8 Signs Your Graphic Design Business Is Ready for a Rebrand
If you run a graphic design business, your brand image is crucial. It shapes client perceptions, helps attract new customers, and reinforces what sets you apart. But even the best brands grow stale over time. When your branding no longer reflects your business’s strengths and personality, rebranding may be time.
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Your Visual Branding Feels Dated
Your logo, colour scheme, typography, and other visual elements create cohesion across your brand identity. However, graphic design trends evolve rapidly. A revival could be in order if your visual branding were on point five years ago but now feels dated.
- Ask clients and contacts for feedback. Do your business cards, website, and other collateral feel current? Candid input can confirm whether your look misses the mark.
- Research competitors. Study brands in your market. If most utilise cleaner, more modern aesthetics while yours has more frills, an update may get you back on track.
- Focus on visual brand identity. Even if the logo, colours, and typeface stay the same, elements like icons, imagery, and spatial layout can drastically modernise your visual landscape.
Refreshing tired visuals is one of the most apparent reasons to rebrand. But other factors should be considered too.
Your Brand Messaging Has Lost Focus
You likely had a distinct brand story when you first named and positioned your graphic design business. But as you grow, that narrative can get watered down. Too many taglines, services, and messages make it hard for customers to recall what you offer and stand for.
- Re-evaluate your brand promise. What core value do you provide? Sum it up in one brief statement.
- Pare down services. Rather than trying to be everything for everyone, find your speciality. Offer more specific expertise.
- Highlight what makes you unique. Find your differentiation point. Promote the signature experience you offer customers.
Rebranding to clarify messaging helps clients understand and connect with your business.
You've Added New Services or Specialisations
As a graphic designer, you may have started out generalising—tackling any project that came your way. But over time, many narrow their focus. Developing specialities related to industry, style, technique, or other factors can boost authority and open up new opportunities.
However, leaning into new services without brand realignment can undermine the change. If your visuals, messaging, and materials don’t reflect emerging specialities, no one knows they exist!
- Showcase new services upfront. Immediately promote speciality offerings on your website, brochures, and all assets. Don’t make customers dig to discover added value.
- Drop services are no longer offered. Streamlining what you offer looks cleaner and spotlights your true wheelhouse.
- Add branding specifics. Infuse visuals and language that reflect new skills, styles, and markets you serve.
Significant service expansion warrants branding overhaul to properly position pivots.
You've Significantly Increased Prices
Pricing should evolve as graphic designers gain expertise. However, significant hikes without brand realignment can backfire. Sudden big rate increases with no correlated branding updates seem arbitrary—and turn clients off.
Thoughtfully elevate rates while adding perceived brand value via:
- Premium touches. Luxe business cards, sophisticated websites, elevated language, and other refinements make higher prices feel merited. Don’t get fancy beyond your brand identity, though!
- Industry authority. Establishing yourself as an expert through speaking engagements, awards, articles, and other visibility efforts justifies higher prices. Promote accomplishments!
- Bespoke services. Offering custom packages, personalised creative direction, concierge-level client care, and other VIP treatment supports rate increases. But you must promote access to these value-added services.
While clients grumble about price hikes no matter what, a simultaneous brand elevation at least makes the bump feel substantiated.
You Want to Reach a New Target Audience
Your graphic design business may thrive with current clients. But rebranding can pave the way if you want to attract different customers.
Strategically refreshing your brand to resonate with a new demographic requires understanding subtle nuances.
- Don’t rely on assumptions. Conduct user research to identify motivators and messaging that resonate with the new target audience.
- Identify channels favoured by the demographic and ensure your branding is tailored accordingly. For example, youth-skewing brands should prioritise TikTok over print ads.
- Strike a balance between attracting new customers and retaining existing ones during rebranding. Lean into new strategic elements while keeping equity of core visuals recognised by your current client base.
Securing buy-in from fresh clientele requires reworking brand elements to speak their language. But avoid alienating those already loyal to you.
You've Significantly Evolved as a Professional
When launching any design business, founders pull branding together quickly. New entrepreneurs often position brands based more on aspiration than skill and experience. But as you grow professionally, capabilities expand, and interests can shift.
Be honest: Does your current branding reflect “you” as a designer? Or is an overhaul in order?
- Evaluate creative style. Review past client work. How has your aesthetic changed? Should branding adopt your latest design style versus outdated techniques?
- Assess services offered. What do you spend the most creative energy on these days? Ensure branding spotlights current speciality offerings.
- Convey industry perspective. Years in business earn wisdom. Showcase thought leadership by sharing professional insights publicly. Let branding communicate mastery.
Periodic rebrands that ditch no-longer-relevant elements for refreshed positioning keep branding authentic as entrepreneurs evolve.
Your Brand Feels Disconnected From Staff/Culture
For solitary freelancers, personal brands and business brands are intertwined. However, design studios with multiple team members under one umbrella brand face extra scrutiny—disconnects between public branding and actual staff skill or company culture quickly surface.
Trouble arises when:
- Named services don’t align with the creative strengths of staff on payroll.
- Promoted company voice conflicts with how leadership runs operations.
- External branding leans on diversity/progressive messaging without internal policies supporting stated values.
Resolving external/internal alignment issues may require:
- Hiring/training to achieve competency claimed by brand messaging
- Leadership adopting promoted business voice for internal communications
- Brand overhaul if behaviour/policies don’t support social justice branding claims
While branding solely to attract clients is tempting, integrating stated messaging into the company fabric is crucial.
Your Website Performance Declines
A dated-looking website can hint that a rebrand may soon be needed. However, poor website functionality provides even more unambiguous evidence. If performance metrics like page visits, time on site, and conversion rates decline, something is amiss.
Common red flags include:
- High bounce rates show that pages fail to engage visitors
- Minimal mobile usage signalling site doesn’t display well on smartphones
- Site speed lags due to bloated pages or insecure hosting
- Broken links or error messages caused by faulty backend
Before rushing to rebrand, though, investigate whether technical fixes may resolve some issues:
- Search engine optimisation to enhance discoverability
- Content refreshes if copy feels irrelevant
- Migrating hosting providers to improve site speed
If refreshed website content and updated hosting fail to resuscitate performance, executing an integrated rebrand that includes a revamped website design may be your best bet for revival.
Conclusion
Growing design businesses often look different year after year. As companies expand into new markets, client rosters evolve, and visual trends continually shift, rebranding helps graphic design enterprises stay fresh and focused.
But leaders shouldn’t force significant branding overhauls without cause. Look for multiple signs of disjointed messaging, outdated aesthetics, declining performance, or misalignment before undertaking a significant reboot. And when the indicators suggest it is time, dedicate resources to thoughtfully reimaging your business from the inside out.
The effort of a web refresh, visual redesign, naming update, and messaging clarity push pays dividends for years by keeping your graphic design business poised for ongoing success.
Graphic Design Business FAQs
What are the first steps to initiate a rebrand?
Start by clarifying current brand perception through client surveys, expert audits of visual assets, analytics reviews, and assessments of written communication like website copy. Identify precise pain points. Then, partner with a branding strategist to ideate solutions to address discovered weaknesses.
How much does a brand refresh cost?
The investment varies based on scope. Tactical touches like a logo adjustment may cost a few thousand dollars. An integrated rebrand with a new visual identity, website, photography, messaging, and marketing materials can run $50,000 or more. Define goals and must-have components before getting quotes.
Should our whole company adopt a new brand name?
Rather than an outright name change, adding a descriptive tagline conveying core expertise lets you enhance messaging while retaining existing name equity. But new naming signals fundamental changes for significant pivots, like Uber becoming Uber Eats when launching food delivery.
Can we rebrand in phases over time?
Absolutely. Spreading a rebrand over several quarters can make the process and costs more manageable. Just ensure the rollout schedule allows time to assess results and adjust plans rather than having all elements launch simultaneously.
Is a rebrand needed if our business struggles financially?
During cash flow crunches, branding budgets understandably shrink. But if outdated messaging or aesthetics contributed to financial woes, allocating some funds to reimagining core branding can spark a turnaround. Even minor budget refreshes make companies feel more dynamic. Just avoid overextending financially.
