Rebranding Dilemma: Identifying Real Friction Points First

Rebranding Dilemma: Identifying Real Friction Points FirstRebranding Dilemma: Identifying Real Friction Points First

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James Klahn

pro

• 2d

A lot of times, founders come to me saying they need a rebrand to get more users or customers. That makes total sense. But before jumping in, I like to do a quick audit to identify other friction points that might be contributing to the problem.

More often than not, we find something bigger. Sometimes the brand is fine but the messaging is off. The product looks great but is hard to use. Or there's a paywall before the user has even experienced the value.

I'm all for rebrands and building new design systems. But sometimes brand isn't the core issue, and changing it ends up being a waste of time and money.

Curious what you're building? Drop it below or send a DM and I'll share a few honest thoughts on what's working and where there's room to grow.

Brand Design Research Auditing

Daniel G Bright

max

• Mar 12

Nobody's going to frame your brand guidelines on their wall. And that's the point.

Every year there's a new wave of "design trends" adaptive identity, modular components, flexible color palettes. And every year companies spend months making guidelines that look incredible as a Behance case study and then collect dust in a shared drive.

You know what actually works? a system your marketing team can use without calling a designer. Rules that are clear enough that someone on your growth team can build a landing page that still looks like your brand.

The identity work I'm proudest of isn't the stuff that gets the most likes. It's the stuff where a client's ops team is shipping brand-consistent assets six months later without asking me for help.

That's the job. Making it look good AND functional.

Brand Design Brand Strategy

Miguel A Coelho

pro

• Mar 12

I always have mixed feelings when delivering traditional brand guidelines - more now that brands move so fast. I totally agree with the foundational rules that anyone can pick up later and execute, but that can be, for example, a software that has all the rules built in to...