The Cult of Rebranding: When the Logo Grows Up, But the Company Doesn’t
Ah, the rebrand. That fluttery moment when a company announces its new look, often launched with all the gravitas of a moon landing. Press releases full of big words—'evolution', 'authenticity', maybe a cheeky 'bold'. And there it is: the new logo. A little flatter, a little rounder, sometimes terrifyingly pastel.
Here’s the thing. I love a good rebrand. I do. But lately, they're starting to feel like the equivalent of buying activewear and not going for a run. Design gets shinier, pretensions go up, yet underneath it all... same clunky UX, same confused customer journey, same strange email tone where no one seems to have met a human.
Let’s talk about Xero’s latest brand refresh. Beautiful rollout, elegant motion design, modular grid system—the whole toolkit. But between the glow-up and the glossy animations, one thing stuck with me: why rebrand in 2025 if your app experience still sends me into a menu labyrinth worthy of an escape room? Branding isn’t a PowerPoint, it’s a handshake. If the brand feels smarter than the product, there’s a disconnect. Nice sneakers, but your knees still click.
The solution? Less adrenaline over design systems, more love for the unsexy bits. Rebrand the forgotten things—onboarding flows, call centre scripts, even that cringey FAQ copy from 2011. Make the bones match the skin. Otherwise, it’s just a new outfit on an old habit. And no one wants to date the guy in activewear who never actually runs.
Here’s the thing. I love a good rebrand. I do. But lately, they're starting to feel like the equivalent of buying activewear and not going for a run. Design gets shinier, pretensions go up, yet underneath it all... same clunky UX, same confused customer journey, same strange email tone where no one seems to have met a human.
Let’s talk about Xero’s latest brand refresh. Beautiful rollout, elegant motion design, modular grid system—the whole toolkit. But between the glow-up and the glossy animations, one thing stuck with me: why rebrand in 2025 if your app experience still sends me into a menu labyrinth worthy of an escape room? Branding isn’t a PowerPoint, it’s a handshake. If the brand feels smarter than the product, there’s a disconnect. Nice sneakers, but your knees still click.
The solution? Less adrenaline over design systems, more love for the unsexy bits. Rebrand the forgotten things—onboarding flows, call centre scripts, even that cringey FAQ copy from 2011. Make the bones match the skin. Otherwise, it’s just a new outfit on an old habit. And no one wants to date the guy in activewear who never actually runs.