A visual identity redesign means modernising a brand's visual system (logo, colours, typography, applications) without losing the recognition equity already built up. The whole challenge: evolving without disorienting the people who already know you.
Redesign or simple refresh?
Two levels to tell apart:
- The refresh (evolution): you keep the DNA and modernise it — a refined logo, an updated palette, refreshed typography. Your audience still recognises you.
- The rebrand (break): you rethink the identity from the ground up. Warranted in the case of a repositioning, a merger, a shift in audience or an image that has become dated.
In 80% of cases, a well-executed refresh is enough — and it preserves your brand equity.
When should you redesign your visual identity?
Five signals that justify a redesign:
- Your identity has aged or no longer reflects your current level of quality.
- It lacks consistency (logo versions that have multiplied, colours all over the place).
- It performs poorly in digital (a logo that's illegible at small sizes, as a favicon, on mobile).
- Your positioning or audience has changed.
- You no longer stand out from your competitors.
How to redesign without breaking everything
The golden rule: identify what carries recognition value (a colour, a symbol, a shape) and keep it — or let it evolve gently — rather than starting from a blank page. The process mirrors that of creating a visual identity — brief, territory, applications, brand guidelines — but it factors in what already exists and its history.
The cognitive angle
The brain recognises a brand in a few milliseconds, from simple cues (a dominant colour, the shape of a logo). A successful redesign preserves these recognition anchors while modernising everything else — that's the whole point of a cognitive design approach: you know exactly what to keep.
Redesign your identity with Maïkkom
We support both logo redesigns and full identity work, on a per-project basis or through our unlimited design subscription (ideal for rolling the new identity out across all your materials straight away). Request a free audit of your current identity.