Updating your logo.
When it's time to change your 'long-in-the-tooth' identity.

It will happen many times over the lifetime of your new logo. You take a look at your business card, and the corporate identity design you were so proud of a few years ago, simply doesn't have the same oomph. It looks a little tired. Or maybe it was created under a time (or budget) crunch that precluded a complete or thorough work up. Whatever the reason, here's the bottom line - you're sick and tired of your logo and want to change it. Bring it up to speed. Can this be done? Certainly. Are there risks involved? Absolutely. Do we recommend changing your logo design in mid-stride? Well, yes. And no. Changing an established logo should be approached with a great deal of caution and not until you've given it a great deal of though. As with many business decisions, you have to weigh the pros and the cons, and decide what is the best solution for your particular business situation. A new logo makeover, if executed correctly, can infuse your company brand with new excitement - even major corporations change their identity once in a while - Intel, Kodak, Pepsi and Dairy Queen among recent examples. New blood. A new lease on day-to-day 'team spirit'. Perhaps you've changed your market focus and need a logo that's more in line with your current day demographics. A logo makeover can certainly help you do that. A logo that was nifty cool at the time - remember all those 'swooshy' logos at the end of the last century - may have become unacceptably dated. You feel the need to dial-back the trendiest and bring to market a look that is more 'solid' and conservative. All laudable goals to be sure. So yes, your logo can (and sometimes should) be changed. Are there any staid fast rules (other than the inevitable expense, which we will deal with later)? Not so far as we know. So, and with typical TLF aplomb, we're going to make some up. We'll give you some examples of famous logo makeovers, as well as our own personal history.

Re-design, makeover or a brand repair?
If you have a hunch that your logo needs changed, you should decide if you want a total overhaul and makeover - a new design - or a simple logo repair. After all, your logo may just need a little sprucing up. A little simplification, a font tweak or perhaps a more technically proficient rendering. This is the least traumatic and allows for slow integration into your already branded material. It will allow you to use up your stock of printed business goods (letterheads and business cards) as you integrate the new look into your advertising and marketing materials. A logo repair usually involves a re-rendering of your artwork so that your new, and slightly improved, logo can be utilized in various media. Once your logo has been re-rendered into a new editable format, your designers then improve the various components, colors and fonts with very little upset to the overall 'look and feel' of your company brand. The ultimate deciding factors about a logo repair, as opposed to a complete overhaul, should not be based on your personal emotional ‘feeling’ about the design. It should be based on your market’s understanding of your logo, the amount of recognition that you've managed to build, and the ultimate goals of your company.

The simple solution - Logo Repair and/or Makeover.
It’s a pretty safe bet that Nike is not going to change their ‘swoosh’ anytime soon. After spending hundreds of millions of dollars to get that logo into the public eye, and developing the instant recognition factor that they've earned, such a change would be downright foolish. That's not to say they won't ever change certain aspects of their logo - they already have, Many times. In an attempt to keep up with changes in taste and design sensibility, the accompanying ‘Nike’ font style has been altered many times over. At the end of the day, however, the Nike recognition factor makes the logo impressive, NOT the design and a sudden, and drastic, change would impede that recognition factor too dramatically.

The same can be said for the Microsoft Windows logo, now evolved into the new Vista design. When first introduced in 1995, the logo was a graphic representation of a flying window. When the new Windows XP operating system was introduced a few years ago, it also came complete with a logo makeover – the Windows icon had become 3D, much more refined, and included a tighter, more appropriate font. It still had enough flavor of the old Windows logo to remain rooted in the same design family, but was sleeker to reflect the vastly improved (hopefully) operating system. Apple computers also evolved their famous Apple icon from a rainbow-striped version to a solid, and much ‘classier’ modern icon in the late nineties. They even lost the Apple text, as the company evolved into 'lifestyle' devices as opposed to simply pumping out desktop computers. With the advent of their OS X system, the Apple icon became a ‘gel’ version – a flavor so successful that the Apple.com look and feel is among the most copied design on the Internet today. However, the essence of the logo - The Apple icon - has remained pretty stable over the years, in order to maintain the brand's strength (the fruit of knowledge from the Bible’s Genesis) while adapting to the corporation’s current more diversified marketing efforts and focus. Accordingly, it’s pretty safe to say that if Apple, Microsoft and Nike aren’t opposed to changing their logo, then your fears, while understandable, can be put aside. It’s also worthy to note that they ‘modified’ their logos, rather than scrapping the look and recognition they had already achieved. And spent millions in achieving.

Our trademark has been changed several times over the years...
On a much smaller scale (and with much more humility) The Logo Factory has changed our logo design several times over our studio's history. Our first logo (circa 1993) was a Tim Burtonesque linear design. When we moved operations online in 1996, the design was boxed, and included the term Media Works. After a few years it was decided that the Media Works was redundant, and a little overkill on the 'Factory' concept. The box was too restrictive, neither the purple nor the teal reproduced well on web safe colors, and the logo was too complicated for small sizes. Any stationery and letterhead design was incredibly expensive to reproduce (the yellow window and black box guaranteed 4 color printing). Too, the logo didn't fax well and looked absolutely horrible as a one color design on checks. With a giant gasp, we overhauled our own logo a few years ago - keeping the house, the font (both part of our trademarks) and tossed out else. The logo is still recognizable as our old TLF brand, but is vastly more versatile. Keeping the change minimal and subtle, we were still able to utilize our shirts, mouse pads, hats and other soft goods that we had in inventory. When it came to new production runs, we simply replaced the embroidery and silk-screens with the TLF 2.0 ‘look’. In terms of economics, our stationery design is back to two color and as such, very inexpensive to print via offset reproduction.

Changing your logo completely – The Massive, Traumatic Logo Overhaul.
Now, what if you're absolutely convinced you need a soup to nuts conversion of your corporate identity. That's okay too - you can perform a major overhaul of your logo once. That can be interpreted as an improvement. A new, forward thinking re-birth of your company. Any more changes and you'll start to look a little schizophrenic, flaky and unfocused. It will appear to your market that you're unsure of who you really are, or more importantly, who your clients are. While a logo makeover is relatively painless, a total overhaul can (though not always) represent a sizable expense and trauma to your marketing endeavors. It involves starting again on everything - business cards, letterheads, website, the works. You won't be able to slowly integrate your radically new look - it has to released in one mammoth roll out (having two different logos floating around in an exercise in marketing mayhem). Changing your logo completely requires careful planning and execution so while a successful logo overhaul can bring enormous benefits to your company, the risks (and potential expense) can be high. If a logo makeover can be viewed as a few coats of makeup and a new hairdo on your logo, an overhaul can be likened to an entire facelift. With the associated risks.

Next Page: Logo repair or design

Deciding if you need a logo
What makes a great logo
How do I design a logo
Do it yourself logo design
Clip art logos
Free logos
Logo Templates
Logo design contests
Online logo design
Selecting a designer
What's a logo worth?
Cheap logo design
Unlimited revisions
Working with our studio
How long does it take?
Getting started step-by-step
Logo design pointers
Logo design guidelines
Logo aspect ratios
Logo footprints
Common logo design mistakes
Logo design types
Illustration based logos
Text only logos
Icon driven logos
Cartoon logo design
Colors & your logo
RGB colors
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Pantone Matching System
Black & white logos
File formats
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Your logo in a .PDF
Logo copyright
Poor man's copyright
Logo trademark
Stationery design basics
Business card design tips
Letterhead design tips
Envelope design tips
Design assets
Managing design assets
Having your logo printed
Print resolution
Gang run printing
Web friendly logos
Logo embroidery
Logos & signs
Uses for your new logo
Updating your logo
Logo repair or design