Branding in Under 30 Days - Before & After

How I quickly refreshed branding for a business that was acquired and brought in-house by Renovation Brands - Vent Covers Unlimited

12/2/20243 min read

Introduction

Objective: branding a newly acquired brand that was brought in-house in 30 days or less.
A very fast timeline request from the top. However, I have achieved this twice with my strategic method for a quick branding process. And here's one of the brands I did that for - Vent Covers Unlimited. This one I did in 2 weeks.

Step 1: Competitor Analysis: Understanding the Market Landscape

First, you conduct an analysis of competitors' visuals. Identifying brands that are similar, analyzing their branding visuals — logos, color schemes. Reviewing their websites for what colors are most popular and more importantly: overused. This is key to the new brand standing out or even looking different from the other ones. Don't use teal if you see others using a lot of teal. Get good inspiration from other top websites as well.

Creating a Unique Brand Identity

Next, take a look at "your" Instagram. Peruse the tagged posts on the newly acquired brand and see how customers are using the products in their personal spaces. This step can reveal colors and customer preferences that resonate with the audience.

Decide the product styling art direction that the branding will pair with. Is it luxurious, fun, formal? Is it mid century modern, y2k, or outdoorsy?

Create a starter palette that avoids industry heavy colors, align with your audience's preferences, and signals the tone and vision for the brand.

Select a san-serif or serif depending on the brand's tone and formality (ex: friendly, functional, minimal). If the budget is $0 for fonts - surf Google fonts or Adobe fonts.

Web Mockups and Finalizing the Brand Design

Proceed to design a hero web mockups to test drive the branding so you can see if the colors and fonts work well together and how heavy to make the visual palette.

If an owned in-house brand comes with (and refreshing that is the next step). Prepare a starter palette for that in tandem to see if the colors will look complimentary for any cross site callouts.