Breathing New Life Into Your Brand: How to Refresh Your Branding in 5 Different Ways
Digital Illustration by Jenni Curtice
As a creative entrepreneur, our businesses are a reflection of ourselves. And as humans, we're always changing and evolving, so it's natural that our businesses will change and evolve as well! Whether you've got a well established business that needs some updated brand elements or you're just feeling like your brand no longer speaks to you (or your ideal clients), sometimes ya just need a good refresh!
Refreshing and updating your branding can be as simple as changing up your color palette or as more involved as hiring a designer to refine your logo. It's up to you how you're feeling and the amount of time, energy, and money you'd like to put into the process. But rebranding in any form is a great way for you and your clients/customers to get excited about your business again.
I've compiled a list of 5 things you can do to fresh your branding. Do just one, a few, or complete them all. Any amount of change will help you in feeling confident again with your brand identity!
1. Update Your Brand Colors
Sometimes a little goes a long way. Maybe your color palette was created during a time in your life when you were feeling a certain way, and it no longer applies. Or maybe it was created so long ago that your marketing assets are really starting to feel outdated.
Color affects perceptions and behaviors of people, so updating your color palette can really help change the vibe of your overall branding. Example: If you want to convey relaxation and self care, you might choose a muted or pastel color palette. If you want to convey bold and powerful, you might choose brighter contrasting colors. It all depends on what you want to convey to your ideal clients.
Resource:
Adobe Color is an amazing free tool for creating color palettes. It will help you choose color harmonies, search color trends, and even upload photos to extract the exact colors.
2. Update Your Brand Fonts
Like color, typography has the ability to speak volumes. Remember in the 90's when Comic Sans and Papyrus were popular fonts? If you used those fonts on your website today no one would take your business seriously...
Make sure your fonts are easy to read but also help convey the feel of your overall branding. Avoid using cursive fonts unless it's for a heading or highlighting. And less is always more; stick to two-three different font styles otherwise it will feel overwhelming.
Resources:
Pinterest is a great tool for typography inspiration. There are thousands of font pairings that designers have graciously posted
for you to use. Just search "Font Pairings".
Font Joy is another cool free resource. Use it to help generate font pairings until you find ones you like.
3. Refine Your Brand Message
Your brand message essentially sets the voice and tone for all of your marketing. If your message or mission is outdated or no longer resonates with you, it won't speak to your audience or ideal clients, either. Example: If you typically work with a demographic of older clients, but are looking to grab the attention of a younger crowd, you might consider changing up your brand's voice to sound more appealing to a younger crowd: slang words/sayings, pop culture references, etc.
You can start by figuring out who you serve and why you do the work that you do. Once you know these things you'll more easily be able to speak to your target market.
Resource:
Thrive Hive has a pretty quick read with a simple and straightforward approach to developing you brand's message.
*I'm currently developing a branding course for creative entrepreneurs with tips, guides, and questionnaires to help you define or refine your brand. Stay tuned!
4. Update Your Photos
People are far more likely to buy from you if they see a beautiful photos of you in your element "doing the work" rather than a photo of you on your trip to Mexico last summer. It helps people imagine what it would be like to work with you.
Additionally, if you sell products, professional photos for these are ideal, too. You want to attract people with gorgeous imagery! If you're good at photography, then by all means save yourself some money and take your own high quality photos! But even if your photos are professional but they're from 5 years ago, you might need to update them. You're probably doing new things and look different today!
Resources & Tips:
Tip: If you're hiring a professional photographer, look for a brand photographer. They will work with you to create a photo shoot based on your brand colors, message, products, and overall style/vibe which will be ideal for maintaining your cohesive branded look!
If you’re not in a position to hire a professional or take photos yourself, try checking out Unsplash or Pexels for some copyright free photos- you can probably find some lifestyle photos or photos that match your vibe and aesthetic. You could always mix it up and hire a photographer just for portraits (much cheaper than a full blown brand photo shoot!), and mix in a few copyright free photos.
5. Modify Your Existing Logo or Get a Whole New Logo
Sometimes your logo needs an update as much as the rest of your brand. Maybe you had it made 10 years ago, or maybe you made it yourself last year to save money. Whatever the reason, if your logo no longer feels relevant to your business, it might be time to update or even change it completely.
Sometimes just altering the colors or font on your existing logo can be enough to make things feel fresh and updated. Or it may be time to hire a designer to help you recreate a whole new look. Whatever the case, updating your logo can make a world of difference when it comes to refreshing you brand.
Resource:
Canva has this great article called Learn Logos for Beginners. Even if you're not a DIY'er and planning on hiring a designer, it's really good to go through the process so you can figure out exactly what you want and then create or outsource it exactly as you want it.
Thanks for reading! I hope you found this information useful so that you can apply it to your own brand! While I'm all about empowering yourself to create your own amazing business, sometimes certain aspects are extremely time consuming, frustrating, or just isn't in your realm of talents.
Remember that it's always OK to do it yourself if you're on a budget or truly enjoy it, just as it's always OK to outsource to a professional. If you're on the DIY route you'll have some good tips to help you along the way, and if you're outsourcing, this information will be super helpful for you to communicate your vision to whomever you've hired for a creative service!
Whatever you decide, these tips will allow you to create a plan so you can move forward with refreshing your business branding and empowering you to feel confident with where you're at!
I’m Jenni!
I’m an artist and designer that creates brand identities for boutique, high-value companies. I help these businesses stand out and connect with their target audience by creating unique and impactful logos, branding and websites.
