Time for a rebrand?
It’s not about how you look. It’s about who you are.
“We think it might be time for a rebrand.”
It’s something we hear regularly and often, it comes from well-established teams who feel things just aren’t sitting right.
Something’s off or out of sync. A little tired, maybe, or no longer true to who you are, or who you’ve become.
The first question we always ask is:
Why now?
What’s happened that’s prompted this?
Because until you’ve done the groundwork-taken a good look at your purpose, your values, your behaviours, your customers and your promise-a rebrand can easily become just a surface job.
A change in look, without any real change in direction.
That said, sometimes the foundation is solid. The culture, the values, the way the business operates-all still feel right.
But the outward expression has fallen behind.
In those cases, a visual refresh-a brush-up, a modernise can bring everything back into alignment.
Not a reinvention, just a reset.
One of the clearest indicators that this is happening is when younger, enthusiastic team members start trying to refresh things themselves.
Updating the pitch deck. Tweaking the logo. Starting unofficial Instagram accounts. Not because they’re off-message-but because they believe in what the business is, and want the outside world to see it more clearly.
That kind of energy is a signal worth noticing.
It often means the foundations and the essence of the business are there and your business is probably in good shape.
It just isn’t being represented properly.
A brand is only ever what other people think it is.
Renowned Creative Director John Hegarty once said:
“A brand is the most valuable piece of real estate in the world – a corner of someone’s mind.”
He wasn’t talking about logo files, brand guidelines, or font folders. Not websites. Not clever slogans. He meant the idea of you, the one people carry around in their heads.
A brand only exists in how people experience you. How they talk about you. How they feel about doing business with you. And that includes people who never became customers. The ones who visited your site but didn’t get in touch. Those who scrolled past your social posts, or heard your name mentioned in a meeting and quietly made up their mind.
They still have an impression.
That impression, fair or not, is your brand.
So when we say branding is more than just your visual identity, it’s not to diminish design – far from it.
Design is central. It’s where ideas become visible. Where intention becomes tangible.
The fonts you choose, the typography, the way you use colour, the way information is laid out – these aren’t decorative details. They’re part of how people make sense of who you are.
Design shapes mood and establishes tone. It creates structure and makes content easier to trust – or harder to engage with. And at its best, it creates consistency and a rhythm that feels effortless, not accidental.
But more than that, visual identity does something subtle but powerful: It includes or excludes people from the conversation.
Whether someone feels welcomed, intrigued, understood – or alienated, ignored, pushed away – is often shaped long before a word is read. Design plays a huge role in that. It speaks to taste, lifestyle, values, even someone’s sense of where they do, or don’t belong.
It reaches the aspiring, the committed, the curious and sometimes, the disinterested. Not everything is for everyone. But good design makes that decision intentional and that’s why we take it seriously.
Not as a final flourish – but as a core part of how your brand is experienced.
Good design is emotional shorthand. It tells people, quickly, whether this is for them.
We’ve always said: your brand is not your logo.
That’s been our line for years-because it’s true.
Your logo is part of the picture, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg. The real substance lies underneath:
Your purpose (why you exist)
Your promise (what people can rely on you for)
Your performance (whether you live up to that promise)
Your practices (how you run your business, make decisions, treat people)
And your personality (the tone, feeling and attitude people associate with you)
We also say:
“Your brand is your reputation – it’s what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”
And we still believe that. But the way that reputation gets formed-and where it gets recorded-has changed.
Reputation hasn’t always travelled this fast – or stuck around this long. It used to be shaped in conversation. Around tables, over the phone, at events. Still public, still powerful.
Now, it’s online. Searchable. Shareable. Persistent.
A comment under a post, a review, a LinkedIn reaction, all of it forms part of how people experience your business. And it stays around, long after the moment has passed.
In many ways, that visibility is useful. You get to hear what people actually think. You can respond and improve. But it also means your brand is no longer defined by what you intend – it’s shaped, in real time, by people you may never meet. So while the idea that “brand is reputation” still holds, the shape of that reputation has changed. It moves faster. It reaches further. And once it’s out there, it stays there. Social media has blurred the lines between reputation and brand.
A review is no longer a private piece of feedback-it’s part of your shopfront. An offhand comment under a post can shape someone’s first impression. The way you reply (or don’t reply) to criticism says just as much about your business as your logo ever could.
That’s why brand has to be built from the inside out.If your culture is strong, your reviews will reflect that. If your values are consistent, your content will feel aligned. And if your message is clear internally, it’s much easier to express it externally, without reinventing it every time you write a post.
The challenge is that with every interaction, every post, every conversation, every decision – you’re reinforcing or undermining your brand. Sometimes both at once. Branding isn’t something you finish. It’s something you maintain, daily. So yes, we still believe your brand is your reputation.
But we’d adding something now:Your brand is your reputation-made visible through every decision, every behaviour, and every interaction people can see, share, or search for.
That’s why the work of branding isn’t purely about appearance.
It’s about alignment.
Making sure what people see and hear matches what you stand for, not just in your best moments, but in your everyday interactions. That’s what earns trust and what gains attention. It’s what builds a brand that doesn’t just look good, but feels right.
If a rebrand is on your mind, it’s worth pausing long enough to consider what’s really behind it. Here are a few things we often explore with clients before they make any big decisions:
Do you know what you stand for?
Do you understand how you’re perceived?
Are you attracting the right people including customers, your team, partners, suppliers, investors?
Is there a gap between who you say we are and how you behave?
Are you reacting to short-term discomfort, or is there a deeper shift we need to acknowledge?
If you’re clear on those answers, then yes-a rebrand might be exactly what’s needed.
But if not, take your time.
Start with the thinking, not the colours.
Get the inside clear before changing the outside.
It’s about telling the truth, more clearly, more confidently, and more consistently than before.
That’s the work we do with our clients: helping uncover what’s true, what matters, and what needs to be expressed, then designing a brand that reflects it.
When that alignment’s in place, people don’t just see the difference.
They feel it.
