Five Lessons from a New Brand Identity Project
In the last few weeks, Wise Up PR has revealed its new brand identity. We’ve also delved into all the assets we sought to upgrade - read more about that below.
Wise Up PR
Yet what are the lessons we’ve learned from this project? We'd like to share our learnings on this type of project for any brand thinking about doing the same.
As a reminder, we worked with (GUERRILLA), a design-led digital agency, with specialisms in web design and visual branding. We felt it was necessary to have an outside perspective on reassessing our brand and to create a new identity that better fit where Wise Up PR is today.
Over the next year, we interrogated each part of our brand to see what needed to be improved upon. In this process, five learnings became clear.
1. Having an Outside Perspective Is Critical
You’re likely working day-to-day within your brand. This means you have complete knowledge and mastery of the brand, but it can also mean that you may be missing an outside, independent voice. Such third parties can be invaluable and can critically assess where your brand is great and where it can be improved upon.
Working with third parties can really unlock different viewpoints to elevate your brand in new ways. We found having multiple external partners helped us to redefine exactly what parts of the brand needed a touch-up, or a complete overhaul.
2. The Project Will Take Much More Time Than You Anticipated
Following this experience, we would estimate that brands will take a minimum of 6-12 months to do a new brand identity project justice.
Just because you may have liked a new logo the first time, does not mean in a week you’ll feel the same. Time is critical in this process to define what it is that you like, or don’t like and also what is true to your specific brand.
For example, at Wise Up, we’re fiercely proud of the work we do for our clients, meaning we wanted to make Our Work section, (which details our case studies) a showcase of our campaigns in a visually appealing way. As this was an important aspect of our brand identity project, we sourced an independent, third-party artist in Dom Guzman, whose work has previously been featured in publications we love, like Crunchbase News.
This pushed our timelines out further but has been a key part of our new identity and has received much positive feedback since we launched.
3. You Will Change Your Mind Multiple Times
Following on from the above lesson, you will undoubtedly change your mind many times on many things. You’ll be inspired by what you see day-to-day, your own personal life and beyond. This means nothing is ever really set in stone for a new brand identity project.
The key thing however is to settle on the core assets you care most about, including logo, business cards and other assets. With these assets in good shape, if you want to make further tweaks to them, in reality, it will mostly likely be minor edits and amends than a full-scale rework. This is an effective approach not only for you but also for your partners in such a project.
4. Pick Realistic Timeframes
As you begin to complete some key milestones within a new brand identity project, this helps to clear up timelines. This is important as it gives you a more realistic timeline to work against for a launch and you can then start thinking about what has to happen for such a launch, including the creation of content or visuals.
It is also important as internal stakeholders can also be looped into these timelines and this can help to set expectations on a go-live date that is rooted in reality.
In Wise Up PR’s case, it was important to agree early on new interpretations of our logo and brand assets for social media and other touchpoints. With these assets locked in, we were then able to tackle the larger project concerning our website expansion.
5. Not Everything Will Be Achievable in One Go
With a clear timeframe in mind, it is essential to not get distracted by minor add-ons to brand assets, like your website. Such add-ons can seem essential at the time but in reality, they can always be implemented post-launch. By continually adding items to the to-do list you’ll expand the timeframe beyond what you planned.
Instead, have a clear vision of what you will go live with for your new brand identity and make a list of add-ons and minor improvements you want to make in the following six months from launch. This way, completing the project on time is much more achievable.
