Hot Summer Trends: How to Use Seasonal Branding to Grow Your Business

Summer brings a fresh burst of energy, and it’s the perfect time to get that same feeling into your brand.

Seasonal branding offers a simple, creative way to stay relevant and connect with your audience in the moment. You don’t need a full rebrand. Just a few thoughtful updates—like a lighter color palette, summer-themed visuals, or a timely promotion—can make your business feel current, engaging, and full of personality.

Even small changes can help your brand stand out and stay top of mind all season long.

What Is Seasonal Branding and Why Summer Is the Perfect Time for It?

Your brand already has a clear look and feel, but it doesn’t need to stay the same year-round.

Seasonal branding is about giving your business a temporary refresh that reflects the mood of the moment. Think brighter colors, lighter messaging, and visuals that capture the energy of summer.

It’s like giving your brand a seasonal outfit. It’s still you, just with a warm-weather vibe.

3 Reasons Why a Summer Brand Refresh Just Makes Sense

Seasonal branding gives your business a simple way to stay fresh and connected to your audience, especially when their mindset shifts with the seasons.

Summer brings a different energy, and your brand has the opportunity to reflect that in a way that feels timely and engaging.

Here’s why a summer refresh is worth considering:

1. It Keeps Your Brand Feeling Fresh and Current

Summer is full of motion, color, and connection. Bringing that into your branding makes your business feel active and in the moment.

2. It Gives Your Audience Something New to Engage With

Even a small change, like a sunny banner image or seasonal product bundle, can catch someone’s eye and spark curiosity.

3. It Opens the Door to Timely Promotions and Content

People are naturally looking for seasonal ideas. When your brand reflects what they’re thinking about, they’re more likely to pay attention.

You don’t need a full rebrand to make an impact—just a few thoughtful updates that keep your business feeling fresh, relevant, and ready for summer.

Famous Brands That Make Summer Branding Look Easy

Sometimes we just need a little inspiration to see what’s possible. These well-known brands do a great job of embracing the season without straying from who they are.

Their updates are thoughtful, on-brand, and surprisingly simple, which means you can absolutely do it, too.

Starbucks

Starbucks rolls out seasonal promotions year after year—especially in summer—with vibrant, sunshine-filled photography and bright product visuals. Their limited-edition drinkware, seasonal drinks, and colorful social content create excitement while keeping the brand instantly recognizable.

What You Can Take Away: Use consistent visual elements (like product styling or color themes) and keep your logo front and center, even when you change up the mood.

Glossier

Glossier brings summer into its branding with limited-edition packaging, soft seasonal hues, and campaign imagery that feels effortless but intentional. Their summer drops often highlight lightweight products or sun-ready skincare, wrapped in a visual style that stays clean and minimalist.

What You Can Take Away: You don’t have to go bold. A simple tweak in product styling, colors, or packaging tone can feel fresh while staying true to your brand’s aesthetic.

Target

Target updates its website, homepage banners, and digital ads with seasonal visuals that reflect what people are shopping for—whether it’s patio furniture in June or back-to-school in late summer. The brand always stays playful, clear, and customer-focused.

What You Can Take Away: Think about what your customers need right now, and build your visuals and messaging around that. You don’t have to change everything—just highlight what’s most relevant for the season.

These brands don’t start over every season—they refresh with purpose. And so can you. Even a few thoughtful changes can help your business feel active, timely, and ready for summer.

5 Ways to Upgrade Your Brand for Summer

1. Try a Summer-Inspired Color Palette

If you want a quick way to shift your brand for summer, start with color. Summer tones are light, vibrant, and full of warmth, just like the season itself.

Popular Summer Colors to Try

• Turquoise or aqua creates a beachy, cool, and calming vibe that instantly feels like summer.
• Coral or peach adds a playful, bold, and fun energy to your brand visuals.
• Lemon yellow brings a bright, cheerful, and energetic feel that grabs attention.
• Mint green offers a soft, refreshing, and clean look that feels light and airy.
• Sky blue feels light, versatile, and pairs beautifully with both warm and neutral tones.
• Flamingo pink is another fantastic summer color, especially if you want your brand to feel fun, playful, and full of personality.

Use LOGO.com to Test Seasonal Logo Colors

LOGO.com makes it easy to try out summer-inspired versions of your logo without changing your main design.

You can:

• Experiment with seasonal color shifts.
• Save multiple versions of your logo.
• Preview how each one looks on your website, merchandise, or social media.

Having a seasonal version of your brand visuals lets you stay consistent while still adapting to the time of year.

2. Update Your Website and Social Graphics

Once you’ve refreshed your logo or color palette for summer, it’s a great time to carry that same seasonal feel across your website and social media.

This helps your brand stay consistent, feel timely, and give your audience something new to engage with.

Easy ways to bring summer into your visuals:

• Swap out your homepage banner with summer images such as sunny scenery, greenery, beach scenes, or summery product photos. Even just one new visual can make your website feel updated and current.
• Add small seasonal icons or patterns to your social media templates. Citrus slices, palm leaves, waves, and suns are simple ways to signal “summer” without a full design overhaul.
• Use lighter, more open backgrounds to give your graphics a breezy, relaxed feel. Think soft pastels, gentle gradients, or sunlit textures.

Pro Tip: If you already have consistent post layouts or templates, keep them! Just tweak your colors and images. Your audience will still recognize your brand, and it’ll feel refreshed for the summer season.

If you’re using LOGO.com’s brand kit, swapping in summer colors, logos, and graphics is quick and easy. You’ll keep everything looking cohesive while giving your audience a fresh new way to connect with your brand.

3. Create Summer-Themed Campaigns That Feel Like Your Small Business

Summer is the perfect time to try something new, and seasonal campaigns give small businesses like yours a simple, creative way to stand out. With a little intention and a lot of personality, you can build offers that feel fun, timely, and totally on-brand.

A few summer promotion ideas that you can try are:

• Hot Deals: Time-sensitive offers or bundles that create a sense of urgency. For example, “Weekend Warm-Up Sale” or “24-Hour Summer Steals.”
• Cool Off With a Freebie: Offer a small, on-theme gift with purchase—like a branded bottle, sticker, or sample that adds value.
• Summer Essentials Kit: Bundle a few customer favorites into a ready-to-go seasonal set.
• Vacation-Ready Giveaway: Team up with another small business or local partner to co-host a fun, easy-to-share giveaway.

You don’t need a big team or budget to run a seasonal campaign that works. With a few thoughtful updates, your small business can show up, stand out, and connect with your audience in fresh, summer-ready ways.

4. Add a Touch of Summer to Your Business Swag

Looking for a fun way to make your brand more memorable this season? Summer merchandise is a great way to create buzz, reward your community, and show off your seasonal branding in a practical, feel-good way.

A few popular summer-ready merch ideas for small businesses are:

• Lightweight T-shirts or tanks are perfect for events, giveaways, or your online shop.
• Branded water bottles or tumblers are a must-have for customers on the go.
• Tote bags are a summer essential for farmers' markets, pop-ups, or seasonal deliveries.
• Baseball caps or bucket hats are a classic, fun, and functional way to showcase your logo while helping your customers stay cool.

Ready to start creating summer merch? With LOGO.com’s merchandise editor, you can easily customize products with your summer color palette and logo!

5. Update the Little Details That Tie It All Together

Sometimes, the small touches do the most work.

You don’t need to overhaul your entire brand to make a seasonal impact—just adding a bit of summer energy to the everyday parts of your business can go a long way.

Here are a few easy updates to help your branding feel summer-ready:

Link in Bio

Your link in bio is where followers go when they want to learn more—so make sure it reflects your summer updates. You can do this by:

• Highlighting your summer sale, event, or product launch.
• Adding a seasonal banner, icon, or background color.
• Updating your call to action with timely phrases like “Shop the Summer Sale” or “Grab Your Summer Must-Haves.”

It’s a quick, low-effort way to connect your social content to what’s happening on your website and guide people exactly where you want them to go.

Email Signature

You don’t need a brand-new email campaign to stay on-theme. Just give your email signature a quick seasonal refresh by:

• Adding a small sun ☀️ or ice cream emoji 🍦.
• Including a short, friendly message like “Wishing you sunshine and good vibes!”.
• Linking to your summer landing page or featured product.

It’s a subtle way to reinforce your seasonal branding with every email you send.

Business Cards and Stationery

If you print physical materials like business cards, thank-you notes, or product inserts, summer is a great time to update them with fresh colors or seasonal designs.

You can instantly get a summer upgrade by:

• Trying a lighter background, a summery accent color, or an updated graphic.
• Adding a seasonal promo code or QR code that links to your latest summer campaign.
• Using a limited-time version for pop-ups, farmers' markets, or events.

Even if it’s temporary, a summer-themed stationery adds a thoughtful touch that makes your brand more memorable.

Keep Your Brand Fresh for Summer—But Keep It You

Summer is the perfect time to try something new, but that doesn’t mean you need to start from scratch.

A few thoughtful updates—like lighter colors, refreshed visuals, or a timely promotion—can go a long way in helping your brand feel fresh, current, and connected.

With LOGO.com, you’ve got everything you need to make seasonal branding simple and fun.

You can:

• Test summer-inspired logo colors.
• Build out seasonal social media templates.
• Design and order custom merchandise.
• Keep everything consistent across your website, social media, and marketing materials.

Remember: Start small, stay true to your brand, and, most importantly, have a little fun with it.

Your audience is ready for something fresh, and now, so are you.