Have you recently changed your website or your business strategy?
Do you think the next natural step is to update and redesign your business logo?
Your brand might feel stale, and outdated. It can no longer resonate with your customer base, a refresh of your logo design may be in order.
A redesigned cool logo is a great way to reinvigorate your audience. It reintroduces your company and its mission. It creates consistency across all your materials and does not completely overhaul your brand. When you change your brand, you create a logo with an updated color palette or another branded image like an app icon. This is a process to refresh the brand. It gives your company the opportunity to present your brand in a new way visually.
You can get an online logo maker of your choice. It helps in revising or creating a logo. The logo maker offers free logo design. If you do not wish to spend money on logo makers, you can find a free logo maker on Google.
Every once in a while, a brand refresh is released. It is anything but refreshing.
It seems like a simple process. There are ways to redesign a logo:
- Reflect upon whether you need your logo design to be updated – Do you need to refresh the logo or redesign it? Are you sure that your logo is outdated and stale, and you need a new one? Refresh and redesign are not the same concepts. A refresh is when a designer makes small changes to your original logo. Colors are updated or a message is added. Redesigning is a process of a complete rebranding of the business.
- Look at the past story of your business to design your business logo – To understand where you want to go, you have to start from the roots. The past of your business, your traditions, and your story – all these elements are fundamental. Never underestimate them. The past can bring inspiration for you for the future.
- Redesign your original logo: keep what is working – If you have in mind a rebranding process, you would like to change everything about your original logo. Do not do it just yet. Your logo is the visual representation of the business you have. It is the image that people have engraved in mind when they think of your services. Your old logo could be boring and old-fashioned, but it is something that is etched in their minds. Isolate the elements of your actual logo that are worth remembering. It could be the colors, the style, or just the inner meaning.
- Redesign your Logo: try to identify what you do not like and what you want to change – Identify all the elements of your actual logo that you want to remove because you do not like it. You will have a clear idea of what you want to change and update.
- Your business – Your choice of colors – Colors are very important and are connected with your business’s perception. Have you noticed that technology companies are always inclined toward blue and light blue in their logos? Following the psychology of colors, it is revealed that blue can be used to promote communication and interaction. Red is the color that reflects excitement and passion. Colors have an impact on emotions, and they can be the key to a good design.
- Think about your audience – Try to answer this question – Will the audience be able to identify your brand with this new redesign? Bear in mind your audience and their ability to recognize your new brand.
- Integrate your new logo design continuously – When your new logo is online, remember to put down the old one everywhere. The old one should be removed from your website to visit cards or social media. Never mix up the two different logos.
- 7 Tips to redesign a logo
- You must isolate your logo’s best qualities.
- You must look into your brand’s past ideas.
- You must strive for simplicity.
- You must focus on the colors that matter the most.
- You must embrace new trends, but hold on to classic traditions.
- You must optimize readability.
- You must use hidden meanings to add interest.
Design is not something that is learned from school or by reading a book. It has to come from within you. However, that does not mean one cannot gain experience from the world around.
Paul Rand said that design involves much more than just creativity and talent. He was the legendary designer behind logos such as IBM and UPS. You have to follow certain standards and technical aspects when you craft brand logos.
Let us look at the popular logo redesigns. This can throw light on the kind of mistakes and improvements they did with their logo designs.
- Amazon
The customers of Amazon thought the new background behind their “Amazon Smile” resembled the mustache of one very infamous historical figure, Hitler.
The brand quickly took action. Amazon quietly rolled out a new app icon that fixed the faux pas. The brand will likely be more mindful of how its public-facing imagery looks in the future.
- Animal Planet
The beloved TV channel Animal Planet initially had a block logo for many years. It consisted of the channel name, an elephant silhouette, and the entire Earth. The icon reflected a great visual story about the mission of their brand. They rebranded in 2013, however, the new look wasn’t liked by fans.
The audience thought that the lack of animal imagery was a strange decision for the company. The company focused on educating viewers about animals, and the sideways “M” seemed a choice made for no reason.
Thankfully, the newest edition of the Animal Planet logo does a great job of going back to its roots. They opted for a sleek, modern design. The elephant imagery helps express Animal Planet’s global focus. It pairs well with their mission of “keeping the childhood joy and wonder of animals alive by bringing people up close in every way.”
- Gap
The blue square and white font in Gap’s logo is instantly recognizable. They tried to reinvent themselves in 2010, and the fans of the brand were taken aback by the new look.
The new design felt similar to tech company logos. Moving the blue block into the upper corner and adding a gradient is almost similar to a Microsoft Windows logo.
Thankfully, Gap removed the new look less than a week after the big reveal. This indicates that you should stick to your genre.
Google takes design more seriously than anyone else. In fact, the company has dedicated a whole page to its brand identity. It explains all the details behind its logo and branding.
Since 1998, Google had gone through several stages of logo redesigns.
The biggest lesson to learn from the latest Google logo redesign is its simplicity. Google had a glossy logo with a slightly embossed design. The new logo contains a cleaner and more consistent design featuring a geometric sans-serif typeface.
- Formula 1
There can be a lot to learn from other rebranding mistakes. The most recent Formula 1 rebranding is an example.
The new head of marketing for Formula 1 was given the task to rebrand the 30-year-old F1 logo. He was asked to represent its corporate owner, Liberty Media. But the outcome was a disaster.
The F1 logo badly needed a redesign. However, the company made a big mistake when coming up with this new logo. They opened up to fan feedback. Fans hated it immediately when the logo was officially revealed.
When rebranding logos, you must use a design and layout consistent with the old logo.
- YouTube
For 12 years, YouTube maintained the same logo across many platform redesigns. The logo was finally changed in 2017. For the new logo, they made a simple change. They took the red background color out of the “Tube” section of the word mark. They turned it into an icon. The icon represents a play button. It definitely improves the overall look of the YouTube logo.
The YouTube logo is recognizable and authentic. Adding an icon can make your logo look better.
- Audi
Audi made a radical “digital first” rebranding. This made the logo and the brand more open and accessible across all platforms.
Audi’s logo redesign followed all the right standards of a proper redesign. It was consistent with its original and famous logo. The new redesign simplifies the logo and made it more digital-friendly.
When designing a logo, you must take all digital and printing platforms into account. Always keep it simple.
- Airbnb
Airbnb’s new logo was a refreshing change, and it completely changed the way we look at the brand. The logo was clean, simple, and elegant. This logo is much more professional than the one it had before.
The company had made a terrible mistake with the new logo as it was a lot similar to the logo of another brand. It closely resembled the logo of the company Automation Anywhere. Luckily, Automation Anywhere also worked on a logo redesign. It changed its logo. It helped Airbnb to avoid going through another logo redesign.
You must double-check to make sure your design does not resemble another logo.
Final Words
The logo is a massive part of a brand’s identity. It represents a brand represent. And it requires a lot of creative thinking and originality.
When you craft a logo, you should put more thought into your logo designs. Never make the mistake of hiring someone to design your logo for a small amount. When it comes to designing a logo, you should spend as much time as possible to ensure a perfect final product.
