be at least as large as your name in both point size and footprint, so two tests are met together. Then the lockup is a component, not a judgment call.
The versions
A complete lockup set usually includes:
- a horizontal version for footers and bands
- a stacked version for square and portrait formats
- a single-color version for print and for placement on dark grounds
- a small version with a minimum size noted
Each version keeps the same proportions between the names.
What the personal brand does
Everything else is yours: the typeface for headlines, the color accents, the layouts, the photographic style, the voice. The lockup is the only place the two brands touch, and keeping it that tidy is what lets the rest be distinctive.
What belongs to whom
Be careful about the line between your marks and the brokerage's. The brokerage's logo and name are the brokerage's. Do not redraw them, recolor them outside their standards, or merge them with your mark into a single new symbol. Place the supplied artwork. The type that goes with the lockup is the subject of choosing typefaces beside a brokerage brand.
Your own marks are yours to design, but if you leave the brokerage, your personal brand has to stand without theirs. That is the reason to keep the personal brand separate from the brokerage lockup in your files. Before you commission anything, ask your managing broker how the brokerage handles a departing agent's materials.
An approval workflow
Approvals are the dull part that prevents the expensive mistakes. When the brokerage itself changes, moving brokerages without starting over covers the rebuild.
- Ask what needs approval. Some brokerages review everything. Some review only print and paid pieces. Get the policy in writing.
- Submit the system, not just the piece. Send the lockup and a sample of each format, such as flyer, card, social and email, before you produce a full set.
- Record the answer. Keep the approval message with the files.
- Approve once, reuse many times. If the template is approved, pieces made from it should need less review. Confirm that with the brokerage.
- Resubmit when something changes. A new office, a new team name or a brokerage rebrand means the lockup is reviewed again.
If an unlicensed assistant prepares your materials, Section 1450.740 is relevant. It lets an unlicensed assistant, under supervision, draft advertising copy and promotional materials and prepare and distribute promotional information "for approval by a licensee," or, for a new broker licensee who has not completed the 45-hour post-license education, with the approval of the designated managing broker. Subsection (d) adds that a licensee who supervises an unlicensed assistant "shall be responsible for the unlicensed assistant's acts or omissions." The approval step belongs to you.
Common co-branding mistakes
- A personal logo larger than the brokerage name on every piece.
- The brokerage symbol used alone with no name.
- Colors that clash because the personal palette ignores the brokerage palette entirely.
- A new mark that imitates the brokerage's and confuses ownership.
- No lockup, so each piece sets the two names differently.
- Files without a single-color version, which then get stretched or recolored by a printer.
A short checklist
- Do you have the brokerage's current brand standards in hand?
- Does the lockup spell out the brokerage name and meet at least one of the three size tests, ideally two?
- Are the versions defined: horizontal, stacked, single-color, minimum size?
- Has the managing broker seen the lockup and a sample of each format?
- Is the approval kept with the files?
- Can the personal brand stand on its own if the brokerage changes?
A co-branded system works when the rules are settled before the design begins. If you would like a personal brand system built around a compliant lockup, with every format drawn from it, that is the core of what we do.
Sources: Illinois Administrative Code, Title 68, Part 1450, Sections 1450.715, 1450.720 and 1450.740, as published on the Illinois General Assembly website (ilga.gov) and read on October 30, 2026.