Leading up to the re-brand of our company this year, several people told me that they liked the old identity and they loved the old web site, so why would I want to change something that was successful? I shared my reasons for updating the Design the Planet brand with them, and I’d like to share those reasons with you now.
Reason #1 – It was old. The day that I look down at my card and think “this looks old” is when I know an identity needs a makeover. Quite honestly, the brand update should have happened a few years ago, around the time Katrina hit. Going into Katrina I had already reached that conclusion, but post-Katrina, we didn’t have the time or manpower to dedicate to building our own new brand. There were other people who needed our help, so we chose to reprioritize at the time.
Reason number 2 – The font. The old Design the Planet font was adapted from a Handwriting font that I found stylish and new, yet old. After using the logo for around five years, what was once a novel font that differentiated us so well had become overused. I see it everywhere and with that, our logo loses impact and becomes common. Or, more common then I would like.
Reason number 3 – The market. As a company, our market has shifted over the past several years, not dramatically, but it has changed. The old logo was well suited for the company years ago, but now seems not to match our company focus and brand.
Reason number 4 – Our web site needed a facelift. Our old web site didn’t have all of the bells and whistles it needed to be an essential tool. Specifically?
A. It was initially programmed completely in Flash several years ago because people wanted to see our proficiencies in the program (and we have updated it almost religiously since it was created). However, since then, the ways of the web have changed!
B. We have been optimizing and web marketing for our clients for years, but our Flash site was lacking in the live content that is readable by search engines.
C. The Flash site was cumbersome to update, mostly because it was programmed so long ago that it wasn’t accessing a database of information to populate the images and content.
D. Our old site didn’t give us the opportunity to share additional information like what you are reading now, and some things are worth sharing!
