What Rebranding My Business Was Like
So things look a bit different around here! I recently took a leap and rebranded Begin Studio. I had hit a wall with my previous branding and I realised it didn’t reflect who I wanted my business to be and where I needed it to go. So I knew I had to do something about it.
When a brand works well, it feels consistent and seamless. It does everything you need it to and gets you where you need to go. But whenever I had to design a new piece of design for my business I kept running into issues! Here’s a few reasons that I knew I needed a big change.
So why did I rebrand? Here were the signs:
My business and services had changed. In the months that I’ve been working as a freelancer, I’ve changed direction in what services I provide and wanted to ensure my branding reflected what I was offering. I called my business ‘Begin’ to reflect that branding design is one of the foundations of building a business - but my business has grown to offer a full service approach to brand design. Taking my clients through from logo design, packaging, websites - all the way to launching their business with a social media launch kit.
I wanted to connect with a new type of audience. When I started out, I wasn’t sure what kind of businesses would come my way. In my previous agency role, we were trained to design for every type of client and business but with Begin Studio, I realised that my personality and style was attracting unique female-led businesses which led to really fun projects. So I wanted to do everything I could to ensure that my business speaks to them.
I wanted my branding to be more flexible. I talk about flexibility a lot with my clients because I truly feel that a brand shouldn’t hold you back - but it should give you a solid framework so you can build your business with confidence. I’ve been saying this for years but I didn’t feel like my previous brand had this. Whenever I went to design something I felt held back by my font choices, my logo and my colour palette.
I wanted my brand reflect my values. I love my job and I really wanted my brand to reflect this. My new website centres around my love for moodboards, animation and colour. I carefully made sure that I could use fun fonts, bright colours and I even designed an illustration system so that I could add an exploration twist to my designs.
What was that process like?
Once I realised I had to make some big changes. I purposefully set aside time to get it right. I gave myself two months and I was keen to follow the same structure that I give to my clients. I thought it would be an opportunity for me to reflect on my Logo and Branding process and find out what it was like on the other side. It also meant I could prepare the same presentations and share them with my peers and past clients so they could give their opinion which was invaluable. This process looks like this.
Stage One: Research and Exploration
A branding exercise where I studied my target audience and where I want the business to go. I then pulled together mood boards and slides that summarised my research.
A look at my moodboard for my rebrand
Stage Two: Design and Refine
Using my knowledge from Stage One I got to work on logo routes and colours. I was able to create two different logos and branding routes based on my strategy and research. I also took this further and presented typographic explorations so I could get a sense of how the typography on my website would look. Then I would take some space, review, make some tweaks - review again.
To create different routes, I look at multiple colours, logo layouts, typography and pull together different boards. Then narrow it down.
Stage Three: Let’s go!
I always call this step ‘Let’s go’ because once the logo is approved, it’s all about finalising and ensuring the brand rolls out smoothly. For me, this meant I chose my brand and started the task of creating different assets to transform my website. I knew that I wanted my website to have movement! So creating these little gifs were so important to me and meant I could really have fun with the layout of the site.
Almost there!
Stage Four: Everything else!
This last step is where Coffee really came into play. I spent a good few weeks writing new content for my website and revising the text with a wonderful coach. I wanted to ensure my content was really reflecting my new business and services, my new audience, making sure my brand was flexible and truly reflected my values. Answering my own brief to a tee!
An animation that I created for my ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ package
How did I come to a decision?
How could I choose a logo when I had spent so much time crafting perfect designs for me? I had two completely different routes that both felt like a reflection of my business and where I wanted to be. They both were based on strategy, took my target audience seriously, were flexible, and reflected my values.
At the end of the day, after all my research, strategy, colour palettes, sketches and routes — I chose my logo and brand identity because I had this gut feeling. I could feel in my bones that one was that tiny bit better. It’s as simple as that.
I think that business owners have a pretty good instinct when it comes to what is best for our business. I see exactly the same thing when I present my designs to clients, clients carefully weigh up their opinions, take my advice on board but at the end of the day it’s a gut instinct. Luckily for me, they very often pick my favourite!
So that is all the steps I took - the launch was a nice little success, I took a moment to celebrate, had a margarita and received some lovely feedback from peers and clients alike. So all round it’s going very well.
If you going through a rebrand yourself, or also feel like your brand doesn’t quite align to where you want to be, consider hiring a designer to guide you through the process.
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