Do I need to rebrand?
10 signs you need to rebrand and a few red flags to consider before you do.
This post was inspired by recent conversations and reflections with my dear friend Angela from Angela Ellison Creative who went through a major rebrand at the start of the year. Her rebrand was one of my favorite branding projects to date—we both are in love with how her visual identity turned out and, as her designer, I could not be more proud of how well she is transforming all her brand touch points!
”With careful listening and creative perspective, Renee has designed a beautiful warm and professional visual brand for me. Her stunning logo creations, the colors and the fonts are so “me.” All of this feels like the brand I’ve been dreaming about for a long time.”
Angela from Angela Ellison Creative
Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition:
rebrand: to change or update the brand or branding of (a product, service, etc.)
I could go on and on about the intricacies of branding, visual identities, and brand design, but wanted to keep things simple (for now). Be on the lookout for future brand design resources.
10 signs you need to rebrand
and a few red flags to consider before you do.
Your brand isn’t feeling aligned with you or your business goals.
You don’t feel confident using your visual brand.
You feel embarrassed to push your logo into the world.
You dread creating content because your visual brand isn’t defined and you struggle with creating posts that are “on brand.”
You are pivoting your business goals and need a rebrand that realigns with your new mission and target audience.
Renaming your business (this is a perfect time to rebrand).
Your business feels like it has outgrown your current logo / brand assets.
You think your competition looks better than you.
Your personality isn’t shining through.
Your brand looks like everyone else (if you’re not standing out, you’re blending in).
Bonus Signs:
You’ve been using your old logo from your last business and have totally changed gears… your new target audience isn’t likely the same as your original one.
You’re customer demographic is shifting and you need a new look that aligns with your new business goals.
You’re feeling uninspired by your logo, making you drag your feet on launching new products / services and causing dread when it comes to creating content.
If you did not relate to most of these, but you still feel like you need to revise a few things—you might want to consider a brand refresh instead of jumping into a full rebrand. These notes might pertain more to your situation:
Something has always been missing in your current logo
You feel like your logo needs to be modernized
Your logo is complex and you want it simplified
Side Note: remember that branding is all about consistency—I’d advise against changing your brand assets too often. You want your audience / customers to be able to remember your brand and changing all the time can hinder your brand recognition.
When to refresh instead…
Not fully ready for a full rebrand (want to test the new name / messaging before committing).
Don’t have the funds for a full rebrand.
You have an extensive brand guide along with a full logo family, but feel they need sprucing up.
You love your current logo but it isn’t scalable or versatile (not easy to use across all your brand touch points).
In this case you can work with a designer to expand out your brand assets (this is what I did at the end of last year for Simple Sundries, a low-waste shop here in Portland).
Mandy loved the overall look and feel of her logo but always wanted to add some bubbles by the bird’s beak. I also helped her expand her brand assets and maintain consistency throughout her visual brand by creating a style guide reference sheet.
Rebrand Red Flags:
Proceed with Caution When…
You are well established in the market and your customers know exactly what to look for when searching for your product on the shelves.
Brand recognition is key, if you’re customers / audience know and love your look but you feel your logo is outdated, you might want to consider a refresh instead.
You’ve been around for a long time and people know and trust your brand.
You’re eyeing the latest design trends and want your brand to jump on the bandwagon—if you look like everyone else, your personality won’t shine through!
Side Notes: if you want to read about a disastrous rebrand, look up the Tropicana rebrand. A couple of successful ones from the last few years are the Pepsi and Burger King rebrands (I feel like non-designers noticed these too).
Studio Updates
I started my business in March of 2021 and celebrated my business anniversary last month!! WOW, it feels really weird to write that down since I almost took a step back at the end of last year.
Honestly there have been ups and downs, but I’m feeling so grateful to be able to do what I love to help support fellow entrepreneurs. I’ve decided to focus in on brand design projects this year. This will allow me to simplify things internally since my brand design project has been fine tuned over the last few years.
Leaning into my 2024 mantra
Connection. Collaboration. Community.
I’ve official launched Eco Brief this month and posted the first brief last week! If you haven’t heard me chat about this, Eco Brief is a creative brief account focused solely on sharing eco-focused design briefs to get your passion project started. While this project has been in the works for quite some time, I know that it’s going to take some time to find my flow. If you want to follow along, we’d love to have you.
The mission of the account (which is one of my own passion projects this year) is to inspire and be inspired by fellow earth-loving designers.
Other fun things:
I’m still working on preparing items to get the Sprout Application launched
This week I’ve been taking a mini course about licensing artwork, something I’ve been interested in but haven’t made time to learn more about.
We officially completed out 2023 taxes a few weeks ago!! YAY!
I’m working on getting my website updated, it’s been on my list for weeks but it’s happening this week.
RLC Roots will be published the second Tuesday of every month moving forward with a chance to add a bonus newsletter in between. I’ve realized I need a day to shoot for to hold myself accountable. I’ve got sooo many drafts with good content that needs to be shared with you all.
I’ve been honing in on who I want to work with and what types of projects I want to work on—feeling excited about this new direction as it feels aligned with my aspirations and will allow me to streamlines things internally. I also absolutely love working on brand design projects!
Renee Lynn Creative creates daring brands for changemakers devoted to planting positive change. If that sounds like you, you can check out my website here or if you have all the information you need fill our my inquiry form here.
“If possible, I wish I could shout from every mountain top in the Pacific Northwest about the wonders of Renee’s talents. I mean that literally!”
- Angela, Founder of Angela Ellison Creative
Do you know someone working to create a better future? A community cheerleader? An ice cream shop owner (what a dream that would be)? I’d love to chat with them. The books are open for Q2 projects. I’ve got time for one more branding project in the second half of April and a couple openings for May.
Thanks for reading, until next time—keep dreaming!
Renee
P.S. I’d love to hear from you if something in this post tugged at your soul—feel free to leave a comment or send a message to get a conversation started!