Is it time for a logo refresh?

Businesses of all kinds rely on branding to help bring a consistent look and feel to their company, shape their marketing efforts, and tell their story. While there are many parts that make up a brand, your logo is a focal point – it instantly brings a recognizable identity to your business. A well designed, modern logo will help communicate professionalism and trust. So if it’s important to keep a logo modern and up-to-date, how exactly do you know when it’s time to refresh a logo? This post will help you walk through that process.

How do I know it’s time?

There are a wide range of reasons a company might want to update their logo from industry/market conditions to company updates. In general, your situation might fall under any one or more of these reasons:

• Your logo appears to be outdated. Have the industry and competitors updated their own branding, now making your logo appear outdated?
• Your logo needs to be simplified. Were there too many stakeholders getting their ideas into the logo or not enough budget for a well-designed, simple approach?
• Your logo no longer speaks to your company’s values. Has your company’s position gradually shifted over time, or are you updating values and the logo needs to match?
• Your logo no longer fits other brand elements. Have you recently updated fonts, colors, etc.?
• Your logo no longer simply works. Has your company recently merged with another, changed names, or shifted dramatically some other way?

What should I consider in a new logo?

Any one of those reasons stated above would be the starting point as to why you’re updating your logo, but there are some additional factors to consider in this process. First, be aware of new or existing company attributes you’d like to have better represented in the logo. Consider including a visual representation of company values, purpose, or historical events in the logo. Second, remember to keep the logo as simple as possible. While you can incorporate some of the visual clues previously mentioned, don’t have so many elements that could overwhelm it and confuse the customer.

Next, make sure it matches other design elements from your company’s elements. Do you wish to update the color palette? Then make sure it’s within the same palette as the rest of the branding. Finally, it’s generally a good idea to maintain some of the original logo elements in the redesign. Unless your company has been bought, merged or completely changed names it can sometimes be beneficial to maintain elements of old branding. Tropicana is well known for not following this advice and is often a case study of redesign that was too radical. Their branding was iconic for having an orange and straw sticking straight out of it, an effective visual representation of pure orange juice. But when they updated their branding, especially the packaging, this orange was removed. Consumers instantly rejected and criticized it, so much so that sales were affected enough for Tropicana to abandon the redesign and restore the old packaging.

What can I expect with a redesign?

Kind of like snowflakes, every logo is going to be different and have their own unique elements to a redesign. At a minimum though we can highlight a few of the logo redesign projects we’ve assisted with:

Percussionaire

Percussionaire saves and improves likes by providing the highest quality ventilation devices.

Clydesdale

Clydesdale specializes in developing, implementing, assessing, and improving Management Systems.

Tamarack

Tamarack aerospace company that makes and installs winglets to improve flight efficiency.

CoastCom

CoastCom provides custom tailored network solutions to Coastal Oregon businesses.

Some logos stand the test of time – Nike, Coca Cola, etc. But most can benefit from an update at some point in its lifetime. If you recognize that your branding no longer reflects the company’s values, or it just feels out of date, you’ve already taken that first step forward.