Most rebrands start in the wrong place: a Pinterest board, a competitor you admire, a color you've been wanting to use. None of that is the brand. It's decoration sitting on top of decisions you haven't made yet.
Start with audience and promise. Who is this actually for, and what are you promising them? Until those two answers are sharp, every design choice is a guess — and you'll redo it three times before you admit the foundation was soft.
Then audit what you already have. Most businesses are sitting on more equity than they realize — a phrase customers repeat back, a color people associate with you, a tone in your emails. A good rebrand keeps the equity and sheds the noise.
Only then do you touch the visuals. By the time you're choosing type and color, the hard thinking is done and the design becomes the easy part — the inevitable conclusion of decisions you already made.