What should a brand refresh change online?

A brand refresh should update online typography, imagery and layouts, while reviewing whether content and navigation express the refreshed identity. The aim is a coherent experience in which visual design, usability and storytelling reflect the organisation's character and direction, rather than simply applying a new logo.

Express the identity through the experience

A refreshed website should connect typography, photography and layout with the brand's character, while keeping the experience clear and usable. For Price Forbes, a balance between heritage and a future-ready outlook shaped both the identity and its digital expression. A serif and sans-serif pairing captured that balance, while the website adopted an editorial feel through bold type, distinctive layouts and photography reflecting the workforce's modern outlook and diversity. For ACT, the website prioritised real people and tangible impact over abstract messaging. Clean layouts and generous white space supported clarity and accessibility; consistent structure and familiar patterns reinforced usability. Review the visual environment as a whole: the refreshed identity should shape how a website looks and reads without making it harder to use.

Sources: Price Forbes: A bold brand for a new era of insurance, ACT: A charity brand for the global stage

Review the structure as well as the surface

An online refresh may need to change how visitors explore the organisation, not just how the interface looks. G42's Intelligence Grid needed to reflect a new brand identity while communicating its ambition to become a responsible AI powerhouse. The update moved from a layered 3D cityscape towards a web-native framework, with an "impact algorithm" connecting technology enablers such as energy, compute and cloud to real-world outcomes. Themes including responsible AI, sustainability and equitable AI anchored the experience in G42's purpose. Planning began with navigation and storytelling, followed by a custom content management system to support the new structure. Use the same sequence when reviewing an established digital experience: decide what visitors need to explore and understand, then assess whether the existing navigation and content structure can support that story.

Sources: G42: Telling the story of intelligence, We’re creating new experiences with AI – but we still need imagination

How The Frameworks helps

Bringing your refreshed brand online

Your website needs to reflect how your organisation has evolved without losing the identity people already recognise. The Frameworks focuses on the relationship between that existing recognition and the direction you now need to communicate. It draws on stakeholder interviews, audience research and archival material to understand which associations still matter, then works with you to translate the refreshed positioning into an online expression that retains your organisation's character.

The Frameworks delivers messaging that connects your established reputation to your current business, a visual identity applied to digital experiences, and website design and development that brings those elements together. Implementation assets support the refreshed identity across your website and other existing touchpoints. You get an online presence that communicates what your organisation has become, remains recognisable to people who know it, and gives colleagues a coherent basis for presenting it as the business continues to evolve.

Let’s talk about bringing your refreshed brand online 

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