When should you refresh your logo and when should you leave it well alone?
Instagram just gave its wordmark (logo to everyone else!) a bit of a shake-up. The reason? It hadn’t changed in the last decade.
Timothy Taylor’s, the 168-year-old British beer brand, has also just refreshed their logo. Gone is the iconic picture of a salt of the earth northerner on Landlord, their flagship beer. Instead, there’s an image of a bearded hipster (yep, you read that right) to target a new generation of drinkers, namely Gen Z.
Two very different brands. Two very different reasons for the change. The same inevitable ‘what were they thinking’ backlash.
But both these refreshes raise an interesting question. Where they right to ‘embrace the future’ as Instagram’s director of product design so diplomatically put it, or have they just thrown away the thing that made people love them in the first place?
Let’s take a look at why brands refresh their logos and why it’s not always such a good idea.
Reasons why brands refresh their logos
Nobody wakes up and redesigns a logo for fun. It’s inevitably a costly exercise that takes an inordinate amount of time and money to get right, so normally there’s a catalyst that prompts the move.
The brand has genuinely changed
When Nokia updated its logo back in 2023 for the first time in 60 years, they moved from classical typography to something which was more abstract to reflect their repositioning from a mobile phone company to a B2B innovation and technology brand. And Johnson & Johnson updated their logo in the same year for pretty much the same reason.
Known as a provider of consumer baby products, the move away from a logo with a cursive script to a clean, more modern look signalled their shift towards high-tech healthcare innovations and pharmaceuticals. Although, we remain unconvinced their new logo “delivers a sense of unexpectedness and humanity”, but hey, what do we know?!
Both these brands recognised their change in focus needed to be communicated effectively to their customers, investors and competitors, and what better way to show a business has evolved than through a new logo.
The category has changed direction
Netflix is so ubiquitous, it’s hard to believe it started as a DVD-by-mail service or that it was originally called Kibble! But as the category evolved, and streaming became mainstream, so did Netflix’s logo morphing from a nod to a spinning DVD to a sleek, modern design to reflect its shift to digital-first streaming.
It’s understandable then that Timothy Taylor’s saw the changes in their own category and thought a refresh was necessary. With cask beer sales falling by 7.1% in 2025, and 25% of Gen Zs regularly ordering cask beer because of its lower price and sense of local connection, their reasoning was sound. And their decision would have been backed up in part by Boddingtons, the ‘Cream of Manchester’, also jumping on the Gen Z bandwagon and returning to cask after a 13-year hiatus.
The logo looks dated
Just like everything else, design trends change over time, so what might have looked cutting-edge then, can look decidedly old-fashioned now. Look at Battersea.
Their original logo was classy, but it was also somewhat dated. Their logo refresh made their name more prominent and features watercolour splotches of a dog and cat’s head. In fact, they are 18 of them to reflect the fact each animal is unique.
The old logo doesn’t work anymore, practically
With people increasingly using smaller screens, logos that were designed for print and not apps, no longer cut it. It’s one of the reasons why brands have moved away from 3D shapes with heavy shadows to 2D flat designs. Not only do they load faster, they also scale better remaining clear even at very small sizes.
Why refreshing your logo is riskier than it looks
You’ll notice that missing from the above list is reasons such as “our CEO is bored of it,” “a new marketing director wanted to make their mark,” or “everyone else is doing it”. That’s because refreshing a logo is a big undertaking. And what many brands forget is a logo isn’t just a graphic. It’s a memory hook.
While people don’t consciously study your logo (which is why so many of us didn’t know Lyle’s Golden Syrup featured a dead lion!), they do recognise it instantly, simply because they have seen it so many times over the years. And with the recognition comes an emotional attachment, which should never be underestimated.
Remember, if you mess with your logo, you’re not just making a design decision, you’re making a recognition decision and that’s riskier than it looks.
You lose brand recognition you can’t easily rebuild
Instagram were savvy. Yes, they changed their logo, but they kept the camera icon people see on their home screen the same. This meant that while they did face a ‘we don’t like it’ backlash, by and large it was a low-risk strategy that didn’t do them any real harm.
Tropicana weren’t as clever. When they replaced their iconic orange-with-a-straw graphic with a minimalist glass of orange juice, sales plummeted by 20% as shoppers couldn’t spot the product on crowded supermarket shelves! They reverted to their original design 45 days later.
“Modern” ages badly
Chasing a current trend means you’ll need to refresh your logo again in five years, not fifteen. Timeless design is harder, but it’s cheaper in the long run.
You alienate the people who already love you
Branding doesn’t just build recognition it also builds an emotional attachment, so by changing things you’re immediately breaking that bond with your current customer base.
Why do you think Gap holds the dubious title of ‘fastest rebranding u-turn’? In an attempt to attract a younger audience, they dropped their iconic 20-year-old blue box without warning, immediately alienating their current customer base. And, in the process forgot one key detail – if you’re new audience weren’t loyal to your old branding, why would they be loyal to the new?
Heritage is a genuine asset
Abandoning recognised symbols and names disorients buyers while also destroying brand equity. We’re looking at you Royal Mail!
Remember, every visual cue that signals your brand is old and trusted is doing marketing work for free. When Everton decided to modernise their badge in 2013, ditching the club’s motto and the crest’s Roman-style wreaths, within hours there was a petition launched to scrap it. The fans won.
Remember, if you strip too much of your heritage away, you’re throwing away what is probably your best differentiator.
Internal logic doesn’t always survive contact with the public
And this is probably the most important point. While design rationale will always make sense in the boardroom, it’s increasingly social media that decides whether it actually works!
Instagram and Timothy Taylor: fair or foolish?
Instagram in 2026 is not Instagram in 2016. It’s moved from a simple square-photo sharing app into something that has become a video-first, dare we say it, AI-driven platform with a focus on entertainment and shopping. Given its old identity was built around being a photo-sharing app, you can understand why there was a call to refresh the logo. And let’s face it, their refresh was about as safe as it gets. Yes, the wordmark changed, but still explicitly referenced the original, and they were astute enough to leave the icon untouched. The refresh still got roasted for the “r” looking like a “z’”, but you’re never going to please everyone. So, to give them their due, we think this refresh was fair.
Timothy Taylor’s
This is the more interesting case. It’s goal was to stay true to its 168 years of heritage, while looking relevant enough to pull in drinkers who’ve never had a pint of Landlord. However, the way they pitched the refresh is telling.
“That’s why this refresh isn’t about changing how we brew. The recipes, ingredients and brewing philosophy that have served us for generations remain exactly the same.”
When a brand goes out of its way to say don’t worry, nothing’s really changed, it knows heritage is exactly what’s at risk in the eyes of its audience.
Keeping Landlord’s traditional yellow and cream was a savvy move, as was giving their other lines their own identity. But adding a hipster to their logo? That smacks of trying a bit too hard to attract a different audience, which unfortunately, can only ever be at the expense of the existing. Yes, they were right to recognise the changes in their category, but it might have been foolish of them to mess with the heritage of their logo. Whether it works or not, only time will tell.
So, what should you consider before you change your logo?
- What’s actually broken?
There should be a functional or strategic problem behind changing your logo. “Our new marketing director wants to make their mark” should never be the reason. - What’s the one element people would notice if it was missing?
Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater! If you really do need to change your logo, then work out what people love about your existing one. It could be as simple as not removing the sparkle from Mr Pringle’s eyes! Whatever it is, make sure you do your research before you commit. - Are you solving a real business problem?
To give Timothy Taylor’s their due, they’ve recognised the market is changing and have decided to act on it. That’s a real problem. “The CEO thinks it looks dated” is not. - Can you explain the change to a sceptical customer in one sentence without sounding defensive?
If the explanation needs three paragraphs of reassurance, that’s a red flag and not a good sign! - Talk to the experts
As we’ve already said, refreshing your logo is not a decision to take lightly so if you are thinking about it, give us a call. We’ll be able to give you guidance on what you should be considering and whether a logo refresh would actually benefit your brand.