Recently, I was working on a website project for a client when the designer said to me, "I sure wish they would consider a logo redesign." Until that moment, I hadn't thought their 20-year old logo looked dated, but as soon as she made that statement, I knew it was true.

I'm sure this comes up often during the course of healthcare projects.  Like a logo, a building is a reflection of an organization's brand. If you're building new or renovating an old facility, shouldn't you also consider redesigning the graphics too?

Here are four other reasons that it's time for a logo redesign:

1.  If it's more than 10 years old.  Chances are, even if you have a logo that you really like, if it's 10 or more years old, it is probably starting to feel dated.  It's time for a change. Check out this logo history of United Airlines, if you don't believe me.

2. People don't know what it symbolizes or associate negative feelings with it.  When I worked for The Center for Health Design and we were redesigning its logo about 7-8 years ago, one of the designs we considered was in the shape of an "H." But to one of our board members, it looked like the twin towers.

3. It doesn't look good in a digital format.  Logos that were designed in the era of print may not translate so well to digital, where images are smaller and screen resolution varies.

4. You've acquired or merged with another company/organization.  This is obvious, but I can think of many cases in the healthcare design industry where an architectural firm or furniture manufacturer did not take the opportunity to re-brand themselves after making an acquisition.

If you have an iconic logo that's been around a zillion years, you may only want to do a few tweaks instead of a complete redesign.  But you should at least look at doing it every 10 years.

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