Member-only story
Maybe we don’t have to (re)brand everything
and end up being clones of each other.

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…