#1 Colour palette

Different colours have long been associated with certain meanings, and can instantly evoke a particular mood. Red is the colour of passion or power, while green brings to mind nature and renewal. Orange can symbolise everything from health to hazard, and purple creates an air of mystery and luxury.

Colour theory dates back hundreds of years, and modern designers still implement it to create an instant impression in their audience. If there are certain traits that you’re looking to embody with your brand, delving into colour theory is a great place to start.

For fun, creative industries, bright, clashing colours can make you stand out and show your unique personality. For something fairly corporate, muted tones might be more suitable — but don’t be afraid to throw in an exciting splash of colour!

Not only does colour help to create an instant impression, it’s also an extremely powerful branding tool. Think about the red and yellow of McDonalds, or the blue and yellow of IKEA. When you see these colours in combination, you instantly recognise the brand behind them, even without a name or logo. The same can be said for individual colours, like Coca-Cola red, Facebook blue or Amazon orange.

Rebranding a brand agency: Creating DWH’s new identity

The new DWH colour palette

For DWH, we wanted to move away from our toned down black-and-white branding, and inject a little colour.

Although we loved the confident, professional feel of our monochrome identity, adding a little playful colour felt like a no-brainer for a creative design agency. We opted for a palette of blues and teals, evoking intelligence and responsibility, while also creating a sense of calm.

Blue is the most popular colour in the world, and is the top choice for businesses. It’s particularly favoured by IT, tech and finance brands, thanks to its association with trust and intelligence. This felt like a great fit, but we wanted our brand to feel a little more fun and creative, which we’ve achieved through our eye-catching teal accent colour.

#2 The offering

A business is a living, breathing entity, constantly evolving and adapting to new challenges.

Coronavirus was an unexpected catalyst, forcing many brands to pivot from one core offering to another. With restaurants offering take-away services and vegetable boxes, and gyms making exercise classes available online, everyone had to make changes to survive.

Now that things are (sort of?) getting back to normal, brands have realised the value in these new offerings, and a lot of these emergency changes are here to stay.

Of course, it’s not just unexpected global pandemics that can cause a change in your brand offering. Your offering is shaped by lots of things, such as:

  • The size of your company
  • The skills of your employees
  • The needs of your target market
  • The area in which you operate
  • The products and services of your competitors

However your business changes, and whatever the reason, it’s important to make sure that your branding aligns with what you offer your customers now.

The new DWH offering

Since we started out five years ago, our services have naturally evolved over time. From bringing in new staff with exciting new skill sets to simply reacting to the shift in what our clients are looking for, we wanted to make sure we were shouting about everything we do.

More recently, the acquisition of Art Director Gemma has allowed us to add video editing, motion graphics and 3D design to our offering, and we wanted to showcase these exciting new additions on our website and social media.

You’ll notice lots more 3D visuals, videos and motion graphics in our branding, most notably on our shiny new homepage. As well as looking pretty damn cool, they help us to show our clients what we’re capable of, giving them the confidence that we can tackle similar projects for their brand.

#3 Name

Changing your business name can seem scary, and it could be a big undertaking. Depending on the age and legacy of your business, a new name could be a minor tweak or a huge shake-up, and it’s important to determine whether the benefits will outweigh the negatives.

However, sometimes a new name is the next necessary step on your journey. Don’t let the thought of filling out lots of paperwork or changing all your social media handles dissuade you from something that could yield huge profits in the long term.

Let’s look at some of the reasons you might consider renaming your brand.

  • A change in your offering
  • A change of target market
  • Creating a more modern appeal
  • Distancing yourself from something

Think WWE being forced to stop calling themselves WWF due to a trademark violation against the World Wildlife Fund or, more recently, Weight Watchers rebranding as WW to signify a more holistic approach to health and wellbeing, instead of focusing on the scales.

If what you’re calling yourself no longer represents who you are and what you do, or it doesn’t resonate with your target audience, it might be time for a change.

The new DWH name

We’re still DWH, but we’ve made a minor tweak to better represent what we do for our clients. You may have noticed this in our new URL — complete with approximately a thousand redirects lovingly programmed by founder and DWH namesake David.

Instead of DWH Design, we’re now DWH Creative. Design is obviously a huge part of what we do, but as a full-service digital agency, creativity is really at the heart of our offering. We felt it was only right to reflect this in the way we refer to ourselves, helping to build trust and show the relevance of our creative design agency.

Your new brand identity

Hopefully we’ve shown you that we know a thing or two about refreshing a brand identity.

If you’re looking to make a change, whether that’s a minor tweak or a complete overhaul of your branding, we’d love to hear from you.