Maybe we don’t have to (re)brand everything

and end up being clones of each other.

The prevalence of “corporate” (self) branding has created a market of digital mockups. Designers are now quickly envisioning brand guidelines by superimposing corporate design materials onto premade product shots. // No Medium membership? Read this article for free here.

In continuing this series of Creative Monologue, I’ll be talking about how we designers and businesses brand or rebrand ourselves, and the related pitfalls we should avoid.

“It is as if graphic designers all work from the same palette… they pick and choose from what is currently hip and readily acceptable to infuse the work of their clients with a dose of contemporary cool.”

— Rudy VanderLans for Emigre № 64 (2003)

WHEN I FIRST STARTED doing freelance design, my thoughts were very much pigeon-holed into achieving results like those in Behance have showcased. Professional, eye-catching, systematic, consistent-to-the-tee sort of branding* was something that was glorified by that website to the core. Even pieces of printed paper need to have that right texture and colour (courtesy of mockup image sites) for an identity of a business to be “solidified.” Nothing was overlooked.

*The term branding used over here mainly refers to the visual outputs that a company/individual would publish. This ranges from their logos to social media posts, to business cards, to packaging prints, and so forth. I understand the technical term for branding encompasses too the company’s values, motto, and other things. But for the lack of a better word, I will refer to this slew of aforementioned items as ‘branding.’

I acquired that sort of mentality when working on doing up a brand design that my friends wanted. They are a duo that wants to offer people catered fitness programs. To give more context, they don’t run a gym. They don’t have an office. They are just two dudes fresh out of a fitness educational course wanting to make some money by teaching others some physical exercises.

During my consultation and feedback sessions with them, I was trying to pull out all the cards (or so I thought) that a design agency would by giving them visuals after visuals of corporate paraphernalia. Think stylised social media posts and posters of people in ideal exercise poses. They are being framed within selected…