The Worst Brand Advice I've Heard (And What to Do Instead)
Illustration of signage
Some opinions I hold strongly and am absolutely prepared to defend
I've been in a lot of brand conversations. With founders, with other designers, with marketers, with people who once watched a YouTube video about logos and now have opinions.
Some of what gets passed around as brand wisdom is actively harmful. I'm going to share a few of my least favorites — and what I'd tell you to do instead.
"Just get something up, you can rebrand later"
This one comes from a good place. It's the "done is better than perfect" instinct applied to brand, and in some contexts that instinct is right. But brand isn't the place for it.
Your brand is the first impression you make on every potential customer, partner, investor, and employee. First impressions are real and they persist. A "we'll fix it later" brand trains your early audience to have a certain expectation of you — and rebranding away from that later is harder and more expensive than getting more right the first time.
The correct version of this advice is: launch with a minimal but strategic brand. Not a placeholder. Not clip art and a random font. A simple, intentional visual identity that's built on clear positioning. You can evolve it. You shouldn't have to abandon it.
"Make the logo bigger"
A classic. A logo isn't a brand, and making it larger doesn't make the brand stronger. What it usually does is crowd out the thing that actually matters: the message.
Your logo should be present and recognizable. It should not be competing for attention with your headline. The hierarchy on your website and marketing materials should lead with the thing your customer cares about — which is almost never your logo.
"Your brand should appeal to everyone"
No. A brand that tries to appeal to everyone resonates with no one. Specificity is the point.
I know this feels counterintuitive when you're building something new and every customer counts. But vague positioning attracts vague interest, and vague interest doesn't pay invoices. The more precisely your brand speaks to a specific person's specific situation, the more that person feels like you built this for them — and that feeling is what converts.
"AI can handle the branding"
I'll be fair here: AI can handle parts of the execution. It can generate options, create variations, speed up production work. I use AI tools in my process and they genuinely help.
What AI cannot do is make the strategic judgment calls that determine whether a brand actually works. It can't interview your customers. It can't notice that your positioning sounds exactly like three of your competitors. It can't feel the difference between a brand that's strategically right and one that just looks good.
Tools don't replace thinking. They support it. The thinking still has to be yours — or someone qualified to do it on your behalf.
"Just copy what the big brands are doing"
The reason big brands look the way they do is because they spent decades and enormous budgets building recognition for that look. When a small startup mimics a big brand's aesthetic, they don't get the recognition — they just look derivative.
Your brand doesn't need to look like Apple or Airbnb. It needs to look like you — specific, intentional, and built for your actual customer. That's a much more interesting design problem anyway.
