QUIZ: Refresh? Is your brand inconsistent and your website unfinished? Read this before you decide between a brand refresh and a full rebrand.
Are you thinking you might need just a little brand refresh? That totally makes sense…at first. You've already invested in some brand assets, right? A logo, a color palette, and some graphic pieces that you really love. (For me it’s my terrazzo pattern, I’ll never part with it and how it adds touches of my personality here and there.) You may have also DIY’d a lot of your branding and feel like it’s already developed.
You are probably thinking that you only need few tweaks or to book someone to tie it all together for you. Nothing dramatic.
Why would that cost the same as starting over?
I am here to tell you what I've seen happen when a "refresh" gets treated like a light lift, and why, more often than not, it ends up costing more than starting with a rebrand would have. A rebrand does not inherently mean “starting over,” but it does mean beginning anew with a professional brand designer.
I used this photo because it looks REFRESHING! Get it? Haha. Refresh? Refreshing?
The reality behind brand refreshes
When a client comes to me for a “brand refresh,” or “quick polish,” here's what the actual work looks like:
brand research
discovery calls to go over what stays and what goes
understanding your goals and your audience and your personality
“refreshing” a new color palette
making new font decisions
potentially reworking your logo or adding submarks
then applying the new assets across your brand materials, your Canva templates, and your website
Yeah, that’s a long list.
That's not a refresh. That's a brand design.
The labor involved in doing a refresh well is nearly identical to building something new.
The only thing that changes when you call it a "refresh" is the expectation around the investment. I know it might seem like, because you are already starting with assets, it should be a lower price, but the designer is still doing the same amount of work. (In fact, it can seem like more work because now the designer is having to figure out how to fit your existing branding into a format that doesn’t quite work with your updated goals.)
Refreshing the walls doesn't fix the foundation
Think about brand design like a house. If you renovate one room at a time, new kitchen cabinets, then a bathroom update, then some fresh paint in the living room, then eventually none of it matches. The kitchen doesn't talk to the living room. The bathroom is from a completely different era. It's all fine on its own, but together it just feels off.
A brand works the same way. When you layer updates on top of an existing brand without revisiting the strategy underneath, you end up with something that looks updated but doesn't quite look good together. You’ll get new colors over an old structure or a fresh font sitting on top of unclear brand rules. A website that got a facelift but still isn't doing the work it should be doing for you.
If things feel inconsistent or scattered in your brand right now, that's almost never a design problem. It's a strategy problem. And a refresh doesn't fix a strategy problem, it just gives it a fresh coat of paint.
So when IS a refresh actually the right call? When does a brand just need a little bit of polish?
A refresh is genuinely perfect when you have a solid brand foundation and just need a specific, targeted update: maybe a new accent font, a fresh pattern, one new brand element that brings everything together. When I do refreshes, it’s typically to inject some fresh air into a brand. I’ve added an icon set, created some new colorful patterns, or added that one special handwritten font that gives you some fun for your social media.
For a refresh, you know exactly what you need, the scope is clear, and the strategy underneath is already strong. You may not even need to talk to a designer (and in the case of a rebrand, you absolutely do.)
The quiz below will help you figure out if you’re at the rebrand stage or the refresh stage.
Take the Brand Refresh vs Rebrand Quiz
Do you need a brand refresh or a full brand package?
Q1 - How many colors need to change?
All of them! I really want to work on my color palette
Maybe 2-3. I just need new accent colors.
None, I love my color palette!
Q2 - How are we feeling about fonts?
They need a full rethink, and I want more fonts to use. I don’t have headings or hierarchy.
I love one core font, but the others need work.
No notes, fonts are perfect.
Q3 - What's your brand asset situation?
What are brand assets? I have logos and colors. What else?
I have a few things but could use one more element.
I'm well stocked and good to go!
(Psst - brand assets are like patterns, icons, gradients, stock photos, and other visuals that support your branding.
These are essential when building websites and creating things with your brand.
Q4- How are you feeling about your core logo?
It’s outdated or DIY’d and needs a redo.
The main logo is fine, I just want to change the font or icon.
The logo is perfect.
Q5 - How many formats of your logo do you have?
Formats? I have a logo, just one great logo.
I have a main logo and a secondary logo, but maybe could use initials or an icon.
Logo suite is perfect and full! Looking for graphics only.
Q6 - Why are you looking for updates right now?
The brand is old, outdated, or I've been DIYing it so long it's lost the plot or doesn’t seem professional.
A different designer made it and I want a thing or two changed.
I just want a few new shiny things to make me feel less bored with the branding.
Great, now go above and tally everything up. Look below to see where you match up!
Mostly 1
This looks like a rebrand!
Unfortunately, this isn't a refresh and needs a lot of work from a professional. These questions indicate that your old brand as a jumping-off point for something completely new that’s based on a strong foundation. Starting from strategy means you only have to do this once vs having to get refreshes every few years.
Trusting your brand with an expert is a great way to gain clarity and alignment and have easy-to-use pieces for your social media, website, and more.
Mostly 2
This could be a refresh!
Okay, okay, yes! If you selected mostly 2s with rarely any 1s and some 3s, it doesn’t seem that your brand needs too much more to get it to a professional place. This looks like a great opportunity for a refresh. You only need a few things handled and it could all get done in a day or so. Reach out to discuss a custom scoped project.
Mostly 3
Hey, just book a 1:1 Consult!
Did you pretty much pick 3s across the board? You might just be bored with your brand. Why are you reading this article at all? If you only have the lightest questions about your branding, just book a call to chat through it all with a professional and save a ton of time. On a call, we could add a font, a pattern, or talk about how to jazz up all of your great pieces.
In summary, whether you need a refresh or a redo comes down to a strategy foundation and level of effort.
Wanting a refresh makes a ton of sense. You’ve likely already built something, and it feels wasteful to start over and you may not have the budget. But as a designer, if you’re wanting to translate this brand into a cohesive website and marketing strategy that will last you years, it needs to be treated like a brand system. For some that might actually mean a refresh, but for others, it means a new brand project completely.
If the quiz above pointed you toward a full brand or website, that's not bad news. It's actually the clearest path to getting what you're really after: a brand that doesn't need to be revisited in a year, a website that works as hard as you do, and a business that looks as good on the outside as it already is on the inside. And that’s exactly what Bold August does, so reach out!
There are pieces of my old brand that I really love and don’t want to get rid of. What do I do then?
A brand project does not mean demolishing your existing brand. In fact, many people don’t really understand what brand design is. We don’t always start from scratch. A good brand design project is actually more about the accessibility, strategy, and components, and the journey you take with a designer to get pieces that work for you.
Let’s say you have a beautiful hummingbird in your logo that you adore, and it’s meaningful to you because of family or something significant in your life.
Maybe you DIY’d grabbing an element from Canva, and I love that! (Canva assets are unfortunately not properly licensed to be used in a logo, however.) When you work with someone like me, I start with the core values you have: and if that means the hummingbird, then we keep it! Or, I draw a very similar one or I only do logos that are a hummingbird. (Look at this gorgeous website that features a hummingbird.) We can always keep the pieces that feel important to the heart of the brand.
Or, you may absolutely LOVE 1-2 of the colors in your brand palette. GREAT, I’ll integrate them into the new branding. This is often the case, actually: clients have been using an old logo mark and 2 colors and they think it’s a “refresh” when really, we have so much more to do.
In conclusion, whether you need a brand refresh or a brand design is going to come down to your answers on the quiz above.
If you’ve been DIY’ing or your brand is very old, then a refresh might not be the best long-term fit for your brand. I offer brand design or the full package and would love to work with you on your brand. Please reach out!
