Where'd the soul go? 8 lazy design moves ruining brands.

I’ve been noticing a bit of a trend lately, if you want to call it that, where really big name entrepreneurs/businesses are re-branding, and their new branding is just a lot more… flat, boring, and to be honest, soul-less. 🤷‍♀️

I don’t know every detail that goes into these rebrands—the teams, the budgets, the creative process, the bajillion moving pieces.... But I do know this: somewhere along the way, these big names decided to strip their design down to… fucking nothing.

Design is meant to make you feel something, it’s meant to communicate ideas and information, and it’s also there to be a platform for creative self-expression, especially for creative entrepreneurs who are the face of their entire brand.

But when it’s flat, and bland, it blends into everything else, and it loses it’s soul. Not only that, but it loses it’s chance to be something fucking great.

The reason this stuff gets to me so much is because these aren’t small brands with no resources, these are the biggest names in the game. They have every opportunity to create something fresh, bold, and unique as fuck.

And instead?? They played it safe as hell. 🤦‍♀️

I've thought about this a lot, and I have a few theories on why this keeps happening. Maybe they’re leaning so hard into ‘minimalism’ that it crosses into lazy and lifeless. Maybe they’ve gotten so big they don’t think they need good design anymore. Whatever the reason, the end result is the same—brands that look stripped down to nothing. 🙃

But what I can break down are the specific design mistakes I keep seeing—the ones that instantly cheapen a brand and suck the life right out of it.

---

🎨 1—A colour palette that feels misaligned. New colours show up out of nowhere, clashing with the entire brand and photography instead of complementing them.

The Fix: Spend time on Brand Strategy before you get into any visuals, so you dial in the vibe & direction FIRST. Make space for the zoom out, look at how the colours work alongside brand photography & visuals AS A WHOLE. And if you want some colour inspo, pick up my free design guide, PLAYGROUND.

🙄 2—Going way too hard on all-centered text. Especially on website pages that are really text-heavy.

The Fix: Want your text to be easier to read? Left-align longer paragraphs. Centering them might feel balanced, but it slows people down and makes reading harder. Don’t center anything longer than a couple of sentences.

🤦‍♀️ 3—Too many fonts. 4 is too many, especially on a website when they’re used randomly with no hierarchy.

The Fix: Pick 2-3 max. One for headlines, one for body text, and maybe a wildcard if it actually serves a purpose.

🙃 4—Inconsistent font sizing and leading (line height). When text spacing is all over the place, it makes everything feel amateur very quickly.

The Fix: Set a clear type scale—think 1-3 heading sizes and a consistent body text size. Play around with the line height making sure the letters aren't overlapping and it doesn't feel too cramped. And once you’ve locked it in? Use it everywhere—inconsistency is what makes a layout feel messy.

👩‍💻 5—Extremely basic layouts. No creative arrangement of info, just stacked elements with zero thought put into flow.

The Fix: Pick up my Layout Library 📚, it’s stacked full of 60 layout wireframes with FRESH layouts you can use on any platform. Every one comes with design notes & an example design too, so you're not just copying the layouts, you're learning WHY they work. Or come join Layout Legends, my new design course (The Layout Library is included as a free bonus here, too).

🌿 6—Flat, lifeless backgrounds. No texture, no depth or layering, just basic-ass solid blocks of colour that look like placeholders.

The Fix: Curate a set of stock photos, scanned textures, or subtle gradients. Death to Stock, Unsplash, and You Work For Them are all solid resources. Even a light grain overlay can add depth without looking overdone.

✍️ 7—Nothing looks custom. Everything feels like a combo of 7 different mix-and-match Canva templates thrown together in a week.

The Fix: Even if you are using templates, put some time into customising them for your brand, don’t just use them as is. And don’t mix & match multiple templates, this is a one-way-ticket to shit show city, lol.

🤔 8—Random, inconsistent illustrations. Graphics that feel like they were added last-minute with no connection to the brand’s overall vibe.

The Fix: Put on your Creative Director hat and fucking zoom out. If you’re going to use illustrations, look at where they can be consistent across the entire brand instead of randomly showing up once or twice. Make sure they also have a consistent line weight & colour scheme.

Stop looking at the loudest names and thinking that’s where the best design is.

The real shit is happening under the radar, or in a whole fucking other industry.
Find it.
Pay attention.
And if you’re building your own brand?

For fuck’s sake, don’t blend in. Take the time to know yourself, know what makes you different, and go all in on building something that you’re proud of, and something that people can get behind.