In a World of Identical Brands, Originality is a choice

Walk through a city. Scroll your phone. Open a startup pitch deck. You’ll notice something quietly unsettling.

Everything looks… the same.

Rounded sans-serif logos. Soft gradients. Friendly curves. Muted colour palettes. Abstract symbols that could belong to any industry. A brand world that feels increasingly safe, polite, and interchangeable.

This didn’t happen by accident.

It’s the result of cost-cutting, internalisation, automation, and a growing belief that branding is something that can be generated rather than crafted.

When Big Brands Start Looking Like Each Other

Some of the world’s biggest, most influential brands have quietly drifted into visual sameness.

Different sectors. Different audiences. Different origins.

Yet visually? Increasingly interchangeable.

This isn’t about “bad design.” In fact, most of these identities are technically very good. They’re clean. Scalable. Accessible. They work brilliantly across apps, dashboards, motion systems, and dark mode interfaces.

But they are also cautious.

They’ve been engineered to offend no one - and in doing so, they risk exciting no one.

The Forces Behind the Sameness

As creatives, we understand why this is happening.

1. Cost-Cutting and Internalisation

Large organisations are under constant pressure to do more with less. Branding, once seen as a strategic investment, is now often viewed as an operational task.

So brands move work in-house. They hire small internal teams. They ask junior designers to solve complex identity problems that used to involve strategists, writers, designers, and cultural thinkers working together.

Internal teams are talented - but they’re also constrained. They sit too close to the business. They’re risk-managed. They’re rarely given the space (or permission) to challenge deeply held assumptions.

The result? Safe decisions.

2. AI as a Shortcut, Not a Tool

AI logo generators and brand kits promise speed, efficiency, and affordability. And for early-stage businesses or placeholders, they can be useful.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth:
AI is trained on what already exists.

When businesses use AI to define their brand - rather than assist its execution - they are literally averaging themselves into the market.

AI doesn’t understand heritage. Or ambition. Or internal conflict. Or Founder energy. Or why a business exists beyond “solving a problem.”

It produces brands that look correct - but feel empty.

3. Trend-Led Modernisation

Yes, brands need to modernise. They need to be legible, accessible, mobile-first, globally adaptable.

We are not anti-modernisation.

But when modernisation becomes a formula rather than a response to character, the outcome is inevitable: flattening.

The nuance disappears. The edges soften. The story fades.

An Ocean of Sameness

We’re entering a brand landscape where distinction is quietly eroding.

Where fintech looks like wellness.
Where hospitality looks like SaaS.
Where healthcare looks like lifestyle.
Where everything speaks in the same friendly, neutral tone.

In trying to appeal to everyone, brands are losing the very thing that made them them.

And in a world where attention is scarce, sameness is far more dangerous than being divisive.

What Gets Lost When Brands Cut Corners

When businesses underestimate branding, they don’t just lose aesthetics — they lose meaning.

They lose:

• Memorability
• Emotional connection
• Cultural relevance
• Internal pride
• Long-term equity

A brand is not a logo.

It’s a system of belief, behaviour, language, and feeling.

That cannot be generated in seconds.

So... Let's look again

Lets be clear:

We are not suggesting some of these early logos were great pieces of design. In truth, a couple of them are - by today’s standards - downright offensive to our eyes.

They were often awkward. Inconsistent. Unrefined. Sometimes clumsy.

They broke rules we now consider basic.

But here’s the crucial difference: They were unmistakable.

Each identity had a personality - not because it followed best practice, but because it reflected a moment, a mindset, and a founding energy. You could feel the ambition, the experimentation, the uncertainty. They didn’t look like they belonged to a category - they were still busy inventing one.

Those early marks stood out precisely because they hadn’t yet been polished into neutrality.

They were opinionated. And that made them memorable.

What concerns us isn’t that brands change.

It’s what gets lost when distinctiveness is treated as a liability instead of an asset.

The Role of Creative Agencies (And Why They Still Matter)

A good creative agency doesn’t just “design.”

They:

• Ask uncomfortable questions
• Challenge internal assumptions
• Uncover the why beneath the brief
• Translate values into visual and verbal language
• Hold the long-term vision when businesses are under short-term pressure

Most importantly, agencies bring distance. Perspective. Pattern recognition across industries. Cultural awareness that internal teams often can’t access.

Brand creation is not a transaction - it’s a journey. One that requires trust, dialogue, disagreement, and iteration.

That human process is where originality lives.

This Isn’t Anti-AI. It’s Pro-Intentionality

AI is a powerful tool. It can accelerate workflows, explore directions, and remove friction.

But it cannot replace:

• Human intuition
• Lived experience
• Cultural sensitivity
• Strategic judgement
• Emotional intelligence

When businesses use AI to avoid thinking deeply about who they are, the result is predictable.

They blend in.

Standing Out Is Harder - And More Valuable - Than Ever

In a saturated, automated, templated world, difference becomes a competitive advantage.

The brands that will win are not the ones that look the most modern - but the ones that look the most themselves.

That takes courage. Investment. And collaboration.

Because the real risk today isn’t standing out.

It’s disappearing into the noise.

Choose Originality

If reading this has sparked even a flicker of discomfort, that’s a good thing.

It usually means there’s a sense - quiet but persistent - that something about your brand no longer fully reflects who you are, where you’re going, or what makes you different. Not broken. Not wrong. Just… diluted.

This is where we come in.

Originality is a choice.

If you’re ready to embrace it, we’d love to take that journey with you.

• Email us: hello@designmc.org
• Send us your brief: Click here