When to Bend (or Break) Your Brand Guide

I’ve rebranded a bunch in the last year. Like, “changed-my-logo-four-times” level of “bunch.” But my business has simply changed and evolved so much, that I’ve needed to update and refresh how it looks and what it communicates.

(I can already hear the marketing world scream and writhe in agony: “BUT WHAT ABOUT YOUR BRAND CONSISTENCYYYY?!”)

Yeah yeah yeah, OK. Calm the farm. It’s not that a big of a deal. And here’s why.

Brand Guides???

I develop brand guides for a living. I help people package their logo, narrative, and company values into a neat little PDF that informs all of their business operations — from websites, to merch, to email marketing.

These brand guides hold all the details of why this colour and when, why this typeface and when, why this spacing and when, why this narrative and when… and I recommend to my clients that they stick to these brand guides like glue. That they do not stray from these brand guides ever. That they treat these brand guides like the gospel. That these brand guides are what show them “the way”…

Until, of course, they don’t.

Yes, a brand guide is a guiding document. And yes, a brand guide should stay consistent (if the foundations are not clearly defined, then anything you build on top of that cannot ever feel truly cohesive).

However, needing to bend the rules from time to time is not just a likelihood, it’s a strong suggestion. And possibly a gamechanger.

Brand Guide Bending

(No, not like Avatar.)

Bending your brand guide is when you twist the rules a little. Take an inch here. Jiggle the colour palette there. It’s not a complete throwaway of your designer’s hard work, blood, sweat, and tears; it’s more of a substitution for basil when the recipe says coriander.

For example:

Coca-Cola didn’t put their logo on bottles. Instead, they put names of people in their font. Not part of brand guide, but incredibly effective for this campaign.

Read more about the ‘Share a Coke’ campaign.

Or Nike, who basically relied solely on their values typeface to convey the Nike brand. Again, no logo, no identifying features. But the campaign worked really well.

Read more about the Nike ‘Equality’ campaign.

I think it can be a little scary to do, which is why a lot of people don’t do it. The screams of marketers earlier aren’t founded in complete insanity: Brand consistency is really important. People need to be able to recognise your brand, whether it’s on social media, a poster, an email, a radio advert… that’s why brand guides exist.

The thing I’m advocating against here is not brand guides; rather, I’m advocating against sticking to brand guides so rigidly that you never ever adapt.

A tool is only useful until you need another tool.

Adhering to brand guides for the sake of a brand guide is — I’m sorry to be blunt — dumb. Not only do you make it harder for yourself to be adaptable, but you also stop paying attention to your surroundings. It becomes a routine; or even worse, it becomes a routine without knowing why you’re doing the routine.

Brand Guide Breaking

This is a little more extreme.

Breaking your brand guide involves moving completely away from it. Now we’re talking about cooking a curry instead of a preparing salad (to extend my previous gastronomy metaphor).

This is something you’d do a lot less often, and would probably be a turning point in your brand as a whole. And by that I mean, you’d probably end up using the “break” as a new direction, and evolve the brand guide from there. Closer to what I’ve done with my brand refreshes/revamps/whatever you want to call it.

For example:

Uber and Yahoo! have made pretty radical branding changes over the years. It didn’t necessarily start with one break and then evolve from there, merely because they’re huge companies that needed a clear and strategic launch. But for entrepreneurs, you don’t need to be so intense about it.

Read more about the evolution of the Uber logo.

Read more about the history of the Yahoo! logo.

When to Bend — and When to Break

#1 When to Bend

It’s obviously hard to give concrete examples of where this is useful (since every brand will experience something unique), but there some underlying principles you can follow:

• When your brand guide restricts you from doing something really cool and really innovative.

• When you’re explicitly wanting something to stand out (say, for example, launching a service that isn’t normally something you’d offer).

• When the thing you’re doing is a once-off event, not something repeatable.

• When you’re collaborating with another brand that doesn’t quite mesh with yours that well.

• When you’re working with a new medium/format that you hadn’t before (for example, Canva while you’ve always used Google Slides, or Instagram when you’ve always used TikTok).

These are all principles in which bending the brand guide a little really doesn’t hurt provided you’re doing it with intention. It can be risky to bend, but it can also help you add some dynamism and novelty that keeps your audience interested.

#2 When to Break

Breaking involves diverging quite radically. I’m talking a shift in the fundamental features of your brand. This requires more forethought than a temporary bend, but also opens up way more doors for you and your brand.

A few underlying principles here include:

• When your brand no longer reflects what you do/no longer ‘feels’ like you.

• Wyou need to mark a significant change in your products and/or services.

• When you want to switch target customers.

• When you have outgrown the brand (in so far as: you work differently, your vibe and energy have changed, the customers you engage with directly see you differently).

• When your industry is evolving and you need to push forward to stay ahead of competitors or aesthetic trends.

• When new opportunities present themselves to your brand (for example, Instagram launches Reels).

Again, not to be done without intention. But then this is really where you take a good look at your brand and how to evolve it.

What to Consider When Breaking the Rules

OK, you’ve decided to bend or break your brandguide. What are the consequences you need to keep in mind?

OK, you’ve decided to bend or break your brand guide. What are the consequences you need to keep in mind?

1. Firstly, your customers will notice. And you need to be sure they are noticing the right things. You achieve this by being clever in how you communicate whatever you’re bending or breaking. If it’s a quirky once-off bend, then make it fun. If it’s a clean break, then make mention of what’s new, or what’s changing, or why you’ve done a 180. Keep your customers informed, and they’ll join your for the ride.

2. Your competitors might notice. If they do, consider what could happen: Will they steal the idea? Will they leverage it to win over your clients? This really depends how competitive your industry is, but it’s important to think about how competitors might respond, and what you can do now already to counter that. Perhaps it’s as easy as adding a catchphrase to your graphic that says “And if you’re a competitor of mine, I’m sure you wish you thought of this first!”

3. Will you do it again? This might be overkill depending on how much you’re bending and breaking, but it’s useful to think about whether this bend/break might be necessary again. If so, is it a good time to think about a brand refresh? (By the way, not-so-subtle-plug, I offer a once-off call to work through this, teehee.) This might be a good time to start planning how you could double down on this, if it’s something that’s bringing you value and that you feel you need to do more often. Brands grow, and sometimes they outgrow their brand guide like a pair of shoes. That’s fine, and it’s part of having a brand!

Finally, Here’s How I did my Brand Guide Breaks

I thought it might also help for me to lay out how I went about breaking my brand guide and doing the refresh.

• I teased it: I started by randomly sharing some snippets of my new brand to Instagram and LinkedIn, and sharing it with friends. This was simply a way to test the waters, and see what the reaction was (in case you’re wondering, it was really good!).

• I registered a domain: Not relevant for all, but this somehow just makes thigs feel legit. And I needed the ego-boost. Yay me.

• I started with the high-impact parts of my business: I didn’t want to do an end-to-end overhaul before launching, so I focussed on my logo, my website, and my email signature. These are the things I use the most, and the rest I can revamp along the way. Prioritise what’s high value, and start there. Then, do the rest on the go, when you need to. This helps with moving faster.

• I sent an email to all my past and current clients: This was the hardest part, purely because of how long it took. I combed through all emails and collected the addresses of all past clients to date. I created a beautiful email template with my new brand, let them know I had changed email addresses, and gave them a heads-up that my business wasn’t changing other than how it looked. This last part was important, because I didn’t want them thinking I don’t do what I did before; I was simply giving it a new wardrobe.

• I wrote this post: Again, not relevant for everyone, but this post was my way of signalling the thought that went into my brand refresh/brand “break.” Bonus is that it’s free marketing. We love free marketing. (I also linked this in the email I sent to clients, so that I could keep the email brief and they could read more should they be interested.)

• I made the launch fun: Finally, I put together a really cool social media campaign with animation and new images, so that people could share in my excitement. I didn’t worry too much about being professional or precise; instead I focussed on hyping up the energy. I don’t expect to get new clients from the launch. I really only want people to see it and think “huh, this looks fun, I’ll keep an eye on them.”

Final Thoughts

At the very least, I hope this gave you some permission to have fun with your brand. It’s not always as serious and formulaic as it seems.

But other than that, I hope this helped you find some practical ways to improve how you bend and/or break your brand guide. In addition to being fun, it should be useful. And it should help you grow your brand and reach more people.

How are you planning to bend or break your brand guide rules?