Brand Strategy
Why most rebrands fail before design ever starts
6 min read
Most rebrand post-mortems focus on the wrong artifact. Leadership disliked the new logo, the color felt off, the type didn't 'feel like us' — so the conversation becomes about taste.
But by the time a logo is on the table, the outcome is usually already decided. The real failure point sits earlier: an unresolved disagreement about positioning that design was asked to paper over.
A brand system can't do the work of a decision the business hasn't made yet. If leadership hasn't agreed on who the brand is for and what it's actually for, no amount of typographic craft will make the identity feel resolved — it will just make the disagreement look expensive.