We had been asked to redesign Optima Telekom logo. As rebranding is always a tricky process, we started carefully with answering one simple but important question: Is logo redesign needed?

There are usually three situations when we consider a logo redesign:

Company merger
Company growth (growing beyond its original identity)
Company revitalization

It turned out that the company had been around for some time (10 years) and it needed a logo refresh to remain relevant in the market (situation No. 3). The idea was to link the company’s 10th anniversary with their new brand strategy.

In our work, we were guided by these three do’s and don’ts:

DO’S

Keep it simple
Logo should be easily recognizable (as well as versatile and memorable), even in a multitude of mediums – from online to b/w print to billboards.
Be meaningful
Creativity is not enough. Logo design should embody the company’s values or have some connections and relevancy to the company.
Ensure it is timeless
Trends come and go, so it’s important to consider how the logo will look in 10-20 years time. Following hip new trends could lead to an outdated logo in the future. We tried to keep this in mind.

DON’TS

Change a logo if you don’t have to
We agreed that the change was needed.
Break away from the brand’s identity
Customers already have a relationship with the brand and/or logo. Drastic changes in image and font can confuse them and take away from the brand’s original meaning. That’s why the original colors were preserved.
Forget to listen to customers
This part was taken care of by the company. They hired an agency to conduct a customer survey. They tested several solutions and choose the one with the most positive feedback. It was this one, designed by Zoran Đukić for Jackie :).

Old logo:

New logo:

There are several variations of the primary logo – with/without the symbol, and with/without the tagline. There are also options of implementing other symbols, depending on the situation.

Zoran’s idea was to use a thin red line as a symbol of connection and relationships (after all, people use phones to connect and stay in touch).