Logo redesign tips—10 brands that have successfully reinvented their logo

Has your logo lost touch with your brand? Whether switching up your company colors for the summer season or reinventing your brand’s tone of voice or personality, a tired and outdated logo design could be holding you back. So, what is a logo’s role in a successful rebrand? 

Well, 42% of consumers say that a logo helps convey a brand’s personality. So, if you’re on a mission to refresh your business direction and appeal to an ever-evolving target market, reinventing your logo is the first step in transforming your brand’s entire personality. 

Are you looking to switch up those playful colors for a more serious stature? Or is it time to get creative with your graphic design to jump out at tech-savvy Gen Z?  

If you want to reinvent your brand’s look but aren’t sure where to start, don’t fear—we have you covered! Let’s explore the ins and outs of logo rebranding and share some success stories from top brands that have successfully reinvented their logo. 

Regularly switching up your logo design can do wonders for your company branding. From WCW’s logo redesign to Rotherham’s logo redesign, reinventing your logo helps your brand feel fresh and relevant for your audience. 

Your logo is the face of your business. At the heart of your branding strategy, your logo should reflect your brand’s personality and, more importantly, your growth within the industry. 

“Even if you had a logo you loved when your company was formed, you might find that it grows stale over time or is no longer as relevant or appealing as you once thought. Not to mention, an outdated logo is usually easy to spot, even for average consumers who don’t know the first thing about design,” says Gabriel Shaoolian, former CEO of Blue Fountain Media.

Whether you switch up your color scheme or completely reinvent your logo design, this change marks the expansion of your brand and the entry of a new era. 

Luckily, logo rebranding has never been easier. With the ability to makeover your entire brand using AI, exciting ready-made templates, and step-by-step logo builders, there’s no excuse for tired branding in 2024.

Logo redesign should be an exciting creative first step, not an afterthought—especially if you want to avoid dated branding that doesn’t match your current personality. 

While logo reinvention can be an exciting journey, it has profound benefits for brand image and reputation within the industry.

Here are just a few advantages of leveling up your logo design in 2024:

Your logo design can ultimately make or break your company’s success, so keeping your branding fresh and on topic for your target consumers is essential.

So, could it be time to revisit your logo design? If you need more inspiration, let’s explore 10 brilliant examples of brands that have successfully reinvented their logos.

First, let’s talk about Coca-Cola. A company known for its countless logo redesigns, Coca-Cola proves that logo reinvention can certainly contribute to brand success.

Since its release in 1886, Coca-Cola has had 12 different logos. As the company has grown, we’ve also seen its logos evolve alongside.

In recent years, we’ve watched swirly typography transform, and their traditional shade of red deepen. But, what we love most about Coca-Cola’s clever approach to logo design is its ability to remain instantly recognizable at first glance.

In fact, according to one of the brand’s senior executives, the repetition of key recognizable elements in each logo rebrand has been their ticket to maintaining their reputation as one of the most well-known brands in the world.

“If Coca-Cola lost all of its production-related assets in a disaster, the company would survive. By contrast, if all consumers were to have a sudden lapse of memory and forget everything related to Coca-Cola, the company would go out of business.”  said a senior Coca-Cola executive.

Today, Coca-Cola has opted for a sleek redesign of its classic logo. Using the same font on a smaller scale creates more negative space, taking a minimalist approach to product branding. This remains in line with clean-cut design trends while paying an obvious homage to logos of Coca-Cola’s past.

Facebook is another brand committed to multiple logo redesigns while retaining its recognizable features.

Opting for a flatter version of the classic beveled blue background and swapping the classic square for a stylish circle outline, their logo refresh is so minimalistic you may not have even noticed.

This is a great demonstration of a brand changing its logo in line with app icon design trends. Consumers today prefer block colors, bold contrasts, and simplistic layouts for the ultimate ‘aesthetic’ app screen design.

Facebook has done this by swapping gradients for a block-colored version of its famous shade of blue and anchoring its ‘F’ to the bottom of the background to create one whole element rather than a design of different layers.

Next up, we have Toys ‘R Us. For its 69th Birthday, the classic toy brand revived its look within the American market, recreating its traditional logo to induce nostalgia for its loyal customers.

The brand’s trademark has always been its backward R encapsulated in a bright blue star, so it’s no surprise that designers took that idea and once again positioned it at the center of the updated logo design.

The modern-day Toys ‘R Us logo features a flipped R and a simplified color palette for a more cohesive look. 

We love that this brand proved that small changes can make a significant difference in a logo reinvention. The new logo looks fresh and on-trend while remaining true to the Toys ‘R Us branding that fans know and appreciate. 

Dunkin’ Donuts used its logo redesign to condense its original brand name and reshape its branding around the term “Dunkin.” This is an excellent example of how powerful a logo reinvention can be for reviving a brand. 

So why did they make the switch? The brand’s famous tagline, “America runs on Dunkin,” inspired their new nickname and encouraged designers to place the moniker at the center of the brand redesign.

The new logo still incorporates classic brand colors and traditional font while looking sleek, fresh, and minimalistic.

Opting for a text-only logo allows for a more professional look, which aligns with the company’s growth narrative as it continues to expand globally.

Google has one of the most recognizable logos on the planet—9 in 10 customers can identify Google’s logo from its color palette alone.

Therefore, it’s no surprise that the color palette has mainly remained the same since its release in 1997. However, in 2015, Google released its first major logo redesign campaign. 

Dropping the shading, thin lettering, and each letter’s natural shine, the brand opted for a sleeker, bolder alternative that again focused on flatter wording and vibrant colors.

Like Facebook, Google’s minimal tweaks brought its logo into a new era of minimalistic graphic design while remaining recognizable worldwide to anyone who interacted with it. 

However, today, Google takes its logo reinvention one step further. As one of the only brands that switches up its logo design for each independent holiday or celebration, we have seen countless versions of the Google logo. Whether covered in flowers or an animated version of its iconic letters, this brand knows how to get creative with its logo reinvention. 

Next up, we have Burberry. This high-fashion house has had the same elegant logo for over 20 years. However, to stay on trend with fresher, modern fashion houses, they recently switched up their logo design using the power of font editing.

As you can see, the new font is bold, capitalized, and simplified for a clean finish. This is an excellent example of just how powerful your use of font can be when designing or redesigning a logo.

Here, bold black lettering on a minimalistic white background tells us that Burberry is sleek, sophisticated, and means business when it comes to fashion. 

The takeaway? Think about what kind of message you want to send your audience and present it using an elegant, bold, or playful font.

IHOP is an excellent example of how a lousy logo reinvention can harm your branding if you’re not careful.

Switching their classic IHOP logo for IHOB may have looked clever, but social media quickly tore it apart. In an attempt to showcase that they also sold burgers and pancakes, IHOP’s edition of the ‘B’ was immediately shot down by brand lovers.

As you can see below, the brand reverted to its old logo with a twist on the classic design just a few days later. From brighter colors to a fun flip of the classic red arch to create a face, the new logo was a hit and has remained there since.

While their first logo reinvention wasn’t a hit, it was certainly not a disaster. Instead, the brand got people speaking about them on platforms like Twitter and Facebook, and more customers came through the store doors. Because, at the end of the day, all publicity is good publicity. 

Qantas Airlines opted for one simple change in its logo redesign—can you spot it? By transforming their classic triangle element into a shape resembling an Airplane’s tail, they created a logo that better defined their services and brand.

This is the perfect recipe for a successful redesign: maintain all the elements that make you a recognizable brand and enhance what’s working. 

John Lewis used its logo redesign as an opportunity to convey changes within its business and represent its newest partners, who now hold a stake in the brand’s success. 

Better still, one of the benefits of adopting a monochrome color palette as a brand is the ability to completely invert your logo background and text color while remaining recognizable to consumers.

Last but not least, let’s talk about Starbucks—a master of logo design. As a huge multinational company, changing such an iconic logo can be risky. However, on its 40th anniversary, Starbucks released a sleek, simple, and more responsive logo design for its smartphone-native audience.

They removed unnecessary elements that made the logo look busy and cut the famous black center, replacing it with a block green color. As you can see, Starbucks also removed its classic typography, letting its recognizable mermaid icon take center stage. 

When a brand as famous as Starbucks simplifies its logo to one specific element, it works— customers instantly associate certain colors and icons with the brand, meaning that excess typography and busy colors are no longer needed. 

As you embrace new audiences, release new products, and evolve with your industry, it could be time to celebrate your development with a new logo.

For a successful logo reinvention, consider what you want to say with your branding. Do you want to tap into nostalgia as you celebrate a company milestone or completely wipe the slate clean with a fresh color palette and rejuvenated design? 

Every brand has what it takes to create a logo that could one day be plastered all across the globe. As we’ve seen with the examples above, balancing reinvention with recognizability is the key to producing an iconic logo redesign. Happy designing!