Should you rebrand before
redesigning your website?
A lot of people come to us and say, “Hey, we need a new website.” I’ve been running the agency long enough to know that there’s usually a little more to that conversation. They want the business to look better, feel more current, or finally come across the way it should.
Then we look at what the website has to work with. Sometimes the logo gets muddy at small sizes. Sometimes the identity feels dated, or looks so much like the rest of the category that it’s hard to tell whose website you’re on. Sometimes there’s a perfectly good logo and almost nothing around it.
You don’t always need a rebrand before a website redesign. But the thing you came in asking for and the work needed to get you there can be a little different.
What’s left when you hide the logo?
Take Molly Engels’ website below. The yellow, the stamp illustrations, and the type give it a very particular character. Her identity gives the website a whole set of things to play with.
Try hiding both logos using the button below. Notice how much of that character stays put. That’s what a fuller brand identity gives a website designer to work with.
More than a logo.
Molly Engels · Actual homepage, after the intro.
What does the designer have to work with?
A logo and a couple of colors leave quite a lot up for discussion. And the website has a lot of space to fill.
What should the photography feel like? How should the type behave? What makes this look like your business instead of a perfectly respectable competitor?
A brand identity gives the team a North Star. The type, the photography, the motifs and patterns, the way those things work together: they help us understand what feels appropriate for this business and why. They’re also a source of inspiration. Good designers need something to get excited about, too.
Without that system, the website team has to make up a lot of those decisions as they go. It’s easy to fall back on familiar layouts and things that look nice. Before long, you’ve got a website that looks like everyone else’s. It might be technically new. It still doesn’t quite feel like your business.
How much actually needs to change?
This is why people who come to us for a website often leave with brand work as well. We want the investment to go further. Giving the website a stronger identity to build from can make a much bigger difference than another round of moving things around on the homepage.
That could mean simplifying a logo so it actually works in the places you need it. It could mean updating an identity the business has outgrown, or giving it enough character to stand apart from the category. And sometimes the missing piece is simply a fuller system around what’s already there.
That last one doesn’t necessarily call for a new logo, much less a new name. Developing the identity you already have may be enough.
And if the identity is doing its job, keep it. Websites absolutely need work of their own: showing off images better, improving navigation, making it easier to buy or inquire, and helping people find you through search. A rebrand won’t magically sort all of that out.
The frustrating version is when you’ve already invested in SEO, content, and a better path to purchase, and the design is still holding you back. You’re getting people there, but the business doesn’t look as good as it actually is. That’s why we want to have the identity conversation before you spend the website budget.
Before the redesign
When it comes to how a website looks and feels, so much depends on the identity informing it. Before spending the website budget, get clear on what you want the site to do for the business and whether the identity gives it enough to work with. That gives the redesign a much better place to start.