What Could Go Wrong?
At first, it felt harmless.
A new color here, a script font there. A little drop shadow for drama. A speech bubble in Comic Sans to lighten the mood. Maybe a neon green button because “it pops.”
You were just making things. Being resourceful. Exploring your whimsy.
And then one day, you look around and realize nothing matches. Your website says one thing, your service menu says another, and your pitch deck looks like it was built on a dare.
This is what happens when you have tools, but no system.
And yes, giving structure to something new will hurt a little.
You’re going to have to let some things go.
Here’s the truth: a real visual identity is not a fun free-for-all. It’s constraint (on purpose).
We’re talking:
3–5 specific colors
1–3 approved fonts
A consistent layout structure
Rules about what goes where, how, and why
Once you have one, you lose the ability to make things up as you go.
You’ll miss the days of throwing a pink squiggle into your design because “it needed something.” You’ll crave that one curly font you used once on a flyer in 2019. You’ll find yourself hovering over Comic Sans, wondering if maybe—just maybe—it could work this time.
You’ll think about that rainbow gradient. The messy layout.
The wild little choices that felt like freedom.
They’re not part of the system now.
They had their time.
And like all things, they must go.
The good news is that when you don’t use every option available, you’ll stop looking amateur, and your brand will finally gain some credibility.
You’ll:
Be able to create professional looking material quickly and easily.
Look like a real business, not a design experiment.
Become both recognizable and memorable.
You’ll still think about the chaos sometimes.
You’ll wonder if you could sneak in a new texture or bring back that fun font from high school.
But you won’t. Because the system is stronger than the whim.
At Relative Media, we take your scattered brand materials and pull them into a system that works.
You’ll lose a few wild ideas, sure. But what you get in return is cohesion. Clarity. And credibility.
“None of the fonts matched. The logo was something our front desk person made in Canva. Now it looks like we hired someone. Because we did.”
— Mika Túnafiszche, Omvian Risk Diagnostics
If your branding still feels all over the place, start with The Brand Discipline Worksheet.
