Nearly all great civilizations that perished did so because they had crystallized, because they were incapable of adapting themselves to new conditions, new methods, new points of view. It is as though people would literally rather die than change. –Eleanor Roosevelt
At some point on your business journey, you will pause to take stock of how far you’ve come, and you’ll realise that the stallion on which you set forth has morphed into a Ferrari.
Now, you can find a lot in common between horses and Ferraris. They’re beautiful, powerful, expensive and they both run on horsepower, but you could never mistake one for the other. You can tell which is which just by looking at them. More importantly, a lot more people want a Ferrari.
So is your logo telling everyone that you own a horse instead of a supercar? It might be time to think about updating your logo!
In our last blog post we talked about what makes (and breaks) a good logo, and I stressed the importance of communicating your core promise: the message, set of values, and vision, that underpins every aspect of your business, which is then expressed as a simple statement.
No matter how pleasing your current logo is to the eye, if the message it communicates is incongruous with the identity and core promise of your business, it’s not a good logo.
Not only will an updated logo help to align your outward presentation with the realities of your business, the act of updating your brand has the potential to revivify it.
As one peer reviewed study noted: “Logo redesign signals revitalization of the brand when it gets old and could lead to consumer perceptions of brand modernity and favourable attitudes”.
So, how do we keep your logo (and your brand) up to date and aligned with your core promise?
Recently, our client Specialised Wheelchair Company wanted to let the world know that they were, more than ever, driving in style and comfort.
Their business has been going strong since 1972, and in that time, they’ve grown impressively. What they wanted was a logo that reflected their success while still communicating their core values.
We start the redesign process by taking our clients through a questionnaire designed to uncover their all-important, say it with me now, core promise. Only after we’re sure we have the core promise down to a tee, do we set to work with our designers to develop the updated logo.
Here’s their old logo,
and here’s our redesign.
By building on the design of the previous logo, we communicated that the heart of the business and its values had remained steadfast. This also removed the potential for massive cognitive dissonance and possible rejection by SWCo’s current clients. Additionally, we ensured that the new logo had a stronger visual impact that was less likely to be glanced over, while maintaining the original colour scheme.
The feedback on the redesign has been overwhelmingly positive and needless to say, we’re proud to have been a part of it.
Feel like it’s time to tell the world you’re driving a Ferrari? Give us a call.