I started Allebasi 2 years ago, in 2013 and until recently, I have never rebranded. I designed it while I was still in college and then it was sparkling, awesome and amazing for me. I was happy to thrust my business cards at anyone and everyone who would take it and perhaps that was motivated by the fact that for the first time in my life, I had business cards that I designed myself.
However I knew it was time for a rebrand and I was excited for it. I would rebrand everything from the services I offer to my website and everything in between. For a designer, a rebrand is like renovating your home. The possibilities are endless and you know that when you’re done it would be amazing and. Most of all, a rebrand is a breath of fresh air. Here are five reasons why I rebranded:
I found my niche.
I decided to specialise in brand identity design as opposed to be a multidisciplinary designer. Brand designing is easier to market and it’s where my strengths lie design-wise. While being a graphic designer is awesome and liberating when it comes to design work, it was challenging to market myself as a multidisciplinary designer because there was no clear road to where I was going. It was all a mess. Finding my niche allowed to me to set specific goals and have a clear vision of where I wanted Allebasi Design to go. And since my newfound niche is branding design, people would want to look at my own brand before they’ll want me to work on theirs.
I wasn’t making money.
Because I couldn’t market myself properly, it was hard to find clients and I was barely getting by on the little I was making from side projects. One month I had literally nothing and my mum had to lend me money so I could be able to pay my bills. It was humiliating to say the least because I went from independent to being dependent again and living at home. This saddened me because I spent a lot of money studying graphic design only to move back home and depend on my parents again. To top it off, I was removed from my mother’s medical aid because I’m an adult now and not a student anymore. I couldn’t afford medical aid and being hearing impaired, it is a necessity.
My website didn’t offer anything beneficial.
Last year when I decided to focus full time on Allebasi, I created a portfolio website on Dunked, which I thought was the correct platform for what I wanted to do but it wasn’t. In January this year I moved to Squarespace and I haven’t looked back since. However, my website was getting little to no visits telling people about it and marketing on social media. I saw that my website really didn’t offer people anything other than viewing my portfolio, which was a mixture of everything. It wasn’t clear what I was specialising in and therefore, people did not return or even contact me. I needed to offer something to give people a reason to visit my website, whether they needed my services or not. I knew that I could do that with blogging. Even though I already had a blog, it gave rarely any insight into the workings of Allebasi or what I really do. I decided to turn my website into something that I myself would visit regularly and find something that is helpful and beneficial to my life. I started a design, branding and business blog, hoping to show the inner working of Allebasi and consequently benefit other people. After all, what is a business that doesn’t benefit the lives of its target market?
I changed.
The previous Allebasi branding depicted me and my personality… but back in early 2013. Since then, I have changed a lot. Since then, I went through new experiences and thus grew us a person. My brand needed to depict the new me, the new Allebasi as it is an extension of myself. This doesn’t mean that I’m going to rebrand every time I change as a person. (My new brand still has visual elements of my previous one; it even still uses the same colours.) I rebranded accordingly to suit my new tastes and to also improve on my previous theme. I got the chance to delve deeper and bring certain elements out.
It needed a visual makeover.
You know when your mother tells you your business card is ugly that you need a rebrand! I was so confident in the fact that my cards were beautifully designed and that my logo was quite clever. However, I just simply forgot that the visual brand was designed in 2013 and it is 2015 now, almost 2 years later. It quickly became banal and outdated; Allebasi needed a makeover, and quick! Who doesn’t like makeovers!?
Have you rebranded your brand lately? What were your reasons? The comment section is open, you're welcome to take the floor.