What are you trying to communicate with the new logo? Is there something from the old logo that you want to use? Are you ready to deal with criticism?

"The world is changing", "we should adapt our business to the new economy", "let's adapt for a new reality" and many other jargons are basically repeating what everybody knows: Everything is changing faster and everyday. But do we really like changes?

Maybe yes, maybe not. The universal answer "it depends on the case" is applicable here. How people react to changes affects directly our design profession. After all, this is what we do on our daily basis: we create and/or modify products, visuals, websites, etc.

In an academic study, where authors modified a couple of well-known logos, the conclusion was that "Consumers who are strongly committed to a brand evaluate logo shape redesign more negatively and have a lower brand attitude (Walsh et al., 2010, p. 80)". In other words, if you change the logo of, let's say, Apple, which I really like, I'll hate you!

Although, I must say that I always liked redesigned logos. Well, most of the times. For me, if a company changes its visual identity, it's a sign of concern about design and how to better communicate with their stakeholders.

In a previous text, I was discussing about how branding and design are related, and how building a brand is not only about the visual, even tough it's one of the main things to care about. Branding is a recurrent activity in which designers should build meaningful touch-points to create the brand experience for the customer. Visual touch-points are not only about the logo. There are many definitions for logo design, but I like to think that it should summarize everything that a company does/believes/gives value.

But coming back to the topic, sometimes companies need to (re)adapt their visual touch-points, for so many reasons, like for instance merging with other company, pursuing a different strategy, moving towars a new market, etc. So how to do it without harming the brand?

This GAP case is one of my favorites. Briefly, in 2010 they launched a new logo. People reaction was terrible, which forced the company to step back and use the "old" logo again. In addition, in the official communication, the company managed to take advantage of the situation, saying "Yes, we hear you my dear customer, so if you say that we don't have to change our logo, we'll not change it". So why did they change it on first place?

Ok, so far we know that people are not so open to changes. But if you really have a good reason to run a redesign, I would recommend to answer carefully these 3 questions below:

What are you trying to communicate with the new logo?

A new strategy, a new moment, a new market, a new partner. Basically, the reason why are you launching this new logo should be very clear to your company and later, for your customers.

Is there something from the old logo that you want to use?

Remember, people usually don't like radical changes. If you can use some element (color, typography, shape) to resemble on the old logo it's better. This is a tricky question, it may be the case of the creation of a completely new image, then you might avoid any association with the past.

Are you ready to deal with criticism?

What will you do if your public hate it? Do you have a plan B? Of course we don't want to think of it, but it doesn't kill to put some thoughts on that before launching. A way of avoiding this is to involve customers during the design process, to collect some feedback before launching (well, user participation should be topic for future posts).

Concluding, redesign is always a doubtful process. But I believe that it pays off when it is being done (1) properly and (2) for the right reasons. ☺