Branding Playbook Lessons from the Top 2025 Rebrands
- Jerica Liew
- Feb 16
- 6 min read
Branding in 2025 reflects a noticeable shift in priorities. Many of the year’s most visible rebrands indicate a focus on recalibrating how identity functions over time. These changes suggest a growing awareness that brands must remain legible and relevant across expanding contexts.
The standout rebrands this year all share something important: they're built around purpose. What matters more now is creating flexible systems that work everywhere, from apps to billboards. Whether through simplified shapes or abstract symbols, these cleaner forms perform better across all touchpoints.
The nine examples I'm covering show how different organisations across completely different industries are tackling this same challenge. Each one is shaped by what they do and where they operate, but they all respond to the same fundamental shift in how branding works today.
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall rebrand stands out for its confidence. Drawing from the silhouette of the building’s historic facade, the new identity abstracts its stacked levels into a distinctive submark that feels both architectural and symbolic. Rather than treating the logo as a standalone artefact, the redesign extends into a broader system that reinforces the institution’s presence across applications.
The logotype alone carries subtle references to the building through its handling of negative space, creating a sense of depth and drama that feels appropriate for a concert hall of such stature. The decision to remove legacy colours while retaining red sharpens recognition and signals clarity of intent. Flattening the identity into a two-dimensional expression while preserving a sense of volume suggests an effort to modernise without severing ties to heritage. It feels measured and assured, appealing to a younger audience without diluting institutional gravitas.
ArtScience Museum Singapore
ArtScience Museum’s rebrand is ubiquitous in execution yet immediately noticeable in use. Encountered in situ, the shift to a mono typeface and a flattened icon feels aligned with a broader move away from ornamental or skeuomorphic branding. The identity becomes more accessible and legible, especially within digital contexts.
While the visual update itself is largely effective, the choice of agency raises broader questions. The decision to appoint Project 3 Agency, an extension of Kendrick Lamar’s company pgLang, introduces a tension between local cultural institutions and Western creative validation. Museums play a significant role in shaping cultural narratives, and the outsourcing of creative authorship risks reinforcing eurocentric frameworks rather than nurturing regional voices. The politics of creative legitimacy comes into question here.
Kolding School Of Design
Kolding School of Design’s rebrand is one of the most resolved identities of the year. The new mark communicates structure and intent with remarkable efficiency. Built around a modular, grid-derived interpretation of the letter K, the submark reads as a monolithic form shaped through subtraction. Each segment aligns precisely, creating a sense of balance and order that feels intentional.
This visual discipline reflects the institution’s evolution from a traditional design school into a design university. As described by the designers, the geometric foundation mirrors a methodical approach to design education, while the interlocking elements signal interdisciplinarity.
As a design practice focused on the Swiss design style, this result feels tactile and grounded, and I would definitely like to see more brands reaffirming the power of abstraction and order in their work.
Viceroy Hotels & Resorts
The luxury hospitality brand, with hotels and residences worldwide, has revamped its experiential offerings and growing its portfolio to new destinations.
At first glance, the logo itself did not feel too impressive. The wordmark alone does little to announce ambition, reading as a neutral sans serif applied across touchpoints. However, the strength of the rebrand emerges when viewed at the level of individual properties.
The circular O becomes a flexible device, evolving into location-specific motifs that expand into full pattern systems informed by local culture. This approach allows each hotel to retain a sense of place while remaining part of a coherent global brand. The level of effort invested in contextualisation is impressive.
That said, the accompanying decorative typeface feels misfired. Its playful character feels dated and risks undermining the brand’s luxury positioning. While the overall system demonstrates thoughtful strategy, it also illustrates the importance of evaluating identities holistically rather than through isolated elements.
Adobe
Adobe’s rebrand elicited a surprisingly muted reaction, and that appears intentional. Designed by Mother, the update aims for continuity rather than disruption. The shift in type feels almost invisible, as though the identity has always existed in this form.
By fusing the A icon and wordmark into a single logotype, the brand re-establishes coherence while paying homage to Marva Warnock’s original 1982 design. There is a clarity in embedding symbolic meaning directly into the letterforms, a move that feels timeless.
While the rebrand earns its place on this list due to scale and influence, it leans heavily toward corporate safety. The broader visual language feels conservative for a company that sits at the centre of creative production. The reliance on familiar graphic tropes like the corporate memphis designs tempers what could have been a more exploratory evolution.
Eventbrite
Eventbrite’s rebrand is one of the most energising updates of the year. The experience of opening the app reveals a kinetic logo sequence that immediately signals change. Colour and typography work together to create a sense of momentum that feels distinctly contemporary.
The retention of the brand’s signature orange anchors familiarity, while an expanded palette introduces vibrancy and flexibility. Designed by Buck, the rebrand was driven by a desire to reconnect the platform with in-person experiences in a post-pandemic landscape. Typography takes centre stage, and the animated monogram brings warmth and immediacy to the interface. The result feels relevant and deeply attuned to how people, especially a younger audience, now encounter brands through screens.
Kellogg’s
Kellogg’s rebrand reinforces how brands are developing more holistic visual systems, as opposed to just a logo redesign. The iconic logo remains intact, yet its scale and placement are reimagined, often cropped boldly across packaging. This subtle shift feels fresh and unique.
The return of Cornelius the cockerel strengthens brand recognition, while smaller details, such as the apostrophe doubling as a cornflake, reveal thoughtful craft. The colour-blocking system introduces brighter contrasts without overwhelming the brand’s heritage. Kellogg’s refines its identity through pattern and repetition, proving that longevity often lies in careful evolution.
Honda
Honda’s rebrand continues the broader trend of revisiting heritage. The updated logo abandons metallic skeuomorphism in favour of a flattened, two-dimensional form that feels more adaptable across digital environments. By drawing from earlier iterations, the brand reconnects with its visual history while aligning with contemporary needs.
This renewed interest in archival references reflects a wider cultural pull toward nostalgia. While such moves can feel safe, they also suggest a desire for stability in an era of rapid change. The challenge lies in ensuring that familiarity does not slide into complacency.
Benefit Cosmetics
Benefit’s refresh exemplifies how a brand can feel entirely renewed without discarding its core identity. The logo remains, yet the system around it becomes animated and flexible. Letterforms can abbreviate, rearrange, and even express emotion, introducing movement while remaining recognisable.
Pink now takes a more assertive role, shifting from a soft accent to bold expression. Inspired by Benefit’s origins as The Face Place and as a nod to the brand’s twin founders, the new graphic language of shapes makes up an endlessly adaptable set of cheeks, eyes, brows, and lips to configure a face. This modular system feels tactile and assertive, reflecting a brand confident enough to embrace humour while maintaining coherence across platforms.
Branding in an AI-Mediated Landscape
Several clear patterns emerge from these rebrands. Identity systems are becoming more important than singular marks. Flattened, abstracted forms are favoured for adaptability, while heritage is being revisited as a source of credibility. Most importantly, brands are increasingly designing for interactivity, where static representation once took its place.
These trends cannot be separated from the growing presence of AI. As discovery becomes increasingly algorithmic, brands are designing identities that translate well to machine-readable environments. Stronger systems, and clearer structures perform better when filtered through AI-driven interfaces.
In this spirit, many of 2025’s leading rebrands appear to anticipate a future shaped by AI-mediated interpretation. As brands are increasingly encountered through systems, identity becomes more structural, designed to function consistently across automated contexts.
Looking ahead, the most successful brands will likely be those that understand identity as infrastructure, as branding that goes beyond decoration and into a holistic expression of a brand’s essence. The rebrands of 2025 offer a compelling glimpse into that future.
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