And moving the furniture. And switching around the decor. And maybe even throwing some new paint on the walls after we’d finally tackled years’ worth of small repairs.

It was just a refresh, not a complete redo. Just a few light touches. But the overall effect was powerful. Suddenly our homes felt so much better: more usable, more up-date, a better reflection of who we are.

Your brand is the home your organization lives and grows in. And at some point, many organizations, like many families, outgrow or need to downsize their original brand homes.

Dunkin,’ the former Dunkin Donuts, is a great example of a successful rebrand that accommodated change and growth. In dropping “Donuts” from its name and shifting the focus of its advertising, the new brand formally acknowledged how dramatically its offerings, image, and market have broadened and evolved over the past decade. (And yes, we call it “Dunks” too. We’re very close friends.)

Diving into a full rebrand is what every studio’s dreams are made of, and The Pensery is no exception. Thanks to the close-knit, proven relationships we’ve forged with our strategic and digital partners, we’ve evolved into a fully integrated creative firm, able to take on the business and technical challenges as well as the creative side of launching a new, resonant, market-wise identity.

BUT. If a brand was built soundly in the first place, there are generally a few inflection points when a light touch refresh is the wisest way to go—and we’ll be the first ones to suggest it. Given the rapid-fire nature of the digital space, that point these days is often 3-5 years.

We genuinely enjoy taking on these sorts of projects, both because they give our clients so much bang for the buck, and because they let us show how much added life brands can get from a few thoughtful, deft revisions.

Why are such subtle adjustments so satisfying? Probably because making them is requires us to be both highly disciplined and very resourceful, which are two of the most important qualities in any creative exercise, period. There’s hardly any sphere in which refining just a few things won’t make a big difference, provided you pick the right things and refine them the right way.

Recently we’ve had the opportunity to assist two global organizations and a nationally recognized nonprofit with in-depth but light-touch brand refreshes. In all three cases, our smart and experienced clients had already identified some pain points in their otherwise solid brands. Our job was to suggest design solutions that contemporized the brands and strengthened their identities. Here are just three of the main areas we always address:

Palette

Because color and brand attributes are so strongly linked, refining a brand’s palette is often the first item on the agenda. Colors are trend-sensitive, going in and out of style—right now we’re seeing a trend away from muted tones to more vibrant ones—and there are invariably too many color choices in a brand’s first iteration. Our first order of business is generally to edit the palette, removing colors that detract from the brand presence and adding a few updated accent colors for pop. Occasionally we’ll make recommendations for a contemporized shade of the primary brand color. Like finally finding the perfect jeans (but far less elusive), the shift is positive but subtle: More “this looks so good” than “this looks so different.”

Imagery

Even brands that take great care with their overall presentation can drop the ball when it comes to headshots and editorial photos. With headshots in particular it’s easy enough to see why: the people who are prominent enough to be featured in a portrait are generally both the busiest in the firm, and the least concerned with stylistic consistency (or anything else for that matter that isn’t focused on work). But taking the time to create photographic guidelines, and to structure a system that makes them achievable, lets a brand put its best face forward. Using the brand personality of each organization as our guide, we suggest a style and camera angles that lets everyone shine.

Graphic devices, typography, email signatures and other page elements

Sweating the details is a design firm’s stock in trade, because as we all know the details add up. We carefully document each element in turn: this is the visual currency we have to work with. Then we look at how those separate elements might contribute to a more pleasing whole, with a slight shift in placement, proportion, and hierarchy. These are often not the issues that are top of mind to fix, but like reorganizing a desk drawer or clearing a cluttered countertop, a design looks and feels so much better when they’re done.

Is your brand still feeling strong but starting to show a little age? Ready to talk about how a light touch refresh can buy you some time and give it a few more strong years? We’re here to get you on your way!