Why a new logo won’t fix a confused brand.
Why a new logo won’t fix a confused brand.
A new logo can be exciting.
It's visible. It's tangible. You can put it on a website, a sign, a business card and your social media and immediately see that something has changed.
And sometimes a new logo is exactly what a business needs.
But if you're changing the logo because you don't really know what the brand should be saying, there's a good chance you're solving the wrong
The logo is often where businesses start.
I've worked with enough businesses over the years to know how tempting it is to jump straight into design.
Someone says:
“We need a new logo.”
And before long you're looking at colours, fonts, concepts and moodboards.
It feels productive.
Something is happening.
But the more important questions haven't necessarily been answered.
Who are we now?
What has changed?
Who are we trying to attract?
What makes us different?
What do we want to be known for?
What should people understand about us when they first encounter the brand?
Without those answers, the designer is being asked to make decisions without the full picture.
And that's when a logo project can become an exercise in aesthetics rather than strategy.
A logo is a powerful
piece of communication
Don't get me wrong.
I love logos.
I've been designing them for more than 20 years, and I still believe a great logo can be one of the most powerful assets a business owns.
But its job is often misunderstood.
A logo is a recognition device.
It helps people identify you.
It gives the visual identity somewhere to start.
It can communicate personality, confidence, sophistication, energy or restraint.
But it can't possibly tell your entire brand story on its own.
That's why the strongest identities are built around a clear idea.
The logo is part of the expression. It isn't the strategy.
What happens when the thinking comes first?
When we work through positioning before design, the creative brief becomes much more interesting.
We know what we're trying to communicate.
We understand who we're talking to.
We know what makes the business different.
We understand the personality we want the brand to have.
And we know where the business is heading.
That gives design something to work with.
Instead of asking:
“What should the logo look like?”
we can start asking:
“What should this brand feel like?”
That's a much better design question.
Your logo has to belong
to the business.
A good logo isn't necessarily the cleverest one.
It isn't always the most complicated.
It doesn't need to explain everything.
It simply needs to feel like it belongs to the business it represents.
Think about some of the strongest brands you know.
Their logos are often remarkably simple.
What makes them powerful is everything that surrounds them.
The positioning.
The identity.
The language.
The photography.
The design system.
The customer experience.
The consistency.
The reputation that has been built over time.
The logo becomes a doorway into a much bigger brand.
And then there's the
temptation to copy.
This happens particularly when a business knows it needs to change but hasn't worked out why.
They look at competitors.
They look at award-winning brands.
They look at what's trending.
And suddenly the brief becomes:
“Can we make it look more like this?”
That's understandable.
But it's dangerous.
Because your competitors have their own story.
Their own customers.
Their own history.
Their own ambitions.
Their own positioning.
What works for them may be completely wrong for you.
Good brand design isn't about looking like the best business in your category. It's about looking unmistakably like yourself.
Sometimes the existing
logo isn't the problem.
This is one of the things I think is often missed.
You might have a perfectly good logo.
It may simply be sitting inside a brand that has become unclear.
Perhaps the messaging has become inconsistent.
Perhaps the website doesn't explain the business properly.
Perhaps the photography is dated.
Perhaps the visual identity has been applied differently across different touchpoints.
Perhaps the business has evolved significantly since the logo was created.
In those situations, throwing the logo away might be unnecessary.
The better solution could be to rethink the positioning and rebuild the system around it.
Sometimes you don't need a new logo. You need a clearer brand.
Design becomes much better
when the brief is better.
This is why I believe good creative work starts long before we open a design program.
The more we understand about the business, the more purposeful the design can become.
The logo starts to have a reason.
The typography has a role.
The colours have meaning.
The photography has direction.
The website has a story.
The advertising has something to say.
The brand begins to feel like one connected thing rather than a collection of individual design decisions.
And that's when the work becomes much more powerful.
So when should you
redesign your logo?
There are plenty of legitimate reasons.
Your business has fundamentally changed.
Your market has changed.
Your existing identity no longer represents your positioning.
The logo doesn't work across modern applications.
The identity has become inconsistent.
You've merged or changed ownership.
You're entering a new stage of growth.
Or perhaps the original identity simply wasn't very good.
But the reason shouldn't simply be:
“We feel like we need something new.”
Start by understanding what you're trying to achieve.
Then decide whether the logo needs to change.
Not the other way around.
The best logos have
something behind them.
After 20 years of doing this, I still get excited about designing a great logo.
But the most satisfying part isn't seeing the finished mark.
It's knowing why it looks the way it does.
Knowing the thinking behind it.
Knowing what it represents.
Knowing that it belongs to the business.
And knowing that it can live comfortably across everything that comes next - from the website and photography to signage, packaging, advertising and digital marketing.
Because that's what a logo should ultimately do.
It should give a clear brand something recognisable to stand behind.
A thought
worth considering
If you're thinking about changing your logo, don't start by asking:
“What should it look like?”
Start by asking:
“What does our business need it to say?”
That answer should come first.
Clarity gives creativity somewhere to go.