Working with the brand you already have

A fair number of the businesses I talk to arrive expecting a rebrand to be part of the deal. Often it does not need to be, and saying so early saves everyone money.

If it works, we use it

A logo you are happy with, colours your customers recognise, a look your signage and vehicles already carry: that is an asset. Rebuilding your website around it is cheaper and better than starting again, and you keep the recognition you have already paid for.

What I usually need is the original files rather than a screenshot pulled out of an old email, plus whatever guidance exists on how it should be used. If none of that exists, we can work it out from what is already in the wild.

The one time I will push back

If your existing brand is actively working against you, I will say so. Not because it is dated, or because I would have designed it differently. Neither of those is a good enough reason to spend your money.

The test is whether it is costing you customers. A logo nobody can read at the size it usually appears. Colours that make text genuinely hard to read for anyone with less than perfect vision. A name and a look that signal a completely different kind of business than the one you run, so people arrive with the wrong expectation and leave.

Those are business problems wearing a design costume, and no amount of good web design fixes them.

Somewhere in between

Most cases land in the middle: the brand is fine but thin. A logo and nothing else, no defined colours, no typeface, so every document looks slightly different. That does not need a rebrand. It needs the gaps filled in, which is a much smaller job, and it is the point where a website project is a good excuse to do it.

Either way, you should not pay for branding you do not need. I would rather spend the budget on the part of the site that brings in enquiries.