92 Degrees: The importance of brand recognition during a rebrand

Rebranding at any stage of a business’ growth can be a daunting and risk-wrought experience. Some businesses decide to take a leap of faith and completely transform their brand from the inside out in the hope of showing the world they’re letting go of the past. Others talk themselves out of such a change to avoid the loss of brand recognition and potential alienation of existing customers and markets.

→ Brand evolvement

Sitting in between these two extremes exists a happy medium. Brand evolvement consists of a careful analysis of a brand’s strengths and weaknesses and charting a course for an exciting new start, whilst building on past successes.

Most businesses believe they can decide whether it’s a good or bad idea to evolve or start from scratch internally, without external guidance. In reality, some brands simply aren’t fit for purpose or can’t be visually improved as part of a new cohesive visual identity system. It’s always a good idea to talk to your design team or an external brand consultant to better understand your options ahead of such a transformation.

→ But I want to keep my logo?

Your logo is one of the most identifiable touchpoints of your brand identity and should be retained if possible. Whether this is possible, however, is wholly dependent on the quality of design, composition, usability and ultimately how it fits into a new visual system for the rest of the brand.

→ Case Study: 92 Degrees Logo

We recently rebranded 92 Degrees, a growing coffee chain founded here in Liverpool. Their old logo had huge brand recognition and was simple enough to fit seamlessly into our newly devised design system. The consensus was to streamline the aesthetic of the logo to create a less rustic, more timeless mark capable of scaling with the business.

The old logo, designed by Andy Cooper, gave the business its visual presence and brand recognition.

“The logo had to change. The new direction for the brand was built on boldness, clarity and big, sharp typography. 92 Degrees had outgrown the rustic, hand-drawn approach and needed something super grown up.” — Tom Woollam, Brand Designer & Founder, Redefine Studio

“Brand recognition actually helped to direct the design for the new logo. A hugely consistent part of the brand was its lovely neon signage in the window of each coffee shop. The fixed width of the tube brought a real clarity and elegance to the mark which coincidently has probably become the most recognisable part of the brand being situated in every shop window.”

Can’t miss it.

We started by vectorising the new elements using a fixed width stroke, then refined the curvature of each point until the logo felt balanced and worked in small settings. This is key with any rebrand – evolving a brand isn’t just about look and feel, it’s about how it works. Even the smallest details play a huge part when working within a bigger design system.

The points outlining the structure of the newly refined logo.

Logos work big and small. Sometimes REALLY small.

From this point, we needed to understand the overall composition of the logo – or how we align each element to create the big picture. The handle of the coffee cup creates a huge weighted imbalance which requires counterbalancing when applied to touchpoints. Rules such as these have to be included in a comprehensive set of brand guidelines to ensure consistency long-term.

Solid lines dictate which elements to vertically and horizontally centre.

To prove the point of refining the design, your logo needs to flexible enough to be playful and exciting not just a corporate trademark. For 92 Degrees we designed a concise brand handbook called The Roast Profile outlining CEO Jack Brewitt’s vision for the business.

The front cover needed to emulate their vision of uniting everyone, everywhere through their love of coffee. Only through undergoing this rigorous design process were we able to create this new playful graphic execution.

The Roast Profile.

Alongside the logo, typography, colour and imagery were key focuses for creating a powerful and impactful brand identity. Manuka by Klim Type Foundry provided a unique typographic language that reflected their bold vision and approach to business whilst retaining their black and white colour palette built on past recognition but felt in keeping with the new timeless aesthetic.

A unified photography style was curated using three sections: respect and community, inspiring ambition and coffee. Shot by the stellar team at Collective Digital, we had no shortage of high-quality imagery to choose from. Combine each element and the identity begins to take shape.

Team focused messaging. Big, brave and exciting.

→ Key takeaways

Ultimately, rebranding is about understanding where you are now before figuring out where you want to be. If you’re hoping to build on past success and retain existing customers or clients then brand recognition is crucial to maintaining trust and integrity.

On the other hand, if you’re cleaning the slate and starting afresh brand recognition can take a back seat – as long as the new vision is communicated to existing audiences with positivity, respect and honesty.

Regardless of current brand equity without meticulous attention to detail, your new brand might not be as scalable as you think. As a general rule, if your business is more than 3+ years old and has over 10-15 employees analysing the current condition of your brand is the best place to start.

Written by Tom Woollam
Creative Director & Founder