"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh..."
No, that's not a scream of horror. That's the sigh of relief when you finally finish your new branding guidelines for your rebrand project.
You've been working with a local marketing agency for what seems like forever and they finally sent you over that 60 page PDF that has all of your new branding guidelines nicely laid out and now you're ready to give your business a much needed facelift.
Well guess what? They forgot something! "Ahhhhhhhhh...!" (now that's a scream of horror).
I know, I know! How did they forget something. You invested all of this time and money and everything looks great. You have this custom fancy font to really make your brand stand out and the colors are the perfect blend of soothing and vibrant energetic tones (probably not possible, but let's keep going...). But wait! all of these colors, font types and font widths will transfer easily over to the new signage you're going to have to create for your building, right?
We're here today to tell you that the answer is no, probably not...sorry. For one reason or another, more often than not, one question is left unasked during the rebranding process. "How is this going to affect our signage?".
But don't worry, it's not your fault. There is a ton of content out there that goes over the process of rebranding. Each one so similar to the last and titled like "Top 10 Things to Consider When Rebranding!". There are slight variations based on who wrote the piece, but one constant is that they forget to include the importance of signage. And yea, maybe we're a little biased given we're a signage company but let me ask you this...do you have a sign? Then an action plan for your signage should absolutely be considered as part of your rebrand. After all, outside of some business cards or a letterhead, your signage will be one of the only tangible elements of your rebrand.
Before we dive too deep into tips for rebranding as it relates to your signage, we will do a brief recap of what your rebrand project may already include. According to an article on Entrepreneur.com, The Ultimate Rebranding Checklist for Entrepreneurs, here are a few key elements that you should already be taking into consideration when it comes to your rebranding initiative.
- Notify important business stakeholders of your overall plan & strategy.
- If applicable, identify your new business name.
- If your business name has changed then make sure it's available, optimized and updated in the digital space.
- Design a new logo.
- Update website and marketing materials with new logo and branding guidelines.
While we definitely agree with these fundamental elements at a high level, we do feel it's important to expand on how these guidelines will translate into your signage.
Here are a few reasons why your signage should not be forgotten during your rebrand:
New logo likely means new colors and fonts.
Source: Starbucks
Often times, one of the primary reasons for a rebrand is to update and refresh the look and feel of the brand. With this update comes adjustments to the colors and fonts used within the logo. Of course everyone realizes that if they are changing the colors and fonts then they are also going to need to update their building signage. But, what you may not realize is that those fonts and colors might not translate well into your signage.
For starters, we all want those really unique colors for our brand so that we can stand out among our competition. The issue here is that custom colors can lead to custom vinyl for your signage. This can get very expensive and requires you to buy in bulk rolls from a manufacturer. Typically, if your sign is going to use colored vinyl then you are going to be limited to a select group of standard colors. That doesn't mean you have to use those colors for your complete rebrand, but just be aware that they should at least compliment your brand and that your signage will look a little different than the logo on your website or business card. Often times this catches business owners off guard as the agency they went through for their rebranding didn't make any mention of that restriction.
Another element of the logo that can result in a signage obstacle is the font that is used. Some fonts, well at least the "fancy" ones, can be very thin or have a lot of custom little characteristics that make them really stand out on a piece of paper. However, when you expand it for your signage and want it legible from afar, those thin and custom components make it extremely hard to read due to the fact the font weight must be expanded. This results in the font looking completely different than it does in your branding guidelines. If you do go with a custom font and also need some large scale building signage then just be aware that the font will likely have to be altered in order to make it look clean and legible.
New branding guidelines might mean a change in sign type.
Depending on the severity of the rebrand, it could result in a complete change of your image and how you want to present your brand through your signage. This could mean that you once just had standard illuminated channel letters on the wall outside of your business but now you want something a little more modern. Perhaps channel letters illuminated with halo lights with a rustic backsplash of reclaimed wood, like how HubSpot has done it here:
Source: HubSpot
Getting creative with the lights and background allow you to get creative and potentially overcome the color obstacle that we referred to earlier. There are a lot of possibilities out there, it's just best to have a game plan and take everything into consideration while you are doing the rebrand rather than having to backtrack after everything is already set in stone from a branding standpoint. It's a lot more fun brainstorming at the beginning and coming up with creative ideas that encompass all of the ways you present your brand rather than having to be forced into doing something you may not like later on because it's too late to change the foundation elements of your new image.
Do your new colors work with the color of your building?
This one may not be as common given the fact businesses usually don't stray too far from their original color palette, but even a slight change can make it so it clashes with the color of your building. Will the building need to be repainted or will there need to be some sort of backdrop inserted due to the color change? These questions need to be asked during the rebranding process and not afterwards so that you are able to plan accordingly. Otherwise, you can easily start incurring additional costs that you were not prepared to dish out.
Now do you have to go back to your agency to work with you on your signage branding adjustments?
That's one option...or if your signage company has a design team capable of consulting you on the best practices of transforming a complex logo or color palette into a clean sign (cough...like ours...cough...) then it might be best to just work with your signage company at this point. Would it have been best to get it all taken care of during the preliminary rebrand? Yes, but you're not out of luck. This is a situation we run into quite a bit and are always happy to help.
So the key takeaway here is that when your sign company says that your new logo and color palette might not translate into a quality sign, it's not the sign company's fault! It's the agency's that you worked with on the rebrand! Just kidding...kind of...not really. But, moving forward we can all work together to make sure no sign is left behind!
