What to know before you hand over the keys to your Brand
In 2009, Tropicana’s iconic orange-with-straw visual was replaced at the recommendation of its brand agency with an abstract juice image. Sales had already dropped 20% by the time the new design was scrapped two months later.
A year later, a New York agency convinced The Gap to abandon its logo after 24 years in favour of a Helvetica rework. A Twitter account protesting the rebrand amassed 5,000+ followers, and the new logo was scrapped within a week.
Last year, Mattel printed packaging for Barbie Dolls tied in with smash musical Wicked. Two cultural phenomena at their apex was a can’t miss, and yet… the URL on the package directed visitors to Wicked Pictures, an adult film company.
Your brand is a reflection not just of your company, but of all the goodwill, savvy, and care you’ve invested in it. Your logo literally represents your public reputation, and it can be a powerful visual cue to how trustworthy your important key publics perceive you to be.
Curio Studio has been designing brands for over 20 years, but we have also been entrusted with the custody of countless existing brands. For the organizations behind those brands, each time they trust a designer or a creative agency to represent them, they are creating an opportunity for that brand to either shine or be tarnished.
The devil is in the details: A brand’s design represents hundreds of conscious decisions to ensure it is presented in the best possible light; this is why each brand we create at Curio includes a brand guide detailing specific recommendations for how the brand is deployed.
This is also why we read and adhere closely to the brand guides of clients with existing brands: We know we are playing not just with the house’s money, but with its reputation as well.
Trust is vital—when researching potential creative partners, be sure to do your research:
- Check their portfolio—is their work good? Is it consistently good? How recently was the portfolio updated? Most important: Check for evidence of repeat business (long-term relationships with repeat clients suggest a history of trustworthiness).
- Check their references and testimonials—creative partners who have been around awhile should have evidence of their reliability. Check their websites for testimonials, but also check out their Google ratings (seriously!)
- Check if their past work has been for institutions where public trust and brand reputation are critical (universities, cultural institutions, government bodies, NGOs)
Good creative partners know that your brand’s reputation is THEIR brand’s reputation—Make sure they’ve carefully cultivated and bulletproofed their own brand before you trust them with yours!
This post was last updated on September 8, 2025 by Matt Steringa