Flux thinking · Design · Being seen
STAND OUT OR STAND STILL.
Beige is a choice. So is being remembered.
THE COMFORTABLE TRAP
Somewhere along the way, businesses got talked into blending in. Sensible colours. Sensible fonts. A website that looks exactly like the one their competitor launched last year, but with fewer typos.
It feels safe. It isn’t. Safe just means people scroll past you at the same speed they scroll past everything else. Which is to say: instantly.
THE SUBWAY TEST
The Glasgow Subway has one roundel, one orange and one job: be found. You could be having the worst day of your life underground and you’d still spot it from across the street.
What the Subway should not teach you is how to run a brand. It goes round in circles. Same loop, same scenery, forever. Plenty of businesses do exactly that with their marketing and call it consistency.
Be the roundel, not the loop. Be found in a glance, then take people somewhere new.
“Nobody ever photographed a beige thing twice.”
HOW TO ACTUALLY STAND OUT
Pick a colour nobody in your industry would dare use, then commit like it’s a legal obligation. Say things in your own voice — the one you use down the pub, not the one in the boardroom.
And make one thing unmistakably yours: a headline, a mascot, a pattern, a promise. One thing people can point at. Two, if you’re greedy.
THE UNCOMFORTABLE BIT
Standing out means some people won’t like it. Good. If everyone likes your website, it’s wallpaper, and nobody ever hired the wallpaper.
Stand out or stand still. There’s no third door.
WEBSITES
THAT GET
NOTICED.
Distinctive websites, thoughtful branding and SEO that helps people find you.
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