When you first opened up shop, you were really proud of the name, logo and colors that you had picked. It was super trendy and fit right in with all of the other products and services around you. Yay! You got it printed on everything. You may have even bought signage and plastered walls with your branding. Now it’s been a couple of years or decades and that brand you were once so proud of is starting to feel a little stale. 

Brands age and not all of them age like fine wines. 

Step back and think about fashion. Day-to-day, we probably cannot nail down when one look started and when it ended. But if we zoom out, it’s fairly clear to see that trends and styles have come and gone. The same thing happens to the visual representation of our brands! Changes take a few different forms. A brand may decide that they need to adjust their look when their internal culture changes. Our friends at ATLAS Portfolio had a logo and brand voice that represented the mythological Greek Titan. However, after many years of service, there was a clear disconnect between their branding and the company’s culture.

By changing their visual representation and the voice of their brand, they had the opportunity to reflect what was unique about their company. In the land of finance and portfolios, many companies pose as risk takers or hard-asses. But ATLAS is a team of determined and considerate people looking to educate their clients and help them. Instead of being a bull on Wall Street, ATLAS chose the incredible Atlas Moth to represent their eye for detail, their friendliness and also their ability to navigate through the toughest of markets with grace. Although this project began as a brand refresh, we kicked things up notch once we realized they would benefit more from investing in a rebrand.

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Refreshing your brand can also focus on accessibility. Perhaps your logo is great, but could be better. For example, over at ChargeOver, their original logo needed some fine-tuning to help potential clients from accidentally calling them CHANGEover. The lowercase letters in their original logo had many folks confusing the R for an N. They also wanted to refresh in a way that would build up their sophistication. And all that took was switching the typeface of the logo and deepening the color palette. 

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In a situation where a brand needs to be updated, but doesn’t need a full makeover, a refresh is a great way to refurbish a quandary. 

To learn more about brand refreshes, check out our blog — When to Rebrand vs Refresh a Brand.