A brand refresh can be exciting, but it’s easy to jump straight into visuals before understanding what actually needs to change.
The best refresh projects aren’t just about making a brand look more modern. They’re about making sure your business is communicating clearly, consistently, and in a way that still feels relevant to the people it’s trying to reach.
Here are some important things to think about before starting a brand refresh project.
1: Be clear on why you’re doing it
Before changing anything, it’s important to understand what’s driving the refresh in the first place. Maybe your business has changed direction. Maybe your audience has shifted. Maybe your current brand simply feels dated or inconsistent.
For example, when we refreshed Grypp’s brand identity, the goal wasn’t to simply “make it look nicer”. It was to bring clarity to a complex product, sharpen their market position, and build an identity system that could scale with the business.
Here are some of the common reasons we work with clients on their brands:
- They’re expanding into new markets
- They’re offering new services
- They feel and look outdated compared to competitors
- Struggling with consistency across platforms
- Wanting to attract a different type of customer
- Internal changes within the company – (leadership, growth ambition)
If there isn’t a clear reason behind the project, it can quickly become a conversation based purely on personal taste.
2: Don’t throw everything away
One mistake businesses sometimes make is assuming a refresh means starting from scratch. In reality, there are often parts of your existing brand that already work well. Customers may recognise certain colours, messaging, or design elements, even if the overall brand needs updating.
A good refresh should evolve and enhance useful parts and remove the weaker ones. The goal should usually be evolution, not complete reinvention. If you’re wanting a reinvention, this isn’t a refresh, it’s a rebrand – and should be briefed very differently.
3: Understand how people see your brand
There’s often a gap between how a business sees itself and how customers actually experience it. As Jeff Bezos said, "Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room."
So before making any creative decisions, it’s worth gathering feedback from:
- Customers
- Staff
- Stakeholders
- Sales teams
- Existing partners
This can help uncover issues that may not be obvious internally.
For example:
- Are people confused about what the business offers?
- Does the brand feel trustworthy?
- Does it feel consistent?
- Are competitors communicating more clearly?
These insights are often more valuable than design trends.
4: Look at the competition but don’t copy it
Researching competitors is useful, but the aim shouldn’t be to blend in. A lot of industries end up looking almost identical because brands follow the same design trends, use similar language, and position themselves in the same way. A refresh should help a business feel more distinctive, not more generic.
That doesn’t always require bold or dramatic design. Sometimes clarity and consistency are what make a brand stand out.
5: Remember that branding is more than your logo
A new logo alone rarely fixes deeper branding problems. A brand refresh usually affects things like:
- Tone of voice
- Messaging
- Website design
- Photography
- Social media
- Presentations and sales materials
- Customer experience
- Internal communications
This is especially true for technology businesses. Powerful products need powerful branding — not for show, but to help people understand what’s different and why it matters (see our article - Powerful technology needs a powerful brand).
The strongest brands feel consistent wherever people interact with them.
If only the visuals change, the refresh can feel surface-level.
6: Get internal buy-in early on
If the team behind the business doesn’t support the refresh, it becomes much harder to roll out successfully. People are more likely to embrace change when they understand:
- Why it’s happening
- What problems it solves
- How it benefits the business
- How they should apply it day to day
This is especially important for larger organisations where multiple teams use the brand differently.
And buy-in can’t be delegated to marketing alone. The clearest brands are led from the top — when leadership owns the story and direction, the rollout becomes easier because teams have something consistent to follow (see our blog post, why brand has to start with leadership).
7: Think about a practical rollout
Refreshing a brand often involves far more work than expected.
It can affect:
- Websites
- Social channels
- Signage
- Packaging
- Templates
- Documents
- Advertising
- Email signatures
- Internal systems
Planning implementation early helps avoid inconsistencies and rushed decisions later on.
For many businesses, a phased rollout makes more sense than trying to update everything overnight.
8. Avoid chasing trends
It’s natural to want a brand to feel current, but trends move quickly.
What looks modern today can feel dated in a couple of years.
The best branding tends to be:
- Clear
- Flexible
- Easy to recognise
- Consistent
- Simple to apply
A refresh should still feel relevant several years from now, not just immediately after launch.
9: Define what success looks like
Before starting the project, it helps to define what you actually want the refresh to achieve and ways of tracking its success.
Success might look like:
- Better customer perception
- Improved consistency
- More enquiries
- Better quality leads
- Increased awareness
- Easier recruitment
- Stronger positioning in the market
Without clear goals, it becomes difficult to measure whether the refresh has worked.
