Some of Our Favorite Rebranding Case Studies

A rebrand is a marketing strategy that gives your brand a fresh and new visual identity. A rebrand can help a company narrow in on a newly defined audience or mark a company’s shift in the way they do business.

The creative team at Commit Agency has completed many successful rebrands (see some of our own case studies!) so I wanted to get their take on some of their favorite rebrands.

Tatum: Can you introduce yourself to our readers?

Ryan: My name is Ryan Proctor and I’m a graphic designer on the creative team.

T: Tell me about one of your favorite recent rebrands.

R: Mailchimp has always been the jester of a very cold techy email industry, but they suffered some brand identity issues. With their old brand, Mailchimp used a curvaceous script font to show off their personality and make them stand out from their competition, but the logotype and the Freddy icon (yes, the monkey’s name is Freddy) were never shown together. Whether that was because of clashing styles or fighting for the spotlight, it was always one or the other. The new rebrand solves that issue by simplifying the Freddy icon and pairing it with a humanistic chunky san serif font to tie it all together.

T: Why do you think Mailchimp’s rebrand was successful?

R: One of the key qualities of making Mailchimp unique was its humor and quirkiness and their new rebrand has made that extremely apparent. It is the age of the weirdos, as it’s cool to be strange and the Mailchimp rebrand is a beacon telling everyone to let their freak flag fly.

T: What’s your favorite design element of the rebrand?

R: In a world full of precise minimal design trends, this definitely stands out from the bunch and draws attention from all industries.

T: Any other thoughts?

R: Personally, the rebrand is quite brilliant and was a quite powerful unseen update for a brand we all already loved. Mailchimp has always been a strong brand with an amazing product, but this rebrand puts it leagues above its competition if it wasn’t already. From the unification of the logotype with the symbol to the abstract illustrations, this brand speaks to the unique qualities in each of us.

T: How about Matt? Matt, what’s one of your favorite rebrands? (Matt is also a designer on Commit’s creative team.)

Matt: One simple rebrand that I liked this past year was Dunkin’ Donuts’ rebrand to the name Dunkin’.

T: What did you like about it?

M: At the inception of the brand, donuts were their main focus. Over the years, that focus has shifted to place coffee at center stage and their food offering has expanded far beyond just donuts, creating a disconnect with their long-running brand name. With this changing focal point and perception, Dunkin’ Donuts dropped the “Donuts” from their name and simply became Dunkin’.

T: Why do you think the rebrand was successful?

M: They were able to make this change while maintaining their instant recognizability in the hyper-competitive beverage industry. They also humanized the change with the “Just Call Us Dunkin'” campaign that mimics how people might react to and speak about the rebrand.