Rebranding: how to roll out a new visual identity smoothly

Start with an inventory

First, list every place your brand appears. Think beyond the website and letterhead. Social media profiles, presentations, forms, signage, clothing, vehicles and the signature under every email all count.

Ask colleagues from different departments to help. Someone at reception knows different materials than someone in marketing. The more complete the list, the fewer surprises later.

For each item, note who is responsible and what it takes to update it. You can change an email signature yourself; a sign on the building needs a supplier. That shows you straight away where most of the time will go.

Choose an order

Not everything has to change on the same day. Decide what must change now and what can wait. Put the order in a simple schedule, so everyone knows when their materials are due:

• Digital first. You can update the website, social media profiles, email signatures and templates fairly quickly.
• Then what many people see. The building, signage and print that passes through many hands.
• Then the rest. You can sometimes use up printed stock, if that suits how visible it is.

Have everything ready before you announce it

A common mistake in a rebrand: announcing the new logo while the files are not ready yet. Colleagues want to get started straight away, and then cobble something together from a screenshot of the announcement.

Make sure everything is ready on launch day: logos in all variants and formats, colour codes, fonts, templates and the new guidelines. Tell everyone where to find them, and who to call with questions.

Think about the explanation too. Why has the brand changed, and what does that mean for day-to-day work? People who know the story use the new visual identity with more conviction.

Clear out the old brand

A rebrand is only finished when the old files are gone. As long as the old logo sits in shared folders, it will be used. Not out of bad will, but because people grab the file they know.

• Archive old files. Remove them from shared folders and keep them in one place that is not for daily use.
• Replace templates. Delete old templates, so nobody starts a presentation in the old style by mistake.
• Inform external partners. Agencies, printers and partners often still work with files from earlier jobs.
• Check after a few weeks. Look for where the old logo still turns up, and fix it.

Plan the moment of the switch

Sometimes you want the new visual identity to appear at a set moment, for example alongside a press release or an anniversary. Then it helps if the files are ready in advance, but only become visible to everyone on that day.

In MarkBase you can activate temporary or scheduled logos automatically at the right moment. Version control makes sure old files are not used by mistake, and share links give agencies and printers the current version straight away.

Don’t see the launch as the end point. In the first months, questions will come up about situations nobody had thought of. Collect those questions, and add to your guidelines where needed.