“We really want something different.”
It’s a sentence we hear regularly at the start of a branding project. And believe us: we love hearing it.
Not yet another brand doing exactly what everyone else in the industry is doing. Not automatically reaching for the same colours, the same photography and the same safe words.
But a brand with character. A face of its own. Something that stands out among everything we see every single day.
Until it actually becomes different.
Because standing out sounds fantastic in a briefing. In a presentation too, for that matter. It only gets exciting when the design has to go out into the real world.
Suddenly, it gets real
A distinctive identity on a screen is one thing. But put that same identity on a building, packaging, website or truck, and suddenly the dynamic changes.
Shouldn’t the logo be a little bigger?
Could we add the website as well?
Shouldn’t we explain more clearly what we actually do?
All perfectly understandable questions. You’re investing in visibility, so of course you want people to understand who you are.
But that’s exactly where an interesting trap lies.
Because the more you try to explain, the less there can be left to discover.
From stopping power to information board
Take a truck.
You literally have a moving billboard at your disposal. A few seconds of attention on the motorway, at a traffic light or while someone is overtaking.
You can try to use those few seconds to communicate your logo, website, services, proposition and half your company presentation.
Or you can do one thing.
Make someone look.
That is a fundamental difference.
A strong image, an unexpected message or a brand expression that deliberately doesn’t give everything away can make a far greater impact than a design containing everything the checklist says simply has to be there.
Because communication doesn’t always have to be complete to be effective.
Sometimes curiosity is more valuable than explanation.
But what if they don’t get it?
And that’s where perhaps the greatest enemy of distinctiveness enters the picture: uncertainty.
Not because anyone suddenly wants a bad design. But because being different automatically means letting go of something.
The reassurance of a gigantic logo.
The reassurance of a URL.
The reassurance of a descriptive tagline.
The reassurance that absolutely no one will ever have to wonder: Hey, what is this?
While that last question is sometimes exactly what you want to achieve.
Strong branding dares to leave space. For curiosity. For interpretation. For a second look.
You don’t always have to put the whole story on the cover to make someone open the book.
Standing out requires trust
That also makes standing out more difficult than it sometimes sounds.
It doesn’t just require a creative agency willing to come up with something different. It also requires a client willing to hold on to that difference when things start to feel uncomfortable.
Because in the end, the safe alternative is almost always available.
Bigger logo.
Clearer message.
Add the website.
One more line of copy, just to be safe.
And another one.
Until there’s nothing left for anyone to object to.
But unfortunately, often nothing left for anyone to feel either.
The customer is king
Of course.
Ultimately, the client decides. And that’s exactly how it should be.
Our job isn’t to defend our design at all costs. Our job is to explain why certain choices were made, what they achieve and, sometimes, what gets lost when you change them.
Then we make that decision together.
But perhaps, every now and then during a process like this, we should remind each other of that one sentence from the original briefing:
“We really want something different.”
Because everyone wants to stand out.
Until they actually do.
