Studio Note #61: The Risk of Not Taking Risks.
The difference isn't always what you do. Sometimes it's how you do it.
I've been working on a brand identity for a client recently, and I had one of those moments where I realized the direction I was taking wasn't wrong. It just wasn't particularly interesting.
The work was clean. Professional. It checked all the boxes and looked like something that belonged in the industry.
And that was the problem.
I'd been making decisions based on what I thought the audience would expect rather than what would actually make the brand distinctive.
So I went back to the drawing board.
I started exploring a different approach to the typography and overall personality of the identity. Something a little more classic, a little more confident and considerably less predictable.
The result was a brand that still felt appropriate for the audience but had a personality of its own.
And it got me thinking about how often we confuse playing it safe with making the responsible decision.
We don't want to alienate an audience or make a client uncomfortable. So we gravitate toward the familiar. The colors, typography and visual language that everyone else in the industry is already using.
But what happens when your brand is so concerned with fitting in that nobody notices it?
I'm not suggesting every brand needs to be provocative. Sometimes restraint is exactly what the work needs.
But restraint and predictability aren't the same thing.
Sometimes the biggest risk you can take is playing it safe.