The Studio

Your brand is having conversations you're not part of. Every day, with people you'll never meet, who are making decisions about your business in seconds. It might be saying exactly the right thing — or it might be quietly working against you. Here's what both sides look like.

Nothing against DIY'ing your brand — you do what you need to do. But DIY works until it doesn't. And when it stops working, your brand starts costing you money instead of making you money. Most of those costs are invisible, which is exactly what makes them so expensive.

When your brand starts letting you down, your first instinct is to redesign everything. New colours, new logo, fresh start. But if you skip the strategy and go straight to the fun stuff, you'll be doing this all over again in a year. Here's what to figure out before you open any design software.

Your brand might feel off, but you can't quite figure out why. Everything still works — your website is up, your logo is there, people find you. But something's not sitting right. Here are six signs your business has moved on and your brand hasn't caught up yet.