Why are so many design agencies rebranding right now?

A wave of design studios have rolled out new positioning, identities and websites. Rob Alderson tries to work out what's going on.

A few weeks ago, something weird happened. Every day, for about ten days, we received news of a design agency rebranding itself. There was new positioning, new taglines, new logos and new websites.

Day three felt like a funny coincidence. By day eight, something seemed to be going on.

In that time we heard from Dusted, Elmwood and Fifty Thousand Feet among others. A few weeks previously, Fiasco had unveiled its new brand. While writing this piece, Ragged Edge launched its new positioning and branding.

I know of at least three other big agencies – across branding, digital and interiors – set to roll out new identities in the coming weeks.

Alongside this, a slew of studios have launched new websites recently, including Mother Design, Here, Otherway, Outlaw, Hirsch&Mann and DixonBaxi. These might not always accompany rebrands, but they do involve an element of redefining and sharpening who they are, what they do, and why they’re different.

What’s going on? Why are so many studios working on their own brands? And how do they go about this often tricky task, of turning their design expertise inwards on their own identities?

The first thing to acknowledge is that these launches are a lagging indicator. These projects take time – Fiasco and Dusted started conversations in 2023, Ragged Edge and Elmwood kicked things off in 2024.

Sometimes there is a milestone involved – Fiasco is 15 this year, Dusted is 21 (“We didn’t quite make our 20th anniversary,” founder David Wall admits.)

Sometimes there is a merger or acquisition that necessitates a fresh approach to the brand. Having merged with holmes&marchant a few years ago, Elmwood needed, “to set a new foundation that demonstrated we were one global agency with one vision and one way of working,” global CEO Daniel Binns explains.

Similarly Fifty Thousand Feet bought Long Dash in 2024, and created a newly unified company. For CEO Kate Watts, this was “the perfect moment to re-express who we are… to reflect on our heritage and define what’s next. We took the time to ask: What do we stand for? Who do we serve best? Where are we going? Are we demonstrating our value?”

For many studios, the impetus comes from their evolution as a business. New clients, new types of projects, and new areas of focus often require a new brand – otherwise agencies risk a mismatch between what they offer, and how they show up in the world.

“Lots has changed since we last looked at our brand before Covid,” Ragged Edge founder Max Ottignon says. “We’re working with bigger clients, for longer periods of time, in more places, across more channels, and creating these incredible commercial outcomes.”

Dusted’s David Wall gives a similar rationale.

“Our evolution as an agency had to be reflected more succinctly, as did our position within the market,” he says. “We wanted to define our offer to clients more accurately.”

Dusted’s new positioning – “Built for now, future ready” – reflects the studio’s focus on “digitally dynamic and more rich-media-oriented” branding, and “the new and agile” ways of working it has developed to embrace this shift.

For Elmwood, it was about speaking more to potential clients in the corporate and healthcare world – a growing part of its business. “We have made a lot of changes in the business and needed to ensure that we were showing up as who we are and want to be, not where we were,” Binns explains.

And for Fifty Thousand Feet, the issue was scale.

“For too long, we showed up modestly as a smaller regional player when in reality, we’ve built a rich legacy working with some of the most respected brands in the world,” Watts says. “Our design craft and strategic insight rival the best firms anywhere, yet our brand wasn’t telling that story.”

But, of course, the story here is not just about specific agencies. It’s about the landscape in which they operate, the pressures squeezing the industry, and the new questions design leaders are being forced to answer.

The rise of AI tools and economic stagnation has combined to create a perfect storm where supply and demand is out of kilter. There are too many agencies going for too few projects. And so the pressure is on to better define why clients should pick your studio over your rival.

Against this backdrop, it seems clients are struggling to differentiate between agencies. In this year’s What Clients Think report, 64% said the “About us” sections of new business presentations tend to be “quite similar” and 61% said they find it hard to work out what an agency is best at by looking at their websites.

The recent Fully Saturated report, while praising many examples of compelling and memorable messaging, pointed out that too many brand agencies sound the name, with abstract promises and buzzwords that end up meaning everything and nothing.

This context definitely played into Ragged Edge’s recent rebrand.

“Creativity is at a crossroads and the brandscape has become less and less interesting,” Ottignon says. “It was time for us to recommit to our founding principle – a refusal to settle for average.”

Writing on Linkedin, he expanded on this idea. “When so much of the creative industry is being pulled into a race for efficiency at the expense of impact, we’re determined to do the opposite, by doing the most ambitious work we’ve ever done.”

Fiasco co-founder Ben Steers says the structure of the market has changed too, which shaped their thinking.

“A booming freelancer market – plus a clutch of new micro agencies, coupled with greater instability in the market, meant we found ourselves competing more over price,” he says. “We needed our brand to work harder to convey the value we offer to our clients.”

Like many people we spoke to, Steers underlines the depth of the studio’s new positioning.

“The rebrand wasn’t just about a new name or visual identity. It was about expressing – with greater clarity and confidence – who we are, what we care about, and what value we bring to our clients.” As part of its change, Fiasco dropped “Design” from its name, to better illustrate the breadth of problems it helps clients solve.

Lots of the leaders we interviewed talked of the need to “cut through the noise” by showing and telling the things that make them special. As Watts points out, an agency like Fifty Thousand Feet shares this need with its clients.

“Meaning is getting more difficult for brands to capture and convey in a world addicted to now,” she says. “CMOs are expected not only to keep up but also to insert themselves into the noise fast enough to matter.”

But to some extent, the fact studios are used to doing this work for other people, and solving similar challenges, sets them up nicely, if they can make the time and space to work on their own branding.

Everyone we spoke to led the project in-house, bringing in creative specialists to work on specific elements like type, motion and tone of voice.

When Taxi Studio rebranded late last year, co-founder Spencer Buck said they considered working with an outside agency, before concluding that would be “a cardinal sin.”

“This is the acid test of a branding studio,” he said. “This is practice what you preach.”

Dusted’s David Wall agrees. “It’s about a belief in our own approach to delivery, wholly confident we could run the project internally,” he says.

They ran it like any other client project, right down to tracking the finances.

“We had a dedicated account management team, distinct stakeholders for sign-off and a project plan we did our best to stick to, utilising our own internal practices, software and teams,” he says. “We even assigned a budget to the work so we knew how much the – theoretical – cost of delivery would be in terms of everyone’s time.”

Everyone we spoke to led the project in-house, bringing in creative specialists to work on specific elements like type, motion and tone of voice.

When Taxi Studio rebranded late last year, co-founder Spencer Buck said they considered working with an outside agency, before concluding that would be “a cardinal sin.”

“This is the acid test of a branding studio,” he said. “This is practice what you preach.”

Dusted’s David Wall agrees. “It’s about a belief in our own approach to delivery, wholly confident we could run the project internally,” he says.

They ran it like any other client project, right down to tracking the finances.

“We had a dedicated account management team, distinct stakeholders for sign-off and a project plan we did our best to stick to, utilising our own internal practices, software and teams,” he says. “We even assigned a budget to the work so we knew how much the – theoretical – cost of delivery would be in terms of everyone’s time.”

Fiasco involved its entire 16-person team in its rebrand, to create a final identity that felt authentic to the people who have to deliver on it day-in, day out.

For many leaders, this inclusive approach builds more buy-in, even if there are tough decisions to be made in the interests of clarity.

Watts says there were “spirited conversations and sharp creative debates” at Fifty Thousand Feet, but the process “galvanised” the team.

“We were reminded why we do this work, and we deepened our collective pride in what we’ve built together,” she says.

Unsurprisingly, designers are proud of the design decisions which shape the output. Binns says Elmwood was determined to build on its “incredible design craft legacy” when creating its new look, which is designed to be “more grown-up and sophisticated without losing its playfulness.”

“The elegance of the new identity system pays homage to that history,” he says. “The beautifully crafted wordmark, the carefully curated colour system that draws on our heritage.. The dynamic ‘e’ icon with its sharp angled slices is built to cut through the confusion and complexity of the world brands live in today.”

Steers loves Fiasco’s “expressive new logo” which jumps into life, “weaving subtle, unexpected moments of joy into the brand experience.” Ottignon highlights the recurring horizon device in Ragged Edge’s new identity, “a representation of a constantly shifting edge, far away from average.”

But interestingly, he says the verbal identity is “perhaps the most important part” of the repositioning.

“We really care about the language, and wanted to find a way of expressing the brand with some bite and energy, without ever compromising on clarity. The line, ‘For people who refuse to settle for average,’ feels like the most authentic encapsulation of Ragged Edge that we’ve ever written.”

Watts too says Fifty Thousand Feet’s new tone of voice is key.

“It reflects the kind of brands we build: thoughtful, confident, and never chasing the trend of the day,” she says. “We speak with purpose and precision, aiming to connect with discerning audiences who value substance.”

This focus on the verbal identity speaks volumes. As design tools become democratised and generative AI helps more people produce polished – if often soulless – design, then it becomes harder for clients to discern the great, from the good, from the ok.

In this world, how an agency talks, and what it focuses is on, becomes more of a differentiator. The rash of agency repositionings may be just getting started.

We asked the design leaders to share one piece of advice for this sort of project…

David Wall, Dusted: “Creative businesses have many voices and opinions, and this is something to celebrate, harness but also navigate. You must absolutely set a clear strategic and creative vision at the start of the process that everyone agrees too. Without this clearly defined vision you are open to opinion, subjectivity, trends, and this can quickly take you off-course.”

Max Ottignon, Ragged Edge: “Commit to your process. It’s easy to think you can shortcut it. But you designed your process for a reason.”

Daniel Binns, Elmwood: “Recognise that to do it right, you have to build the foundations of the business first. What are you going to do differently that will be showcased by your new brand?

“And appreciate that the vast majority of the work will sit with your most senior people. Crafting how every aspect ties together is crucial if you want to project a cohesive new window into your world, and that needs the best minds in your agency.”

Kate Watts, Fifty Thousand Feet: “Start by rediscovering your own DNA. You don’t need to reinvent who you are, but you do need to clarify it. Don’t get distracted by trends or the temptation to please everyone. Focus on the few things that make you indispensable to your audience and give yourself permission to own them.

“Confidence isn’t ego. It’s recognising the value, excellence, and impact you bring and being willing to express it fully. Then articulate those strengths with discipline and detail. Every decision should reinforce your reason for existing. If your brand can inspire clarity inside your company, it will resonate far beyond it.”

Ben Steers, Fiasco: “Commit wholeheartedly, or not at all. It’s a long and challenging process. From experience, the only way to ensure it gets done is to treat it like a client project: agree a scope of work, set a schedule and deadline, and allocate resources accordingly.

“That’ll likely mean turning down client work, but if you don’t commit fully, it’s unlikely to ever see the light of day.”

Featured in Design Week