1. Branding friction. tl;dr: The critical difference between brand design and digital design. What we might label “digital design,” especially the field of digital product design, has evolved rapidly over the past 5-10 years, firmly establishing itself as the dominant design practice in most corporations. What’s most interesting, though, isn’t that “designing for digital” has evolved so quickly, but the singularly beige blob of genericism it’s evolved into. This is largely because of three things. First, reusable componentry, pattern libraries, rapid iteration tools, and design systems (think Material Design) narrow the aperture of what’s believed to be possible. Second, a design process that seeks to eliminate friction to make the desired customer flows as smooth as possible tends to mistake familiarity for usability. And third, a kind of collective groupthink FOMO that dictates what’s “acceptable” and “good” that’s aggressively policed online. Critically, while removing friction and optimizing for familiarity plays a critical role in the successful delivery of the product, if extended too far beyond, it can be terrible for the brand. This is because the goal of brand design shouldn’t be the removal of friction; it should be harnessing it and turning it into something unique. As a result, a brand designer should strive to accentuate the exact thing a product designer seeks to eliminate. And the tension between the two is where magic should happen. This article provides an unwitting example. The author compares Squarespace to Oatly, claiming that Squarespace doesn’t work because it’s about branding, whereas Oatly does because it’s about storytelling. While this is abject nonsense, I’m delighted to borrow from it in order to make my point. The author correctly reacts to the Squarespace brand being instantly forgettable. However, this isn’t due to a lack of storytelling; it’s due to a product design mentality applied to branding design - simple, seamless, friction-free, and utterly generic. Oatly, on the other hand, takes a brand-first approach to design that stands out uniquely and distinctively on the shelf and in media. This isn’t about storytelling; it’s about friction and placing things into your mind that you’ll remember. Frankly, the Oatly typeface is far more distinctive than anything they write in it. Far from friction-free, Oatly revels in its grit in the oyster status. Just look at how unique the packaging is compared to every other nut-milk on the shelf. It pains me to feel that I have to say these things because it represents some of the most basic and foundational building blocks of how branding works, but it needs to be said. The overwhelming application of the seamless digital mindset to branding is slowly but surely depriving branding design of everything that makes it special. Picture, for a second, what would happen if a digital designer designed the iconic Coca-Cola bottle. Would it be “instantly recognizable even when laying broken on the ground?” Not a chance. Instead, it would be the most familiar, generic bottle in existence. Simple, easy, modern, and seamless. And utterly, forgettably, boring as a result. The goal isn’t to make everything the same, familiar and comfortable, and remove all friction to the point that your brand becomes so generic that it could be any brand. Instead, the goal is to do the unexpected and create a memorable friction. To actively avoid what everyone else is doing precisely because it’s what everyone else is doing, no matter how nice it might be, how well designed, how aesthetically pleasing, or how comfortable. Why? Because we’re not in the comfort business, we’re in the branding business. And if we’re in the branding business, we’re in the standing out business.
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