Does Your Logo Match Your Brand’s Personality?

Written By: Holmes Team

One of the most exciting, interesting, important, and stressful parts of operating an organization is your brand presence – specifically your logo.

We have all experienced our personality growing and evolving over time, and it is important to remember that your organization is no different. As time passes, organizations mature, missions evolve, and visions solidify. Those all influence the brand’s personality, and in turn, the logo.

When it comes to updating a logo, there are two different ways an organization can go about it. While both ways are accepted, it really depends on the organization and their current situation to determine which way they will go.

Brand Refresh

The first way is called a brand refresh. To clarify, this normally just means giving “new life” to a current logo. A designer may slightly switch up the color pallet. He may give the logo softer edges or change up the placement of the tagline in relation to the organization’s name.

A good example of this is the Google Logo:

Google

google logo throughout the years

With a constant slight “facelift,” Google has made their logo continually represent their company by slightly working with the typography, colors, and “feel” while overall staying with the same concept.

Brand Redesign

The second option an organization has when updating a logo is a complete brand redesign. This normally happens after an organization has already decided to do a brand refresh, but they have realized that their logo needs more thought than they originally intended in order to truly convey their most recent personality.

It is important to keep in mind that there is still a range of brand redesigns possible. For example, a designer could just changing one major component or could completely clean the whiteboard and starting over.

The two examples that come to mind for a complete brand redesign are Walmart and Dayton Children’s Hospital.

Walmart

Walmart logo evolution

Now you might at first look at Walmart and think that they only performed brand refreshes. But looking deeper you see the extreme differences in these logos throughout the years: the dash, brand new color schemes, new symbols, and completely different fonts.

Dayton Children’s Hospital

dayton childrens old logo

Logo – 1970’s – 2015

dayton childrens hospital new logo

Logo – 2016

While the name of the hospital stayed the same, every other aspect of the design was rethought and reworked. The new logo now fully encompasses the personality and vision of the hospital.

What does the Process Actually Look Like?

While someone can sit back and compare and contrast the differences between the old and new logos, as designers we know that hours of conversation, brainstorming, and reworking went into each one of these brand refreshes and redesigns.

Below, we share the story of one of our actual clients who recently underwent a complete brand redesign.

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Agape for Youth and Holmes Marketing

Agape for Youth Inc. is a foster care, adoption through foster care and reunification services agency. Their continued goal is “to work as a team together with the child’s biological family, local Children Services, the foster/adoptive parents and the youth to build greater opportunities for development and enrichment.”

We met Sandra and Steve through a networking connection with our business developer, Lisa. Sandra felt confident in sharing with Lisa how their current branding felt a little scattered. Sometimes, there was a lack of color consistency and their current logo was a little difficult to work with.

old agape for youth logo

Original outdated logo for Agape

The Process

While Agape for Youth is headed in a fantastic direction, they felt like there was something missing for their brand. Originally, the discussions called just for a brand refresh. But when our designer, Mike, met with the Agape team at their headquarters, he was blown away by his experience:

“My initial reaction to Agape’s old logo is that it no longer accurately represented the organization’s personality.

As for my inspiration, I feel like a lot of it came directly after meeting with the Agape staff and touring their facility. Prior to the meeting, I knew what they did, but meeting them in person is how I discovered how outgoing, friendly, and passionate the entire staff is about what they do.”

After that initial meeting, Mike felt confident in his ability to truly capture the Agape brand. The new-look includes a reimagined and refreshed logo and color palette.

Agape for Youth Logo

Reimagined Agape for Youth Logo

“The new logo is meant to be a welcoming icon that incorporates a family tree with a sapling. The color scheme is much more vibrant while providing better branding options for future marketing pieces.

I believe their new logo really highlights what Agape for Youth stands for: Growing Families Together.”

-Mike England

Agape’s Response to their new Look

We asked Sandra, Agape’s Director of Development and Marketing, about their new logo. This is what she had to say:

“I was thrilled to be able to work with the Holmes Marketing Team as the Leadership at Agape for Youth, Inc. embraced the task of creating a new logo and brand.   

The attention to detail and relationship building by the Homes Team is something we value when selecting a company to do business with.

I believe that taking the time to build relationships is business is a vital piece of working together for the betterment of our community.  We are thankful to Kevin, Lisa and their entire Team for being a part of a new look for Agape for Youth, Inc.”

-Sandra Geib

Is your organization in need of a brand refresh or redesign? Take the Holmes Brand Audit today to get started.

Don’t have time to take the audit right now? Email me at ellen@thinkholmes.com and I will send you a physical or digital copy!