New year, new brand identity

Posted 6 years ago in brand identity, design chat

There is little designers dislike more than taking their own medicine. And the old chestnut of when to update your own brand or website is the bitterest kind.

The diagnosis tends to be for a good measure of double standards! It’s fine for everybody else to stay modern and at the cutting edge, but the thought of taking your own branding to that place (wherever it is) is a well worn path so narrow it’s almost a… tightrope.

Cutting edges and tightropes aren’t really that compatible.

Embossed business cards – very snazzy

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So in a sense when contemplating how to stay ‘visually current’ it’s utterly overwhelming. So – invariably it’s almost better to ignore the whole thing and then pretend it will go away. But, sooner or later, you look around and there it is – that old website or letterhead. Still lurking. In need of a tidy-up.

I have come to the conclusion that it’s as well to change things piecemeal, gradually. The approach is to rely on gut instinct. To change things on a bit of a whim rather than attempt some grand overnight transformation. So that’s the approach we have taken over the past few months. It was a consensus approach, not just me decreeing the answer. We decided to go for a simpler, type-based identity and then apply it as we were ready.

The end result of not trying to build Rome in a day has yielded far better results has been far more enjoyable – and not a little satisfying. Rather revolutionary for a self-branding exercise.