It’s an easy mistake.

Holding onto your old logo for far too long?

Perhaps you’re sentimental or just terrified that if you mess with it, you’ll ruin it.

If you have a timeless logo like Nike or Apple, then it might just need a slight tweak to bring it up-to-date.

But if your logo no longer resonates with your audience, your lack of action could cost you dear.

Your visual identity has to evolve with the times to ensure its relative with your target market and versatile to suit all marketing platforms.

But before you despair at the thought of dismantling your beloved logo.

Change might be easier than you think.

Let’s take a look and see if it’s time for a logo redesign and how to nail it.

5 Reasons Why You Might Consider a Logo Redesign

Redesigning a logo is never top of anyone’s priority list.

How long have you been putting it off?

But you know, I know, we all know we have to do it eventually, and sometimes the slightest change can have the most profound effect.

The fact is if you update your logo because of proven marketing demands, and you implement those updates using highly effective design strategies, then the little you do now could pay off significantly in the future.

Let’s look at the reasons for putting redesigning your logo top your priority list:

1. Your business has changed

Businesses evolve; it’s natural.

The design you chose at the beginning might no longer fit the businesses you are in today. Perhaps you’ve expanded into new markets or brought new services or products online. If you’ve changed in any way, it might be time to change your logo.

2. You have a new competition

Markets also change, and so does the competition.

You may have been # 1, but over-night new, modern competition moves in, suddenly, you’re slipping down the rankings.

You’ve two choices when this happens.

Let it be and hope your existing customers stay faithful, or redesign your logo, so it’s relative to your target audience and engages on every emotional level, showing them that your brand is still the one to trust.

3. You’re speaking to a new audience

If you’re expanding your brand and using new platforms to engage new audiences, your logo must speak their language.

But tread carefully!

If you have an established brand community and a loyal customer base, they’re familiar with and trust your original logo. You don’t want any design changes to undermine this.

Your goal is to maintain your customer base and attract new ones, and a simple design update that speaks both languages would be the perfect solution.

4. You’re brand’s changed direction

Your brand has a personality; it’s what your audience bought into when you first started it.

If you know your brand’s personality is no longer what it was, then you owe it to your target market to update your logo so it represents the new you—otherwise, you’re selling a false impression of yourself.

5. Your logo’s plain dated

If your logo’s looking like an out-of-date re-run of the Golden Girls, then it’s probably time you brought it into the 2020s.

Modern logos have to be compatible with modern technology and must work at multiple scales to suit all screen sizes and digital platforms. It’s why we no longer use cluttered 3D logos; modern logos are two-dimensional and minimalistic so that we can use them in website headers, as social media avatars, email signatures, blog posts, etc.

Does your logo need a redesign or a refresh?

It depends on whether you answered yes to more than two of the above questions.

If so, then it might be time for a brand-new logo design.

However, most logos don’t have to go through a dramatic change, and often you can achieve the desired results by merely updating original features.

Every logo should have a core element; yours might be an image or an abbreviation of your name. These essential elements should stay, while colors and font can be updated, and the overall look simplified to meet modern demands.

Your goal is to take modern design trends and infuse them into your original logo.

Before you start redesigning your logo, it helps to answer the following questions:

1. Why is your logo no longer working?

The first five questions should have provided you with some pretty vital clues as to why your logo is no longer working.

Take any you’ve answered yes to and make a list. Note any changes and any resulting consequential impact they’re having on your original logo.

Now use your list to decide on what elements should stay and how to make your logo relevant:

2. What elements should stay?

Every marketplace has design elements that suit it, like specific colors or fonts proven to work by instilling trust or conveying a message that resonates and engages.

But your brand’s personality should also be considered when deciding on what should stay and what should go. Are you in a relaxed or serious marketplace? Do you require a combination logotype to get your message across, or are you established to the point where an icon logotype will suffice?

3. Is your logo still relevant for your target consumers?

Audiences change, and your logo must change with them to ensure it stays relevant.

When redesigning your logo, first consider which original visual elements were proven to connect with your customers. If you have a new target audience, research them to discover what you’ll need to include in your updated logo design to ensure relevancy.

At this stage, cut any aspects of your logo that are no longer relevant to your original and new customer base.

How to nail it

Knowing why you must update your logo is only the first step; knowing how to comes next.

The process of designing your logo that identifies your business and engages with your target market hasn’t changed, and any key elements you applied in your first logo design remain as important now as they did then.

Use the following tactics to redesign or refresh your logo with the minimum fuss:

  1. Keep market and audience relevant colors. However, today’s designs use soft tones that avoid significant contrast. And the color rule has always been using no more than three, and two if possible.
  2. Remove as much clutter as possible; if it’s not needed to identify your business and engage your audience, then it’s not required.
  3. Any images and fonts should be simple, so they’re eligible at all scales.
  4. Make your logo 2-dimensional.
  5. Create balance by using white space. It’s the space between your fonts and images; small adjustments with spacing can have significant effects, especially in making your logo pop.

Note:

Suppose you decide on an entirely new direction for your logo design. Using a new opposing color or a completely revamped style, you’ll also have to consider redesigning your overall brand image.

Because consistency throughout your branding is essential, it’s what binds all your marketing strategies together and creates the familiarisation needed to develop trust with your audience.

Where to redesign your logo?

If you have made the decision to update or redesign your logo that are a few options open to you. Depending on your budget one of the below options will serve your needs.

Automated logo design options: In recent years automated logo design tools have become very popular. These tools use AI to create logos.

Logo design competitions: Logo competitions have become very popular. With these competitions you give your brief and multiple designers will send you their designs based on the brief.

Freelance designers: Using a freelance logo design is the go to options for most businesses looking to design or redesign a logo