- By: Razonable
- Author: Luis Echánove
- Founder and Executive Creative Director | Razonable
- Author: Javier Hernández
- Associate consultan | Razonable
Sometimes a town simply needs a bridge so residents can get to the next village without too much hassle. A local government might call for a new crossing just to ease the daily commute, plain and simple, focusing on making life a bit easier with a design that meets real needs. Then there are those other places where practicality takes a back seat. In these towns, officials often decide to bring in a well-known architect famed for a very personal, unmistakable style. Suddenly, the structure isn’t only a way to span a gap, it turns into a kind of personal signature, more a highlight in the architect’s portfolio than a nod to the community’s own character. Often, the result is a bridge that, while admired by passing tourists and design fans, can feel oddly distant from what locals actually need. The design, at times, is more a statement of artistic flair than a tool serving everyday functions. In many cases, it even gives off the vibe that the creator’s vision overshadows the town’s own identity.
Illustration: Luis Echánove
That tension between an individual’s creative imprint and the straightforward needs of real users, is a lot like what goes on in branding. This clash of personal expression with practical requirements crops up more often than you might expect.
Brands That Wear Someone Else’s Clothes
When companies commission a visual identity, they’re investing for the long term in how their audience will understand and relate to them. But some clients select a designer or agency simply because they like their work in the past, their style, their visual “voice”. Nothing wrong with that, of course. Wanting good design is a sensible response. But here’s the trap: if you admire a portfolio too much, you might end up hiring a designer or brand agency to get their own brand redone again, not yours
Just as the bridge reveals more about the architect than the town they want to connect, a brand identity can wind up demonstrating more about the designer’s past work than the soul of the company itself. That’s when you end up with something we call an “author brand,” a visual statement that bears the unmistakable signature of the designer but says little or nothing about the company behind the brand.
This may seem innocuous at first glance. If it looks good, why not use it? But a brand identity is not decoration. It’s not a museum piece. It’s a tactical device designed to communicate a company’s mission, principles, character and promise. An attractive logo that doesn’t relate to the brand is like a nicely-engineered bridge that leads to nowhere.
The Designer’s Ego vs. the Brand’s Needs
Every designer has his or her own style, however humble. It’s part of what makes them strange and good at what they do. But the true professionalism of a designer is the ability to put that style aside when the moment demands, to put on the shoes of the brand and create something that belongs to the client, not to them.
This requires empathy, listening and most importantly, it takes humility.
When designers or branding agencies, value writing their own legacy over solving the brand’s problems, they cease to be collaborators and become authors. They create portfolios, not identities. And the client’s brand winds up in other people’s clothing, speaking in other people’s voice.
This is not just unprofessional, it’s a missed opportunity.
Visual Identity for Clousr designed by Razonable
The Goal: Authorship Without Ego
We are not making a case for generic design. We are not arguing every identity need be insipid and uncreative and ununique. On the contrary: we believe in bold, intelligent, beautifully crafted brand identities.
Those identities should belong entirely to the brand they represent. There are branding agencies such as Razonable, that guided by their emotional branding motto, achieve this goal for each project they develop.
The truly great designers know how to turn their talent into a servant of the brand rather than their own legacy. They also create systems, not just signatures. Their work might be distinguished by its quality, but it will never be confused with a personal brand.
The paradox is that with the better designer, the less their ego is visible in the result.
Donald Mackenzies Whiskey designed by Razonable
A Better Way Forward
For clients: watch for falling in love with a portfolio. Look deeper. Ask whether the agency or designer you’re looking into is known for versatility, for listening, for adaptability to various brand personalities. Request case studies, not just what the work looks like but why it looks the way it does.
For designers: don’t gloat. Having the talent and the ability to produce significant work will be determined by the extent to which you let the brand take the lead. Your client success dictates your own success, not the next masterpiece.
For both: bear in mind that brand identity is not an art project. It’s a business tool and like the finest tools, it should conform to the grasp of the user, not the grasp of the maker.
In the end, the best branding doesn’t call attention to itself. It helps customers feel something. It builds trust. It clarifies purpose. And yes, it can be beautiful, breathtaking even, but never at the expense of meaning or function.
Let the bridges we build in branding connect people, not to the designer, but to the brand itself.
To further explore how brands can preserve their authenticity in a rapidly evolving digital world, we invite you to watch the full webinar “Can Your Brand Stay Human in the Age of AI?: Branding with Soul”, hosted by the Spain-U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The session dives into the challenges and opportunities of building emotionally resonant brands while embracing new technologies like AI.
- At Razonable, we do emotional branding to help brands build relationships based on intangible values with their consumers, so they can come to feel them as something of their own. To achieve this, we develop visual identity, naming, packaging, editorial design, and retail design projects.
- https://razonable.net/en
