Rebranding for designers: How to build a new brand?
When companies or organizations want to give themselves a new brand image, they often think of their appearance first. But for designers, rebranding involves more than just a new logo. In this blog post, we explain everything you need to consider as a designer when rebranding.
Whether your customer needs a rebrand depends on various factors. There may be new products, new services or other important strategic changes. External circumstances can also make a rebranding necessary. Today, many companies and organizations are experiencing an existential mind shift. A sense of purpose is much more important today than it was just a few years ago. Such changed values should also be reflected in external communication.
Developing a new brand image with rebranding
Wenn du ein Rebranding-Design entwickeln willst, solltest du nicht zuerst an die Gestaltung denken. Sie steht erst am Ende des Prozesses. Ein Rebranding beginnt am besten auf einem komplett weißen Blatt. Du solltest dich ganz in die Perspektive deiner Auftraggebenden versetzen, um zu verstehen, wer sie sind und was sie brauchen. Diese Fragen helfen dir, die Grundlagen für das Rebranding zu legen. Finde folgende Aspekte heraus:
If you want to develop a rebranding design, you shouldn't think about the design first. It comes at the end of the process. The best way to start a rebrand is with a completely blank page. You should put yourself completely in the perspective of your clients to understand who they are and what they need. These questions will help you lay the foundations for the rebrand. Find out the following aspects:
Who is sitting in front of you?
What matters to him/her?
What are the mission and vision?
What values are important?
What services and products are offered?
What market environment does the customer operate in?
What global developments and trends influence his/her work?
Be like a mirror for your clients. Help them to find out who they are, what they can do and where their potential lies. You need this information in order to develop a guiding idea for the new brand image in collaboration with them. Your rebranding design will be based on this.
Creation of the rebranding design
As soon as you have identified the values, goals, services and environment of the company or organization, you can develop a central idea together with the responsible team in a workshop. There doesn't have to be one perfect idea for a rebranding at first. There will probably be so many suggestions that you will first have to agree on a few. For these, you can sketch out what a corresponding visual identity and the logo could look like. You can then compare and discuss these again as a team. You should consider the following questions:
Where do you see the most potential?
Where are there hurdles?
What does the customer feel most comfortable with?
Which design represents what the customer needs?
What works in your experience as a designer?
Your job as a designer is to support and advise your clients. Always remember what counts: Mission, vision, values and environment. This is the only way you can jointly arrive at a rebranding concept and thus a design that communicates these points clearly and sustainably.
Your rebranding design must work everywhere
It is important that you check the new brand image along the various touch points, such as on the website or in the social media channels you use to communicate. This is the only way to ensure that the elements of the design resemble each other in the various forms of presentation and convey what your customers intend. You can also use the strengths and potential of the various devices and platforms to convey a clear message.
A successful rebranding is the result of the designers' previous work. Whether a word mark, figurative mark or a combination: the new brand image is the highest essence of all the information that you have collected, thought through and summarized with your customers. The visual identity with colors, shapes and font must match the central idea - ideally, it follows automatically from it. This gives a new brand radiance, which in turn creates identity.