You can't graphic design your way to fame.

Let’s get something out of the way quickly, so the design purists can relax and unclench: graphic design matters. I studied visual communication (including graphic design) before a career in advertising. Done well, graphic design as an expression of systematic creativity makes brands clearer, bolder, and easier to spot. But here’s the uncomfortable truth—on its own, it’s never enough.

You can’t graphic design your way to brand fame. There. I said it. In fact over the past seven years working with B2B tech brands, I've said it until I'm blue in the face (2727C for those that care).

The myth of the famous design refresh

Somewhere along the way, tech brands bought into the idea that tweaking a logo, adding a splash of ownable colour, or commissioning a tasteful pattern set will rocket a tech brand to the top of the fame charts. As if fame were a Pantone swatch away. It's not.

The human brain, that gloriously lazy piece of meat in your skull, doesn’t process design the way a designer does. It doesn’t see brand patterns or design systems. It doesn’t decode typography. It doesn’t swoon over graphic overlays interlaced into stock imagery.

It looks for meaning. It looks for emotion. It looks for things it’s seen before—faces, voices, characters, stories. In short, it looks for distinctive memory structures. And newsflash: your carefully crafted grid system is not one. If you judge creative on how much it 'pops' visually rather than how much it connects with the audience, you're part of the problem. If the meaning behind your design language never escapes the brand guidelines, but continually escapes your audience, you're part of the problem. If you feel that the same approach to designing your website should inform how you advertise your brand, you're part of the problem.

Design ≠ Distinctiveness

Now, distinctive assets are the holy grail of brand fame. They’re the short-cuts to memory, the brand’s emotional coat-hooks. But not all assets are born equal. Characters, for instance, are distinctive gold. Aleksandr the Meerkat. The Honey Monster. The Michelin Man. Characters aren’t just recognised—they’re loved. They show up, get remembered, and pull attention like magnets. They exude Competitive Creativity®, because they talked to both the verbal and visual side of the brain.

Music? Same deal. Think of Intel’s four-note sting. Or the Go Compare tenor who you love to hate. These are sonic fingerprints—immediate, emotional, and sticky. But design? On its own, it’s too quiet. Too polite. Too reductive. Too cool. The problem isn’t that it’s bad. The problem is that it rarely evokes memory-creating emotion. The brain doesn’t catalogue Bauhaus layouts in the same way it does a bloke in a moustache singing about car insurance.

The brand world is bigger than design

Look at the brands that punch through. They don’t just have “good design”—they have a brand world. A whole ecosystem of assets, stories, references and codes. They behave with confidence. They talk with a voice. They show up with a cast of recurring characters. They use music like a signature. They create culture, not just compositions. Graphic design can support that—it can shape the playground. But it is not the game.

The cult of good taste

The more refined your design gets, the more it echoes the latest Pinterest trends, the more likely it is to blend in. Especially in categories like tech where everyone’s gone full “Scandi Calm”. Flat icons. Dark shades with acid or minty highlights. Congratulations, your brand now feels like everyone else’s, and only media spend will determine who gets remembered. In the race to be tasteful, we’ve forgotten how to be memorable.

What to do instead

1. Build assets that scream, not whisper Start with what the brain notices—faces, voices, motion, melody. Build assets that have character and repeat them religiously.
   

2. Create a brand world, not a style guide A brand is not a layout system—it’s a feeling. An experience. A world that consumers can step into and recognise from a mile away.
   

3. Make taste your servant, not your master Good design helps. But if your choice is between “tasteful” and “memorable,” pick memorable every time.
   

Graphic design is a wonderful servant and a terrible master. It can elevate a brand—but it can’t carry one. If you want fame, you need more than lines and logos. You need drama. Story. Memory. Characters. Culture.

Because the human brain doesn’t fall in love with colour and shapes.

It falls in love with personality. If you're interested in hearing more about the LogicLogicMagic approach and how we can help your organisation establish stronger emotional connections with your target audience in the year ahead, download our guide here: "Mogic's guide to making marketing more memorable."