Why playing it safe is costing you relevance, and what to do before your brand flatlines.
Beige logos. Generic taglines. Safe sans serifs. Websites that feel like they were built by a committee. The founder calls it “elegant.” The designer winces. The audience doesn’t look twice.
Welcome to the branding beige zone, a graveyard of bright-eyed aspirations, where bold ideas dissolve into soft hues and even softer statements. Where every word is focus-grouped into ambiguity. Where nothing risks and nothing lands. We’ve borne witness to it countless times: a promising idea walks into a boardroom and walks out a shell of its former self. The logo, lowercase. The colours, muted. The voice, massaged into palatability. Yawn! If branding is meant to signal conviction, too much of what we’re seeing feels like it’s waiting for approval. It’s founder-friendly, investor-safe and remarkably forgettable. So we’ve created a cheat sheet so you can avoid that dreaded zone…
Without tension, there’s no edge, no spark, no staying power.
The problem isn’t minimalism, it’s the fear behind it; the idea that neutrality is safer than specificity. That premium must mean polished. That refined should also mean indistinct. But “friendly and modern” is not a strategy, it’s a default.
Why Safe = Forgettable
Memorability requires a point of view. The brands we love are articulating something specific:
Continue reading on our Substack, Public Opinion.
