That statement, delivered with the clear-eyed profundity of a four-year-old, has been etched into my mind ever since: ‘I am canceling all of my fears.’

The fear of failure—making the wrong decision, falling short of your ability, working to the very edge of your current capabilities and understanding—hits at the heart of our comfort zones. It’s especially true in creative practice, where curiosity and experimentation can often feel at odds with the fear of taking a misstep.

A bad haircut can feel akin to a quick-and-dirty rebrand initiative. Marketers know the danger of a hasty refresh that feels disconnected from the brand’s real identity. It’s the equivalent of that pixie cut no one asked for: mismatched, out of place, and struggling to fit what you know and feel about yourself. Similarly, an amazing hair transformation can renew your sense of self, presenting you in a new light and bolstering previously unrevealed depths of your character.

Practically and philosophically, “step back” is a concept most of us understand: move away to gain a new perspective. Take a moment to note the work demanded by the whole instead of hyper-focusing on the mechanics of the part. Yet few of us put this into practice, let alone do it autonomously, when our work most requires it.

“Step back” can feel contrary to the objective of any effort, especially when direct focus feels so entangled with the notion of productivity.

Spotify consistently wraps a full sensory journey around our year, filled with bold visuals, off-the-wall conceptual analyses, and our favorite music. Raw data becomes an elevated experience. Moreover, we get the real, full picture of our playlist—intimate insights into the moments each song soundtracked, making it all the more personal.

Similarly, on the B2B side of service-based industries, we get really excited about data. It solidifies the impact we make. From a creative strategy standpoint, they make for poppy graphics that are easy to produce and digest. But are these easy-to-post stats putting the cart before the horse when evangelizing a piece of data?

After hours of collaboration resulting in changes that clarify your narrative, research that connects your client succinctly to your offering, you receive the biggest, most glaring piece of criticism: a stakeholder has seen the image on the cover not once, not twice, but repeatedly. 

The real question is: Is your stakeholder's boredom (or even personal aversion) with the cosmetics of your asset indicative of a greater brand triumph?

We all have pools of saved content—Behance, Dribbble links, Instagram screenshots, and LinkedIn posts—that inspire our brand-building efforts. Yet, when faced with a blank slate, the confines of brand standards, budgets, and overused corporate stock photography often hinder our creative vision. Is it really your brand’s limitations at fault, or is your endless mood board of idyllic mockups holding back your brand’s true potential?

When you’re a creative the word “pretty” is often used to describe the nature of your work and to call you to task. The word stings for a brief moment as you smile, nod, and accept your role in the grand scheme of your organization. Yet, you’re there in the middle of a conversation, translating business needs into a brand experience that is both elevated and aligned, and your work as an experienced visual strategist, solutionist, and trusted partner just translates to “pretty?”

Large companies are often seen making small changes to popular typefaces to bring them into the world of their own brand. And, while it’s expensive to make these new developments, the cost they are seeking to offset is much greater when considering the licensing price of a font.

But, is the font-use cost incurred by a tech company as expansive as OpenAI has become, spanning all of the above needs at a rapidly increasing rate this early in the game, any lower when they’ve leveraged the type opportunity as a toe in the door for a full-scale rebrand?

Regardless of what world you live in, living in the universe of brand and creative guarantees you’re fed article upon article of consumer packaged goods; and with CPG being one of the most relevant and tangible ways we, being consumers ourselves, interface with brands, it’s no surprise. We live in a world of packaging.

But, coming from a perspective nestled within the world of service-based B2B rebrand efforts, what can we take away from these studies on rebranded visuals when we’re thinking about taking the risk of a rebrand or augmenting recognizable brand elements within our own creative strategies?

While it’s incredibly far from being a unique observation: we are hit with a digital wall of voices. The conversations we have daily feel louder and noisier than ever. Make the mistake of searching one thing and suddenly an algorithm is pulling you down a black hole: feeding you miracle solutions, contradicting advice, a dozen competing brands, and divisive opinions for the next week… or for as long as you keep clicking in search of your solution.