Your company has an established network of clients and vendors who know your brand and what your company stands for. So if your branding gets a little out of date, you might not even notice a change to the bottom line. After all, those loyal relationships are absolutely worth all the effort that you’ve invested in them. But if attracting new customers seems a stumbling block, refreshing your image to better reflect modern aesthetics may be exactly what you need to get back on a growth trajectory.
There may be other compelling reasons why you are looking to update your image. Perhaps the company is adding a new business stream or going through a merger, maybe expanding into a new market where it’s currently not known. As you’re considering whether to start from scratch or to incorporate elements of the existing logo into the new one, keep your focus on what outcomes you expect to achieve. In addition to the what, when, and how of rebranding, it’s important to maintain the focus on the why. Communicating the choice of a new logo is part and parcel of how it will be received, not only by existing fans of your brand, but also by potential new ones.
Two essential ingredients for a successful redesign
1. Simplify
As we emphasized previously, if you are opting for a logo redesign, it’s best to prioritise simplicity. This is particularly true if your company is hoping to boost its online presence and your existing logo predates the smartphone revolution, since overly complicated logos can lose detail and impact on a smaller screen. This has led many traditional and well-known brands to streamline their look in recent years.
2. Set a timeline and budget
With this in mind, before you begin the process of choosing the right logo, it’s a good idea to have a comprehensive list of where your logo will appear. Will it be limited to an online presence or do you plan to include it on print advertising or other physical items such as uniforms or company vehicles? Making an inventory of items that will bear your logo will help you devise a timeline (and budget) for the transition from the old to the new branding. After all, you’ll need time to accommodate design and production of the new products, and unfortunately, these won’t always align. Depending on volume, a t-shirt order can probably be filled within a week, whereas logo placement on a car or van in the form of a full vehicle wrap can be more design-intensive and time-consuming.
It’s not only the large items such as cars or billboards that need a bit of pre-design strategy, even the smallest of logos in the form of a favicon require some advanced thinking. Although it this case, the good news is that you can play around with a favicon generator ahead of time to see what kinds of images and fonts translate well to the smaller format. And, as the name would imply, you can generate your favicon instantly once you’ve settled on an image that works well. If only every step of rebranding were instant and free!
Nevertheless, at the end of the development, an investment in your brand is an investment in the future. Successful companies adapt to changing times while staying true to the principles that created their initial success. With your new logo on everything from a tiny favicon to an 18-wheeler, consistency and clarity of brand will be reflected in your company.
Founder Dinis Guarda
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