In this post I want to tell you about the differences between Rebranding and Restyling, and the importance they have when redesigning a brand, with examples that have arisen through specific personal experiences with some of my clients.
I will also show you how, through redesign, other very important objectives were achieved that had not been taken into account until then.
These are cases of clients who already had a brand in use and who had not evaluated the possibility of changing it, since they did not consider it necessary or, they did not know the growth possibilities that a new image could give them.
Read my article The most complete guide to understanding logos for more information
Rebranding vs. Restyling
The terms Rebranding and Restyling are often used synonymously, but in reality they are quite different concepts. Although the result of both is a new identity design, we should not confuse them.
Both concepts respond to the need to update the image of a brand and ensure its permanence and recognition over time and in different circumstances and applications.
Restyling, una cuestión de estilo visual
A brand restyling is an update of the aesthetics, a renovation, a facelift, but without altering its fundamental essence, preserving its perfectly recognizable key elements.
It is an efficient option when a brand wants to remain relevant in a changing market.
Over the course of a company, product or organization's life, its visual identity, like many other elements, may need to be transformed, adapting to current times and different brand application environments (graphic media, digital media, social networks, videos, etc.)
These design transformations are usually gradual, and even very imperceptible, and always maintain the original concept of the brand.
Below we can see a clear example of restyling in the evolution of the Burger King logo, where after experimenting with different styles, they have decided to return to their classic logo, adding modern elements. This change seeks to reinforce their identity as an authentic brand focused on customer experience. (UX)
Rebranding, rethinking new communication strategies
Rebranding (redesign) is the intensive modification of the visual identity of a brand to adapt it to a new desired positioning.
Unlike restyling, it involves a complete review of the communication strategy and the brand identity, which may include a total change of the logo, institutional colors and the value proposition, reflecting a strategic change in the direction of the company.
Many times a brand feels “threatened” by new competitors or motivated to change by current technologies, and this leads to the decision to make more drastic changes, even changing the name and the entire identity design.
A recent case of extreme rebranding is that of the social network X, formerly called Twitter, in which absolutely all the identity elements have been changed (name, colors, fonts, etc.)
The following example shows the case of the comprehensive redesign of the logo of the TV channel Animal Planet.
The brand explains that the objective of this change is “to interact with mass audiences on all platforms. We can reach all generations through our content and storytelling; we are here to entertain and delight by bringing people closer to animals and nature,” they say.
Rebrandingalways starts from specific objectives or needs so that the brand can be aligned with the company's strategy and verbal identity, and therefore, involves deeper changes in its identity.
It is a process that goes beyond changing the visual style or modernizing the aesthetics of the logo and addresses essential aspects such as the company's mission, vision and values, strengthening the links between the brand and its target market.
A very illustrative example is that of Apple, which went from being a "nerd brand" of garage computers to becoming a worldwide reference for design and technology.
This led to a brutal rebranding in 1977, which went from having as a brand an illustration as an emblem that represented Sir Isaac Newton under the apple tree, to identifying the brand with the now world-renowned bitten apple.
From then on, the following updates consisted only of restylings that were adapted to the communication needs of the brand.
As a curious fact, it is said that Rob Yanoff, the designer of the Apple logo, revealed that the creation of the famous logo was thanks to some apples that he bought to paint in a portrait.
In trying to simplify the company's symbol, Yanoff wanted to place the image of the "bitten apple" since the word "bite" in English is bite, so it resembles a term in computing (which is byte, like gigabyte, megabyte, etc.), taking advantage of the wordplay with phonetic pronunciation.
Knowing how to advise the client
In my professional experience, I have often found that some of my clients were clinging to an image that had identified them for years, and were not very willing to innovate and make changes, despite my suggestions and the needs that the market itself was asking of them.
Regardless of whether the brand is good or bad in terms of design and communication, in these cases I consider that a restyling is the most appropriate, since a rebranding would be a very drastic option and difficult to assimilate for the client and the people who work in their environment.
Let's not forget that behind a brand there are always "people" who feel, have emotions, stories, memories, traditions, etc.
Many times these are family businesses or enterprises, where the original brand was created by someone who is no longer with us, or who deserves the respect of continuing their legacy by their successors.
For this reason, in these cases, I suggest to my clients a restylingof the existing brand, preserving the original concepts in semantic graphic elements and colors, but adapting them to more current forms that allow their application in various graphic and digital media, thus strengthening the presence of the brand.
Accepting the need to innovate
The example illustrated below is the case of a client who has a family business manufacturing fabrics for footwear, leather goods and decoration, with more than 40 years of presence in the Argentine market.
I was asked to update a website that had been “forgotten” for a long time, but there was not much to salvage in its content, and that is why I proposed to redesign it completely.
My client immediately accepted my proposal and also my suggestion to update their brand.
I suggested that by doing so, we would have many more corporate elements to develop the design of the new website, applying logos, colors and styles that respond to the brand and identity of the company, and being able to unify communication criteria with all the elements that emerge from the logo (social networks, catalogs, advertisements, flyers, publications, etc.)
The company name corresponds to his family name, and therefore I tried to respect all the traditional and emotional aspect that it represents for my client, but persuading him of the need for an adaptation of the brand that would allow him to have a stronger presence in print, digital and social media.
That is why I proposed to preserve the concept of the initial “t” and the loom, which represents the company’s activity, and to standardize the use of colors and fonts, obtaining a more modern, appropriate and versatile brand.
This brand restyling allowed the company to take a new level of visual communication, through product catalogues, websites, social networks and even stands at exhibitions in which it participates.
You can visit the website by clicking HERE.
Changing habits
It is often a very hard job, but effective and satisfying when achieved, to convince the client that, based on having a new good institutional image, they must change their communication patterns with their own clients or consumers, as well as within the internal organization of the company, always choosing quality options and with professional criteria, and leaving behind amateur, improvised and illogical issues.
I always suggest that once you have your new image, you accept it and incorporate it into your new life, showing it off with pride and improving day by day.
I also always advise that if they take photos, they should be quality and well edited, that they carefully choose the content of their social networks, that they show their image with coherence and criteria, always in the same way, with the same colors and fonts, since these aspects forge and favor the way of communicating a brand, and that their consumers end up adapting and choosing that style of communication, in which they feel comfortable and at ease.
Elements such as well-designed commercial stationery, advertising banners, graphic pieces, flyers, printed or digital, social networks, well-written texts and, above all, a professional look, are essential allies to promote the growth and positioning of a brand and its products.
It is always about improving our users' experience (UX: User Experience), so that we make their daily lives easier and more enjoyable and therefore "they choose us", since that is what the success and permanence of a brand is all about.
Rebranding: A change of strategy in communication management
We've already talked about restylingand the benefits it can bring to a brand, but now we're going to address the case of another client in which there was no solid starting point on which to build a good identity; there really was nothing left to save.
This is the Argentine Journal of Online Anatomy, an international scientific publication of the Argentine Association of Anatomy, where doctors, residents and students of Medicine from Argentina and the world publish their works previously presented at the Argentine Congress of Anatomy, which takes place annually in various cities of the country.
Being a designer and webmaster of the Argentine Association of Anatomy since 2015, where I had already completely redesigned its website; in 2017 I was called to take charge of the editorial design of the Journal, which had been published quarterly since 2010, in its print and online versions.
The journalwas seriously behind in its publications and had been in arrears for its editions since 2015, as the person in charge of doing so could no longer do so.
This person was not a graphic designer but a doctor who worked with very good intentions, but without the knowledge or adequate tools, using “what he had on hand” for free and “pre-assembled”.
However, the results were not satisfactory, since the criteria and experience for designing are not included in these tools that are freely accessible to the general public.
Below is an example of the journal's editorial design.
Where to start?
The editorial design of the journal I inherited was very poor and rudimentary, without form or identity, developed with inappropriate tools (PowerPoint) and the results were very deficient.
PowerPoint is a very versatile tool to create brief quality graphic presentations in a very simple and intuitive way, but not to make 100-page graphic editions, for which it would have been much more efficient to work with Word or another word processor, if professional editorial layout programs could not be used.
The structural design grid was barely hinted at and was not respected in all publications, which took away identity, coherence, harmony and fluidity from the reading of their contents.
Furthermore, their website was designed by the same person, continuing with the problems that arose from the magazine's design.
A totally dysfunctional website, without organization, aesthetics, or any criteria, resulting in a poor user experience (UX) and a completely non-existent web positioning (SEO), since the content was not optimized to be crawled by search engines like Google.
The website was developed with a very basic and poorly used amateur template, without any knowledge of web design or layout and structuring of content.
The overall design had a black background with small white font that made it difficult to read, and it also had no responsive design, so it did not adapt to mobile devices.
In addition, it was hosted on a cheap hosting server, with its consequent advertising banners, slow browsing and downloading, and exposure to viruses and hackers.
Reborn… a new opportunity
The journal's authorities suggested that I continue with the previous model, but I proposed making a comprehensive change starting with the design of a new identity, which would allow the journal to reach much higher and more accurate international standards, with a professional and global outlook, and which would favor its publication in various graphic and digital media, with graphic and conceptual unity and coherence.
Indeed, a Rebranding was the best option to make the journal more relevant and to recover a global position not only for the editorial product, but also for the people who make it and the institution that supports it.
The journal is indexed in various specialized international portals, where several similar publications from other countries coexist, and therefore must stand out and be at the same level as its peers.
Redesigning the identity
The previous logo had no identity criteria at all and was not even always displayed in the same way in the various publications. It was just an inappropriate typeface chosen at random.
My proposal was to start with a complete redesign of the brand, providing a solid identity with allegorical concepts to the activity it represents: Anatomy.
The brand concept is developed through a blood-red continent, strategically curved like a page, which cuts out a letter “a” (from Argentine anatomy) slightly rotated so that a drop of blood forms in the eye of the letter, and which at the same time represents the union of muscles and cartilage in the human body.
Regardless of the semantic concept that color gives it, the brand works perfectly in its monochromatic version, in positive and negative, to be used in applications that require it.
New editorial design
This rebranding is accompanied by a comprehensive editorial redesign of the journal, with a clear and functional layout where I have proposed and developed publication criteria that authors must respect in order to present their manuscripts in the journal, and in this way take the publication to an international level, on par with its peers.
My design idea was innovative and widely accepted by the board, who decided to believe in my proposal and gave me complete freedom to create a new product, and finally join the Editorial Committee as General Editor, Designer and Webmaster.
Previous covers consisted of a random collage of images taken from published works, usually cadaver dissections.
A background color corresponding to each year of publication is used, the magazine's logo is displayed in different places, and no identity or permanence is obtained in the memory of users.
A new look at the concept of identity
My concept for the covers of the publications is to show how various artists from all eras and areas of art (painting, sculpture, design, photography, etc.) interpret the human body, thus giving a different and innovative proposal to their peers, in which they are illustrated with dissections and viscera.
With a minimalist, clear and uncluttered design, a place of importance is assigned to the journal's logo, strengthening its identity.
A band of uniform color represents the year of publication, highlighting the volume number and including an index of the titles published in each issue, so as to allow easy access for searching content by volume.
The following image clearly shows the differences in design criteria for the journal's covers, which invite the reader to a better reading experience and understanding of the works that are published.
A good layout and design of the content also favours the dissemination of its authors and allows the journal to truly be an organ of scientific dissemination and appreciation of the work of those who participate in each edition of the same.
Each published article has the same header design, highlighting thematic sections, authors, institutions of affiliation, country of origin, presentation and acceptance dates, and highlighted summary in Spanish and English.
Image and table sizes, numbering of references in graphics and texts, image captions, bibliographies, etc. were standardized.
New website
For the design of the new website, I continue with the same criteria as the magazine, optimizing its identity and improving visibility and access in all the specific search engines in which it is indexed.
Publications are available for free download in PDF format, both in their full version and as individual articles.
To reinforce its international character, the website is bilingual (Spanish/English) and its contents are optimized following guidelines that favor web positioning in content search engines (SEO).
The downloadable files have optimized metadata so that they can be tracked by author names, titles or keywords, favoring the dissemination of the authors and their works.
The new brand design also allows the website to optimise its online presence through the use of avatars that improve access to the site from different browsers.
You can visit the magazine's website by clicking HERE.
A new way of being
In the example above we can see how, through conscious and strategic rebranding, developed with professional criteria, a new life has been given to a publication that almost did not exist.
They had the best product presented in the worst way, and those are the characteristics necessary to guarantee the failure and invisibility of a publication as such, and of any other commercial, institutional, service or personal undertaking.
There is no point in having excellent content and good intentions if you lack design, organization, aesthetics, good taste, and above all, functionality that guarantees the satisfaction of your consumers and your positioning on the Internet.
Establishing a starting point
Brand redesign is always the starting point to obtain a graphic interface that provides identity and coherence to any type of product we want to develop, be it a magazine, a website, an app, social networks, videos, printed graphics, etc.
From it, we can find the color styles, fonts, design grids and all the characteristics that give "personality" to any product that aims to be recognized and accepted on a massive scale.
Just as members of a family are recognized by their genetic traits, physical appearance, their belonging to a name, their essence and their personality, the same happens with brands and the products and services they represent.
That is why they must be treated with respect, commitment and professionalism, since our brand speaks of «ourselves» as individuals and as members and representatives of the society in which we live.
Changing habits
Muchas veces es un trabajo muy arduo para el diseñador, pero efectivo y satisfactorio cuando se logra, el hecho de convencer al cliente que a partir de tener una nueva buena imagen institucional, debe cambiar sus pautas de comunicación con sus propios clientes o consumidores, así como también dentro de la organización interna de la empresa, eligiendo siempre opciones de calidad y con criterio profesional, y dejando atrás cuestiones amateurs, improvisadas y sin lógica alguna.
I always suggest that once you have your new image, you accept it and incorporate it into your new life, showing it off with pride and improving day by day.
I also always advise that if they take photos, they should be quality and well edited, that they carefully choose the content of their social networks, that they show their image with coherence and criteria, always in the same way, with the same colors and fonts, since these aspects forge and favor the way of communicating a brand, and that their consumers end up adapting and choosing that style of communication, in which they feel comfortable and at ease.
Elementos como papelerías comerciales bien diseñadas, banners publicitarios, piezas gráficas, flyers, impresos o digitales, redes sociales, textos bien redactados y sobre todo una mirada profesional, son todos aliados imprescindibles para favorecer el crecimiento y posicionamiento de una marca y sus productos.
Siempre se trata de mejorar la experiencia de nuestros usuarios (UX: User Experiencie), de modo que les hagamos la vida cotidiana más fácil y amena y por lo tanto que «nos elijan», de eso se trata el éxito y permanencia de una marca.
Final conclusion
I hope you enjoyed this article and found it useful.
My goal in this work is for you to know the differences between Rebranding and Restyling, and the benefits of redesigning a brand and the new possibilities that open up for the future of the client's commercial activity and its effective permanence in the market.
If you wanted to have your own brand and you consider that I am a suitable professional, do not hesitate to contact me.
In the Related Articles section below, you will find some articles with specific topics that complement the one you just read.
I invite you to read them, share them and leave your comments if you wish.
Thank you very much.
Adrián Pablo Conti
I am a Graphic and Web Designer graduated from the University of Buenos Aires (FADU-UBA)
Since 1993 I have run Web4, my own freelance graphic and web design creative studio, located in the City of Buenos Aires (Argentina)
Me I specialize in the development of visual identity, institutional communication, web sites and online stores, editorial design, catalogs, magazines and packaging design, among others.
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