Most rebrands fail the moment someone shows a moodboard in the kickoff meeting. Not because the moodboard is bad — often it's beautiful. But because starting with aesthetics before argument means the whole project is untethered from the business it's supposed to move.
The argument comes first
Before we touch a typeface, we write a single page: the positioning. It answers four questions:
- What category are we really in?
- Who is our sharpest-edged customer?
- What do we believe that our category does not?
- What proof do we have?
If those four questions are uncomfortable, we know we're in the right place. If they're easy, we're about to design a logo for a business that doesn't know itself.
The brand follows
Identity design gets easier the sharper the positioning is. A confident point of view is hard to visualise badly. A fuzzy one is impossible to visualise well.
This is why our "rebrand" projects usually start with a week of interviews and end with the smallest possible visual change. Sometimes the best rebrand is a refresh, a rewritten manifesto, and a clearer homepage. Sometimes it's a completely new identity. Either way, the fight is won in the positioning — not the logo.
A rebrand is a business decision
So when clients ask us for a rebrand, we ask them what's changed in the business. If the answer is nothing, we almost always recommend they keep their money. A rebrand isn't a birthday present. It's an investment that only pays back when the business has actually moved — and the brand needs to catch up.