Why One-Off Rebrands Set You Up for DIY Design Failure (and What to Do Instead)
Before we jump into the post, if you prefer to listen, I’ve covered this topic in more detail on the latest episode of the Connect + Create podcast! Listen below, or add the show to your favorite podcast app to get notified when I release a new episode!
A lot of online business owners start out with a DIY brand, with the intention of hiring a designer for a rebrand once they reach a certain point — typically when they hit a specific income level. Maybe this is a goal of yours. Maybe you’re getting close to reaching it, and you’re looking for advice on how to proceed.
But here’s something that most people don’t think about: what happens after your designer hands the re-brand over to you? Will you be able to execute on it yourself without help? What happens if you need something new that your designer didn’t provide for you?
If you’ve already been through a rebrand and found yourself struggling to maintain it, you know how quickly things can fall apart. And if you haven’t hit that stage yet, keep reading, because this is your chance to avoid the same pitfalls.
The problem with re-branding as a one-off project in online business.
When I first started Emily Banks Creative almost 9 years ago (at the time of writing), I used to offer standalone rebranding packages. I’d create a new brand identity — logos, fonts, colors, templates — and hand everything over to my clients. The client would love it, and it was so exciting to see them start executing on it. They would send me really great testimonials and feedback, and overall the experience on both sides was really positive.
But after a while, I started checking back in with clients, six months or a year or two years down the line, and noticed something strange. A lot of the brands I had created were falling apart. Some clients were mixing in DIY elements that didn’t match the original brand, and others had reverted to using their old designs. It wasn’t that they didn’t like the new brand — they loved it — but something was off.
Now, some designers would probably take the position that it doesn’t really matter what happens with your project after you’re done with it. The business could go under, they might decide to do something else — you did the job and got paid, right?
But that wasn’t really good enough for me. Seeing this happen for my clients left me with a gut feeling that if my service was only solving a problem for the short term… was it really solving the problem? Why were people feeling the need to go back to what they were doing before when their feedback on the re-brand had been so good? Why were things falling apart?
The two main causes of re-brand failures.
To get to the bottom of this, I spoke to some former clients and did some research in online business communities, and I found that the problem wasn’t really about the design at all. It had more to do with business owners trying to maintain their brand without the tools or knowledge to keep it going.
When most of us think about the concept of design, we don’t really count executing on a professional designer’s work by ourselves, even though it’s basically the same scenario. The base that you’re working with might be a little more polished. But the moment your designer steps out of the picture, you’re back to DIY-ing on the day to day execution.
And there are two main reasons that this tends not to work so well for online businesses:
1. Online business moves too fast
The nature of the internet requires that online business owners keep up with the rapid pace that customers’ problems, needs, and wants are evolving. And as I’ve come to learn, most of the time, the traditional approach to branding as a one off project just cannot keep up with this pace.
In the case of some of my clients, and others I had observed in the wider community, months, or sometimes even weeks down the line from handover, they would have a new idea they wanted to test, or make a decision that would change the way their business was structured. And this would trigger the need for updates, additional designs, or even sub-brands.
But returning to their brand designer — me or otherwise — for every single new change just wasn’t practical. Many designers (myself included) have waitlists. Some don’t have time to take on smaller jobs. And for clients, it can become very expensive, very quickly.
And all of this was inevitably leading to business owners just reverting to doing it all themselves. And this leads directly into the second problem.
2. A rebrand doesn’t make you any better at DIY design
I think a lot of business owners go into a rebranding project with a designer with the expectation that it is going to solve all of their design problems. And unfortunately, I think it’s an unrealistic expectation. Because a rebrand — even one that comes with really great guidelines or instructions, ultimately doesn’t have any real impact on your design knowledge or experience.
Which is what you really need if you’re going to continue to execute on it yourself.
Have you ever downloaded a Canva template that looked perfect at first, but the more you tried to customize it, the worse it looked? You add your own copy, swap in your brand colors, and by the time you're done, it doesn’t quite have the same polished feel it did at the start. This is exactly what was happening for entire brand identities. And this certainly wasn’t unique to some of my clients — I was seeing people discuss this exact issue who had worked with other designers too.
Over time, the frustration builds up from not being able to make the templates look like the designer did or having to modify designs for something they hadn’t planned. And it’s here that the switch back to some of the old DIY assets feels like the easy choice.
Now, there is one exception to all of this…
And I want to highlight this exception, because I know how many people have felt this way before, and I think it’s important that we all understand that online business is not a level playing field.
If you’ve ever looked at what another online business owner is putting out and wondered how they’re seemingly able to be so much better at DIY design than you, there’s usually a reason for it. And that reason is this:
These people almost always have some kind of graphic design background.
And this might not be obvious to you upfront, because many of these people are no longer working in industries or niches that seem connected to design. Maybe they don’t ever talk about it. But if you dig into the background of so many coaches, creators, and service providers, you often find that many of them started in graphic design.
For some of them it was their first business, or they worked a graphic design job while starting their first business. For others, they took college classes, or even just spent a bunch of time messing around in Photoshop as a teenager.
It's this prior background knowledge, experience, and practice that allows them to seemingly do more somehow than what you might feel that you're able to do.
This is why I preach so much about design being an essential skill of entrepreneurship.
It’s not because I’m a designer and I think everybody should be. It’s because I’ve seen the huge advantage it can provide, especially for solopreneurs.
But if that’s not you — if you don’t have that design background — you have two options:
1. Improve Your Design Skills
The first option is to improve your own design skills. By learning some core principles of branding and design, you’ll find that DIY branding becomes a lot less frustrating and time consuming. And down the road, if you choose to work with a designer, you’ll have a better chance of success at executing on the work they provide.
If you want to learn the foundational design skills that will make your DIY branding so much easier, you’ll love my Starter Brand Success Kit. Before I hand you all the templates and resources to build or refresh your brand identity, I take you through a full module on the core design principles mentioned in this post, complete with practical examples and exercises. These lessons will help you understand what goes into successfully executing on a brand identity so that you can do it yourself for your own business.
Want a taste of what the program offers? Grab my Starter Logo Font Guide for free! It’s a step-by-step tutorial on choosing the right font for your logo and designing it in Canva, pulled directly from the logo design module of the Starter Brand Success Kit.
2. Hire design help (the right way)
The second option is to hire design help — but before you make that decision, there are a few key questions you need to ask yourself:
How confident am I in handling design tasks on my own?
If you already struggle with tasks like updating templates or creating social media graphics, a one-off rebrand won’t solve that problem. Are you prepared to handle design work after the rebrand is done?
Do I enjoy working on design?
Be honest—do you find design tasks enjoyable, or are they something you dread? Is it something you even want to be doing one or three or five years down the line?
How often does my business evolve?
If you’re constantly launching new offers or tweaking your services, you’ll need new design elements regularly. Keeping everything consistent on your own can be overwhelming—especially if your business changes frequently.
If you’re not super confident in your own design abilities, don’t really enjoy doing it, and change things up frequently, then you’re likely better suited to an ongoing design partnership rather than a one-time rebrand. That’s where my 1-1 Design Assistance package comes in. I’ll become your part-time designer so you can focus on running your business without the hassle of DIY. Learn more about that here.
Final Thoughts
I hope this post has made you more aware of some of the common pitfalls and challenges that come with moving from DIY branding to hiring design help. Whether you’re just starting to consider it, or have experienced the issues with it firsthand, knowing what to expect (and having realistic expectations) puts you in a better position to make smarter decisions about your brand's future.
Have questions about this post, Starter Brand Success Kit, or any of my services? Shoot me a DM @emilybankscreative on IG — I’d love to chat with you!
And if you enjoyed this post, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast! You’ll get new episodes featuring branding advice just like this delivered right to you in audio format every week. Join now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or search “Connect + Create” on your favorite podcasting app.
See you in the next one!
Emily Banks
