Do I Need Branding Before I Redesign My Website?
Most companies try to redesign their website before their brand is defined. Here’s why that’s backwards, and when it’s okay to do both at once.
This is one of the most common sequencing mistakes growing companies make. They decide to redesign the website (it’s outdated, it’s not converting, it doesn’t represent where the company is now) and they hire a web agency and start building. Six months later, they go through a branding process and realize the website they just built doesn’t reflect the brand they just defined. Now they’re redesigning again.
The right sequence is brand first, then web. Or brand and web together. Never web first.
Why Brand Has to Come First
Your website is an expression of your brand. The typography, the color palette, the visual language, the tone of copy, the imagery style, all of these are brand decisions. If those decisions haven’t been made intentionally through a brand process, the web designer is making them for you based on guesswork or convention. The result is a website that looks fine but doesn’t feel specifically like you.
More practically: every design decision in a website build is downstream of the brand. If the brand changes after the website is built (and it always does, if you go through a real brand process) you’re paying to change things that should have been right the first time.
The Exception: Do Both Together
The most efficient approach isn’t always brand first, then web. It’s brand and web as a single integrated engagement, which is how Splash Creative structures it. Brand strategy and positioning happen in weeks 1–4. Visual identity development (logo, color, typography) happens in weeks 3–6. Web design begins in week 5, informed by everything that’s been defined. Development starts in week 9. Launch at week 14–16.
The brand and the website come out simultaneously, completely coherent, because they were built by the same team from the same strategic foundation. That’s more efficient than two sequential projects and produces a dramatically more cohesive result.
When Web-First Is Acceptable
If your brand is already well-defined (strong logo, clear visual system, defined voice, guidelines your team uses) a web-only redesign is fine. You’re not making brand decisions, you’re executing known brand standards in a new format. The web agency just needs your brand guidelines and they can build.
If your brand is undefined or outdated, web-first will cost you more in the long run.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need branding before I redesign my website?
Yes, or simultaneously. Brand first means the web design has a foundation. Brand and web together from one team means neither waits for the other. See our branding service and web design service.
How much does brand plus web cost?
Splash Creative scopes each engagement around the business need, complexity, and responsibilities involved. The proposal sets out the work, timing, and fee. For broader guidance, see our pricing page or talk with the team about your brief. See our full guide on branding and creative costs in 2026.
Need brand and web done right: together?
Splash Creative runs brand and web as one integrated engagement.