The age of ‘good enough’ is branding’s biggest problem
As design becomes easier to produce, brands need to stop mistaking safety for strategy – because in a world where everything can look polished, the safest work is the easiest to ignore, says Mother Design’s Kirsty Minns
20/07/2026 3:53 am
Design is having a bit of an identity crisis. Every week there seems to be another tool, another platform, another promise that something we used to spend years learning can now be done faster, cheaper and, if we’re honest, often well enough.
That ‘well enough’ bit is the problem. I don’t think the answer is to pretend these tools aren’t useful. They are. We should be playing with them, testing them, breaking them and working out where they genuinely help. But if ‘good enough’ design is becoming easier to produce, then good enough can’t be what we’re here to sell.
For brands, that creates a bigger problem than whether a machine can make a logo. It means the middle of the road is about to get very, very crowded. And that’s why safe is the riskiest thing a brand can be right now.
