Do you ever feel pressure to scrap your visual identity to stay relevant? In an age of rapid design trends and shifting audience expectations, a thoughtful brand refresh can reignite fresh interest without sacrificing the recognisable logo you’ve worked so hard to establish.
Why keep the logo? Often, businesses hesitate to replace their logo because they’ve recently rebranded or can’t afford the extensive costs of updating signage, packaging and marketing materials. Beyond the expense, logos also build brand trust, so it sometimes doesn’t make sense to start again. If consumers no longer recognise your logo, they may turn to a competitor they’re more familiar with.
Retaining a well-established logo ensures you keep your core brand equity intact while still allowing you to introduce fresh visual elements. At Brilliant Logic, we love a brand refresh that doesn’t mean changing a logo. It’s more about making small tweaks and revitalising everything around the logo that becomes your brand personality. Secondary fonts, colour palette, submarks and imagery – all these aspects are part of your broader brand and refreshing these can be all you need to make a big impact.
A brand refresh is most effective when it aligns with a meaningful shift in your business. For instance, this may be:
- Leadership changes
- Expanding product offerings
- Venturing into new markets
- Attracting a new audience
- New online website
- Repositioning due to evolving consumer preferences
- A commitment to growth
- Wanting to stand out from your competitors who look the same as you.
These situations can all serve as catalysts to update your brand identity, however, you want to ensure the change is strategic and resonates with your core values.
Getting everyone on board, from the C-suite to customers and staff, helps ensure the refresh resonates internally and externally. With a united vision, your brand refresh can bolster market share and spark new interest for years to come.
For many brands, staying current doesn’t require starting from scratch. Small tweaks go a long way such as
- Modern typefaces, either primary or secondary
- Refined colour palettes
- Updated layouts
- Refreshed imagery and graphics
- Tweaked or new submarks or brand elements
These adjustments can revitalise how your business presents itself, appealing to modern tastes without confusing loyal customers.
Our Case Study
Here at Brilliant Logic we recently worked on a fabulous refresh that involved no change to the client’s logo. The client was struggling to stand out in a competitive market of all monochromatic brands. This caused confusion among potential customers and they sought to stand out from the crowd and remain memorable.
Our approach was to retain the existing logo, leveraging the brand equity already built, while strategically refining other elements, such as colour palette, typography, layout and marketing collateral. The result is a refreshed, contemporary look that strengthens recognition and gives them a more distinct overall brand.
Though we kept their recognisable logo in place, we modernised their visuals so they could break away from the competition, reaffirm their core values and confidently move forward in a crowded space.