Has Perfect Killed Personality in Design?
But in chasing this perfection, has design become too sterile? Too precise, too safe, maybe even a little transactional? There has been brilliant work lately, truly outstanding in craft and execution, yet I still struggle to recall something that stopped me cold. Something that ruffled feathers, broke convention, or felt genuinely unexpected. The quality is there, the ambition is there, but has anything felt wildly different?
It’s not just on studios or designers. Client demands and market habits shape the work. Clean, minimal, transparent, message-first. All great brand qualities, but maybe we’ve lost those small sparks of wonder. The moments that surprise. The details that make a brand feel alive.
The industry moves with the world, and right now we’re in the age of AI, accessibility and sharp cultural opinions. That has created a landscape of friendly, approachable design. I can’t help but wonder when the pendulum might swing back toward risk, toward design that speaks directly to the true believers and takes them somewhere unforgettable.
I’ve noticed my own design style shifting, with accessibility and simplicity guiding almost every creative choice. Maybe it’s time to challenge that. To deliberately create work that pushes against the current landscape and stirs something unexpected, just to see what new ideas emerge.
What Makes a Brand Worth the Journey?
Now I’ll admit, I’m no expert in fine dining. Michelin stars aren’t exactly part of my everyday world. But the system itself really caught my attention. It felt like such a clever way of ranking experiences. And it got me thinking.
Could this approach work beyond food? What if we applied it to museums, exhibitions, botanical gardens or events? Could we take it even further and apply it to brands?
Here’s a simplified breakdown of how Michelin ranks things:
- One star means very good. Worth stopping for if you’re already on the way. Generally, expect higher prices.
- Two stars means excellent. Worth a short detour. You’re making an effort to go there. Prices reflect the quality.
- Three stars means exceptional. Worth a trip just for the experience alone. You go there for that, and nothing else. Expect the highest standards.
So I started to wonder, could brands be viewed through this lens too?
Is your brand the kind people stumble across while looking for something else?
Is it something they’re willing to take a small detour for, maybe because your ad caught their eye or someone they trust recommended you?
Or is your brand so distinctive, so magnetic, that people go out of their way just to engage with it and nothing else?
Maybe there’s room for this kind of thinking in how we define what makes a brand powerful. Not just in what it offers, but in how far someone is willing to go to experience it.
The Fear of Being Seen vs the Fight to Be Noticed
That’s not a knock on small towns. It’s just something I noticed. With fewer people and more traditional ways of life, things tend to settle into patterns. Behaviour, dress, ideas. They all find a rhythm that doesn’t change too much.
I still remember my first real taste of London when I was around fourteen. It was a jolt to the system. Suddenly I was somewhere no one even noticed you. Not because they were rude but because they simply didn’t have the time. Everyone was moving, busy, locked into their own world. And in the strangest way, that was liberating. I felt like I could be whoever I wanted to be. I could shape a new version of myself. I wasn’t trying to fit in anymore. I was trying to stand out.
There was a kind of thrill in it. Walking through the city, seeing people with style and energy I’d never seen before. I wanted to be like them. I wanted to turn heads the way they did, even if they didn’t realise it. But here’s the funny part. In trying so hard to be different, to look like the people who inspired me, I slowly started to blend in again.
It makes me think about brands. Especially the ones born in small towns. It’s so easy to chase after what you admire. You follow the leaders, you adopt their style, and before you know it, you’ve become part of the crowd you once looked up to. Suddenly you’re not different anymore.
But here’s the twist. Small rural brands actually have a rare chance to break through. They’re surrounded by sameness which means their uniqueness has space to shine. They just have to take the leap. Step into the light. Risk being seen. And yes, risk being judged.
That risk though, it might just be where the magic lives.
Why Most “Revolutionary” AI Tools Fade Fast
I am not so sure. If I am honest, I think much of what we are seeing now will end up as two or three use novelties. Interesting for a weekend, then quietly forgotten.
That might sound hopeful, perhaps even a little selfish, because no part of me wants to see our industry handed over to something that can outthink us. But more than that, I do not believe the people marketing these tools are really thinking about what consumers actually want.
The other day I watched a three minute video from a tech influencer. They were raving about a new AI platform that lets you insert yourself into a fully animated movie, control the plot, and design every scene. According to them, this would bury Netflix and become the next great entertainment platform.
Is it cool? Absolutely. Will people try it? Without question. Will it become something they use every day? I cannot see it.
Here is why. Most people do not have lives that can accommodate this sort of thing. They come home after nine or ten hours at work. They cook, they tidy up, they deal with the dozens of small duties that keep life moving. Then, maybe, they sink into the sofa for an hour before bed. Do they really want to spend that time crafting a film narrative, designing characters, building sets and writing plot twists? I think the reality is that they want to be told a great story, not spend their precious free time making one from scratch.
Personally, if I have the choice between watching Joaquin Phoenix command a scene with his brilliance, or spending hours creating a storyline only to watch myself as a video game avatar move through it, I know exactly which way I would go. Maybe something like this will upend streaming as we know it. But over the last few years of AI hype, I have seen countless tools hailed as groundbreaking and world shifting that have left very little impact.
We will see what happens.