How we, a brand and marketing agency, knew it was time to evolve our brand
Refreshing your brand is easier said than done—especially when it’s your own, and you happen to be a brand and marketing agency. For six years, our brand has served us well. Our website, launched in 2020, has been a reliable home for our work. But after living with it for more than five years, we started to see opportunities to clarify our story and sharpen how we show up.
We became “Truss Creative” in 2019, after launching in 2016 under a different name. From the start, our brand was rooted in real estate and homebuilding, while our promise—Storytelling, elevated—allowed us to speak to a bigger vision. That promise still holds true today.
Over time, though, our client roster expanded beyond our original industry focus. And the marketing landscape evolved fast. We started sketching out what a refreshed Truss might look like—one that better reflected who we’re for, what we offer, and why it matters.
Our goal was simple: keep what works, evolve what needs to, and tell our own story with the same clarity and strategy we bring to our clients.
Brand refresh vs. rebrand
Before we go further, we should clear this up: a brand refresh is not a rebrand. What’s the difference?
With a full rebrand, you’re essentially building a brand from the ground up. New name, new logo, new positioning, and potentially new audience(s). You’re reinventing your business identity and brand experience.
A smaller scale brand refresh is about refining and defining what already exists. Think of it as keeping the bones of your house, but changing its finishes. Then defining those new brand standards so they can be carried out consistently across all brand touchpoints.
In our case, we didn’t need to throw out our brand. We just needed to refine it.
Does your brand need to evolve?
A refresh might be due if:
- Your website feels dated (3+ years is ancient online)
- Your visuals or voice aren’t consistent across platforms
- You want to reach a new audience or group
- You know your strengths better and want to showcase them
- Campaigns aren’t sparking the response they used to
- You hesitate to share your website
A full rebrand might be due if:
- You’ve gone through a major business change such as a merger, acquisition or expansion
- Your offerings have evolved significantly but your brand hasn’t
- Your positioning no longer resonates with audiences
- Competitors have upped their game, and it shows
- You don’t share your website (big red flag)
Real talk: if you’ve checked two or more of these, it’s time to invest in your brand.
Behind the scenes of Truss 2.0
Refreshing our own brand was both exciting and humbling. While we guide clients through this process all the time, we weren’t above the all-too-common setbacks of analysis paralysis, perfectionist procrastination, and tricky scheduling logistics. To break through and get to a finish line, we approached our refresh strategically and with an eye toward future scalability.
Our goal was to refine, not reinvent. We kept the foundation of the Truss brand intact while dialing in the areas that needed to change and laying a foundation for adding brand assets and content in the months to come. Rome wasn’t built in a day. It’s okay for a brand to grow into its next era.
Here’s what we changed
- New inpsiration—we added another layer of meaning to our name and purpose: lifting clients higher. Because that’s the throughline of everything we do.
- Refined visual identity—streamlined color palette (goodbye sherbert orange, hello deeper Truss red-orange and neutrals), updated sans-serif typography, refined photography style, more video and motion.
- Website overhaul—an even cleaner layout that’s easier to navigate and puts our work front and center.
- More showing, less telling—new, more visually rich work samples, a mix of short, digestible content, and in-depth, high-value articles.
- Expanded expertise—still highlighting core services such as branding and website development, while also shining a light on full-funnel marketing and content production capabilities.
- Social proof—more client testimonials and industry association badges to back up our reputation and bona fides.
- Humanizing Truss—we’re a high-touch agency but you might not have known that before. We’re committed to showing up, taking you behind-the-scenes, and giving you a sense of what it’s like to work with us.
Here’s what we kept
- Name, logo, and primary colors—these continue to resonate, so we only made minor tweaks to our logo and primary colors to build on our existing brand equity. Brand promise—”Storytelling, elevated,” is what we want to be known for and is what we consistently deliver to clients.
- Positioning—we’re still your independent brand and marketing partner, offering full-service, full-funnel solutions to small and midsize organizations nationwide.
- Content strategy—as always, our aim is to deliver brand and marketing wisdom that is worth your time.
Take your brand higher—without starting over
If it’s been a while since you looked at your brand with fresh eyes—or if you just ticked off more than a couple items from our checklist—it might be time for your own refresh. We know what it’s like to work in your brand so long that you can’t quite see it from the outside anymore. We bring both strategy and creative execution to help brands evolve without losing their essence. If you’re ready to tune up your brand and go higher, we’d love to talk.