Change is inevitable, especially in the world of digital marketing. As Berry Interesting (BIPi) stared down our 17th birthday, there was no doubt that we have been long overdue for a brand refresh. In this post, we’re taking you through our rebranding process and revealing our new logo, which will be rolled out across all our digital properties over the next few weeks.
We’re excited to present our fresh new look and hope it captures the essence of what BIPi represents – a helpful, enthusiastic, partner that takes your brand just as seriously as our own! So, without further ado, let’s dive into our brand refresh journey.
Did You Know?
The world of logos is more complex than you might think! It’s not just about creating a fancy symbol or writing a company’s name in a snazzy font. It’s an intricate art of subtly communicating a brand’s identity. Check out this insightful article. Trust us, it’s a riveting read. You’ll start noticing the nuances in logos everywhere, and perhaps even start critiquing them like a pro!
Our tried-and-true logo
Our old logo served us well for a decade. It was cute, simple, and recognizable, but as we grew, we found ourselves restricted by the old logo and the lack of flexibility it offered. We wanted a more versatile, modern, and scalable logo that could represent our brand effectively across different mediums and more accurately communicate both what we do and how we do it. (We also wanted to avoid any appearance of looking like the Apple logo – they’re incredibly defensive of their brand – as they should be – and a 2021 lawsuit was definitely a motivating factor for us).
Enter Sara Neal. Sara’s been assisting us with client graphic design needs for about a year now (she was integral in helping us to rebuild the new radsource.us site and in creating the award-winning design for Novo Fitness Studio’s new site), and our working relationship with her is really a dream. Sara took us under her wing and through a full brand refresh. She began by analyzing our current brand identity, researching our industry, and (ever so patiently) listening to us describe our personality and how we want our clients to see us. We shared with her our future goals and aspirations for the brand and worked closely with her to develop a new brand identity that went way beyond just colors, fonts, and shapes.
A look back at our old brand
Building a new logo
The first phase of the refresh was to update the logomark. It’s not that we didn’t like our existing berry… our business name kinda locks us in to the berry concept in general, but we also think that a raspberry is an excellent representation of how we want people to see us. Why a raspberry? Well, apart from being an absolute taste-bomb, raspberries are loaded with antioxidants, which are like tiny superheroes fighting off evil free radicals in your body. They’re also packed with fiber, which is fantastic for your digestive system and helps keep you feeling full and satisfied. They’re high in vitamin C, supporting your immune system, and manganese, which is a big deal for your bone health and metabolism. Raspberries help your body take care of itself! And our founder, D’nelle, is a huge fan of the leaves, which are packed full of medicinal properties. They’ve been used in herbal teas for centuries to help with everything from menstrual cramps to digestive problems, and for D’nelle’s steeped-in-the-south upbringing, they’re about as close as you can get to a black tea taste without getting slammed with a caffeine rush. Much like us, raspberries are small but mighty, and they pack a punch!
An overview of our new brand
Once we had the logomark down, we moved on to the full logo as well as some variants that we can rely on for different use-cases. The full logo is badge-style, with our founding year (a fact we get prouder of every October), our full name, and a callout of our services. We’ve got a new font for the logotype, some badge variations that call out parts of the overall logo, and a sudden desire to have our own vintage of fruit wine created.
Upgrading to a more vibrant color palette
We’d been feeling a little bogged down by the heavy red and greens we’d relied on for so long. The new color palette needed to invigorate and excite us with more energy and vibrancy, so we chose bold, bright colors that would stand out and work well in various applications. It also needed to be fun to use; we do a ton of graphics building for social media in-house using Canva, and we couldn’t take one more second of feeling trapped by the red/green binary (which was also particularly problematic from a color contrast/accessibility perspective).
Not only have we upgraded those two primary colors (inspired by the Beverly Hills Hotel sign… who wouldn’t want to sit poolside while someone else is patiently minding the health of your website?), we’ve got an extended color palette of 16 colors that will allow us to have way more variations in our graphics while still being consistent.
A new set of brand fonts to keep us fresh
It’s not that we didn’t like Montserrat or Open Sans… it’s just that we got a little tired of them, which means everyone else would see us as slightly tired as well. The new pairing consists of Figtree and DM Serif Display – both Google fonts – meaning they’ll be super easy to use on our website. Figtree, our primary font (and what you are reading these words in), is a sassy sans-serif that walks the fine line between simplicity and friendliness. Its minimalist design ensures it won’t steal your thunder, but it’s still got enough spunk to keep you reading through a paragraph. Plus, it’s just suggestive enough of Google’s brand font style to subtly hint that we’re firmly in the digital realm and we’re here to stay. DM Serif Display, our secondary font used very selectively for H1s and callout text (you can see it in use at the very top of this post on the word “Blog”), is meant for super-sized uses like posters and billboards.
Graduating from stock photos to high-quality, brand-specific photography
Here’s the thing, though: the digital realm requires more personality, not less. In the absence of face-to-face interactions, our brand images become the face of our businesses, the welcoming handshake to our potential clients. We constantly recommend professional brand photography to our clients, and we knew that, if we were truly going to do our brand refresh right (and Sara’s work justice), we had to submit ourselves to a photographer.
With Sara’s help, we decided to work with Alicia Leigh Photography, and we could not be happier with the results. Her work is a carefully curated, strategic visual storytelling experience — something akin to pulling back the curtain and revealing the powerhouse behind the brand, with all its uniqueness, values, creative genius and passion. Because when you boil it down, your brand is you, and that includes all of the amazing work you’re doing in your head.
A selection of photos from our brand photo shoot
Alicia is a wizard when it comes to aligning with your mission and values, capturing the essence of your personality and work in a way that’s real, raw, and you at your best. She backs her art with research, process, and technique to help position you in front of the right people, in the right way.
Our experience with her was nothing short of magical. We traveled from Denver and Atlanta to Austin, TX for our photo shoot, and it was worth every second and cent. Let’s just say, once you’ve tasted the professional, high-touch branding experience that Alicia provides, there’s no going back to bland, “pretty headshots”.
In the end, we found that brand photography is not a luxury — it’s a necessity that you should invest in as soon as possible. It’s about letting someone very talented represent you and your business as you are as a whole professional, unapologetically and authentically. It’s about showing your clients not just what you do, but who you are (and probably a little about reminding you of that, too). Because when it comes down to it, people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. And in this brave new digital world, a picture really is worth a thousand words.
So, we have a new brand… now what?
The rollout of our new brand will take place over the next few weeks across all our digital platforms, from our website to social media accounts. Like any significant change, it may take some time to adapt to our new visual identity (and track down all of the instances of it across the web), but we can’t wait to send it out into the world.
At Berry Interesting, we’re pros at the delicate art of digital transformation and we’d be thrilled to guide you through your own metamorphosis. After all, who doesn’t love a good before-and-after reveal? So, let’s chat – we promise, it’ll be one fruitful conversation! You can also sign up to get emails from us, and we’ll keep you in the loop about what comes next.