The brand's position has changed
The business has grown, changed sector or changed audience. A guesthouse that became a boutique hotel is not carried by its old identity.
Decision: redesign
Brand
identity
A logo is not tested on screen. It is tested on a sign and on the side of a carton. If it fails there, the design is not finished.
01WHERE LOGOS COME FROM
Here, many logos are born at the sign shop — and stay there.
A business opens, a sign is needed, the sign maker sets some lettering, and the business runs. Years later, when the brand has grown, the picture is always the same: no vector file, uncertain colour values, a different version in use on every surface.
It looks like a visual problem but it becomes an operational one: the fair stand cannot be printed, no file exists for the export carton, a low-resolution logo goes into the tour operator's brochure.
So we start with an inventory rather than a drawing: where the logo is used today, which files exist, which are missing. For most brands the answer is not a new design but order.
02APPLICATION SURFACES
These are the surfaces that test a logo
Where brands here actually use their mark, and the technical constraint each surface imposes. The design is checked against this list — not every logo that looks good on screen survives it.
APPLICATION INVENTORY · VARIES BY SECTOR
3 SURFACES DEMAND A SINGLE COLOUR VERSION→ SCROLL SIDEWAYS
SURFACE 01SINGLE COLOUR
Signage and channel letters
Has to be read from a distance. Thin strokes vanish and interlocking elements merge in production. The hardest test a logo faces.
SURFACE 02LARGE SCALE
Vehicle graphics
Read while moving, in a couple of seconds. Needs a horizontal lockup; a stacked logo shrinks to nothing on a van side.
SURFACE 03PRINT
Packaging and labels
The first surface an export buyer sees. Print methods limit colour count, so every identity carries a reduced-colour version.
SURFACE 04SINGLE COLOUR
Key cards and tags
In hotels these are engraved or embossed. No colour, only shape — a mark that is not recognisable in silhouette disappears here.
SURFACE 05SMALL SCALE
Menus and business cards
Legibility at small size. Long brand names need a short version, so every identity also carries a simplified mark.
SURFACE 06SINGLE COLOUR
Uniforms and textile
Embroidery works in stitches and will not carry fine detail. In hospitality this is the surface that demands the most simplification.
SURFACE 07LARGE SCALE
Trade fair stands
For exporters, the most visible surface of the year. Needs a version legible from across a hall and files at sufficient resolution.
SURFACE 08DIGITAL
Profile picture and favicon
Inside a very small circle. The brand name will not be readable, so the mark has to stand on its own.
DARK COLUMN · SURFACES THAT MUST WORK WITHOUT COLOUR
NO BRAND USES ALL OF THESE · THE INVENTORY IS BUILT TOGETHER IN THE FIRST CONVERSATION
03THE DECISION
Redesign or repair?
Changing a recognised logo means giving back something you already earned. Four situations justify it:
It fails in production
Illegible on signage, falls apart in embroidery, cannot be printed in one colour. This is a technical problem rather than a matter of taste, and simplification usually solves it.
Decision: repair is usually enough
It disappears in digital
Unreadable as a profile picture, a smudge at small sizes. Since this is where the brand appears most often now, the problem gets more expensive every year.
Decision: add a simplified mark
It is indistinguishable
If it looks like three other businesses in the same district, the mark is describing a category rather than a brand. Most common in tourism and food.
Decision: redesign
If none of the four applies, we do not propose changing the logo. In that case the work is completing the files and writing the usage rules.
Identity ends up on packaging
For export brands the identity is judged on the carton and the label — which is where product photography takes over.
04FREQUENT QUESTIONS
Files, registration and production
We have no vector file of our logo. Is that a problem?
It is the most common situation we meet. If only a small raster file exists, the logo is redrawn — that is not a redesign, it is making the existing mark clean and scalable. Signage, vehicle graphics, packaging and fair stands all require vector artwork, which is why the first thing we ask about is the files you hold.
Do we have to change the logo completely?
No, and often you should not. A recognised logo is an asset; changing it means giving back something already earned. What is usually needed is simplification, corrected proportions, a defined colour system and the missing files. We propose a full redesign only when the brand's position has changed or the mark genuinely fails in production.
What is in an identity package?
Scope follows the surfaces you actually use: a hotel needs key cards and wayfinding, an exporter needs cartons and labels, a restaurant needs menus. Three things are constant across all of them — vector files, a colour system and a usage guide. The quote lists every application included, one by one.
Do you handle trademark registration?
No. Registration is a legal process requiring a trademark attorney. We prepare the files needed for the application and hand them to the attorney you work with. If we see a similarity risk during design we say so, but that is not a substitute for a legal search.
What if the sign maker cannot use the files?
The delivery set includes production files: single colour, cut and engraving versions. If a problem still comes up we correspond with the producer directly. That support is part of handover and is not charged separately.
How long does an identity project take?
The decision process sets the pace, not the design. Where one person decides, work moves quickly; in partnerships the round after the first presentation can stretch. So we ask who approves before we start, and we write the revision rounds into the schedule.
Let us look at the logo you already have.
Tell us your brand and where the logo is used. Within three working days we send back whether it needs redrawing or only tidying, and which files are missing from your set.