3 signs your visual identity needs refreshing

Your organisation may have grown or changed since you last thought about your identity. Time moves on and fashions change. Whether you’ve changed your business model, added, or removed services, or revamped your organisational culture - these are all reasons to revisit your visual identity.

Like your wardrobe, an identity needs to stay up to date, reflecting the values and vision of your organisation as it exists today and/or aspires to be into the future.

A good identity is timeless and ignores visual trends. It's simple in it’s design and, most importantly, can only cultivate positive associations for you and your business.

This happens a lot… and I mean a lot.

Colours and graphics are very often recycled by similar businesses competing in the same market. For example, health companies are overwhelmingly blue, energy companies use orange/red flames and anything eco-friendly likely has a green leaf somewhere. It’s inevitable when looking for a visual short-hand people recognise. But if your audience can’t separate you from your closest rivals, how can you stay front of mind?

So, how do you avoid this? You need to consider what truly makes your organisation unique, the one thing you’re proud of. Then we focus in on that and use it as a core component of any visual exercise.

You may have started with a logo, decided on a font, picked a couple of colours. But your marketing materials now feel limited, flat, or perhaps just a bit ‘samey’. Maybe it’s time to expand your identity to bring in new elements, freshen up the colours or work out some new templates that make it easier for you to do your own in-house marketing.

Maybe your brand materials aren’t optimised for web or social space. Or perhaps your logo is too long to fit nicely in a square profile photo on Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram. In the ever-expanding digital space, a brand needs more than flat graphics. How does your brand behave in video/motion or audio? How does it move and what does it sound like? These things often sound gimmicky, but careful consideration of these elements helps to ensure a strong identity that is futureproof.

If any of the above signs resonate with you, it might be time to consider an update. Whether you’re looking to create a new visual identity from scratch or revamp your existing look and feel, we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with a member of our team and we’d be delighted to help you get started.