The magic and joy of a bright rebrand.

A few weeks ago I wrote about how I felt returning to work after becoming a mum. I was exhausted and scared of businessy things.

I still had sick on my leg (hers, not mine). And I felt like I’d forgotten how to spell.

Looming over all of this was the brand identity I cobbled together using Canva. I’m still very attached to my old Playfair Display logo. It was simple, it was cheap, it was familiar.

But I knew I had to improve it, and I fancied a change.

How many of you have a brand that you’re a bit tired of, but are too afraid to change? I thought that hiring a designer would be expensive and time-consuming. So I did what any idiot would do. I did some DIY. Yep, it’s pretty much the same.

Only squished. 🙈

Clearly it was time to ask for help.

I asked my friend Heather who’s good at these things to recommend a designer. She referred me to the wonderful Laura Whitehouse.

I was so pleasantly surprised by how lovely Laura was, and how nice the process of rebranding felt, that I wanted to share it with you. 👇

Rebranding isn’t as scary as you think 👀

Most of us (and by us, I mean small business owners or marketing managers) are weary of rebrands.

I thought the process would take weeks.

I believed rebrands were only for people who look like and earn the salary of Don Draper.

The reality is different. Rebranding isn’t going to take years or cost you thousands of pounds. Just ask any graphic designer.

The designer I worked with reassured me about how long it would take to come up with a new logo, and I was surprised. For her to redevelop my entire brand and come up with new fonts and a homepage design took a fortnight.

This might not be the case for bigger businesses, but if you run a small business it’s not as big an investment as you might imagine. 👍

Rebranding is really, really fun ✨

I sat down with the designer and we talked about where I came up with the name, how the business started, what I’d done since. She asked lovely questions. She wanted the new logo to reflect what the business is about.

The entire process was creative and fun. I’d thoroughly recommend it.https://www.linkedin.com/embeds/publishingEmbed.html?articleId=8925766325814211884

The resulting four suggestions were brilliant. I had a tough time choosing between them.

Refining what you like is also fun.

The process of turning concepts into a brand identity that you love takes time, whether you’re a tiny business owner or a big company.

I think I’d always felt trepidacious about this part. I was nervous about refining a design, because I’m not terribly good at visual things.

The good news is that we all have a team around us, whether it’s an actual team or the people close to us in life. I sent the concepts around to people who knew me, and with their help I made up my mind slowly.

We narrowed it down to two concepts:

Lean Content logo 2 from Jo Duncan

Working with the designer through this process was so uplifting. Her use of colour, her creativity and imagination were inspiring me to do better for my business.

I didn’t find it tiring at all. I found it invigorating. 💥

Launch needn’t be complicated 🚀

I absolutely understand that for big businesses, launching a new brand takes time and a strategy. For me, it was just a case of changing profile photos and cover images. I went through things like Calendly, Twitter, LinkedIn and Typeform and updated everything gradually.

Once I had everything in place, I thought I’d be open about the process and share it on LinkedIn. It also gave me the chance to show off the amazing work the designer had done:

Lean content branding sheet from Jo Duncan

I’m so delighted with the results. What’s the moral of the story?