Rebrand… depending on your role, this can either fill you with excitement or dread. But rebrands or brand refreshes don’t have to be scary or overwhelming. In fact, they are a great opportunity to reenergize your brand’s story, gain greater employee buy-in, and engage with customers in a new way. When considering any changes to your brand, a careful evaluation of your company’s position, messaging and core values is a crucial first step in the process. And while all of those intangibles are vitally important, since we live in the world of branded merchandise, we’re going to talk specifically about creating effective logos.
When making changes or creating a new logo from scratch, consider these important elements:
Consider colors. When creating a color palette, make sure to include colors that are easily available in CMYK and PMS color mixes. In addition, consider creating a secondary color palette with 
colors that compliment your logo. This allows for greater print options and consistency, in particular on hard goods when stock color options do not always match your specific logo colors.
Create multiple logo versions. First and foremost, make sure your logo is available in a solid, 1-color format. While many products can now be imprinted with full color decoration, not all products allow for that method, and there is usually an extra cost associated with full color decoration. In addition, make sure both a horizontal and stacked version of your logo is available. This can help maximize the imprint area of any product or signage (think about how different the imprint area is on a pen verses a duffel bag). Lastly, make sure the logo options can be simplified – if the logo contains full color, shading or any other non-solid elements, make sure there is a clean, solid version available.
Consider all advertising elements. It’s important to think about ALL areas where your logo will appear – paper, digital, hard goods/products, apparel, signage – and make sure your logo can be easily adapted to any of those formats. Being prepared in advance for all formats will save money on additional product cost and design fees, ensure the maximum size exposure, and create consistency between all mediums, which ultimately elevates your brand’s image.
Consider any special usages. Individual departments, unique taglines, or anything outside of the primary logo should be created in advance to avoid any “rouge” design changes. Make sure a formal brand guideline and approval process are in place, and even more importantly, make sure all employees and vendors are aware of the guidelines and process! The larger the company, the more important to have detailed brand standards and procedures in place.
When in doubt, just ask us. We’d love to be part of your brainstorming process and help you gain greater brand consistency and efficiency!
Here are just a few examples of some recent rebrands – go ahead, click on each one for inspiration.
