The dangers of design by committee in branding

I wrote on my personal website about the dangers of crowdsourcing important decisions.

It’s my belief that all important decisions in a company ultimately need to be made by one visionary leader.

When decision-making is shared equally among too many team members and there’s no unified vision, quality drops and timelines slip.

Design by committee gives birth to mediocrity.

The dangers of design by committee

All decisions carry risk.

But when you outsource branding decisions to the crowd, you are bound to end up with the creative equivalent of McVitie’s biscuits. Inoffensive, bland, and completely forgettable.

Or, just as bad, a haphazard collection of ideas that don’t fit together.

During my 10+ years in branding, I’ve seen design by committee lead to:

Diluted, directionless positioning
Meaningless, jargon-ridden messaging
Frankenstein creative concepts and design outputs
Websites that are meant to serve every use case, but only end up confusing

With too many cooks in the kitchen, each design decision gets negotiated to death and the final product pleases no one.

That’s why people associate the term “corporate” with “stale, boring, and possibly soul-crushing.”

And it’s why they associate “startup” with “innovative, and cool” (or, if they’re cynical, perhaps “overrated”).

If you’d like to see the logical conclusion of design by committee, fire up ChatGPT and ask it to create something for you: a brand positioning statement, a tagline, or a logo.

Complete slop.

AI uses thousands of inputs to generate its output. It emulates human creativity, but anyone with a pulse can spot the difference right away.

The logic of design by committee is the same as that of AI generation, only far less efficient and sophisticated.

What about research and customer feedback?

First, let me say this:

Customer feedback and market research are table stakes.

But if you want to build an actual brand and all that comes with it — category leadership, preference, and pricing power² — you need to understand what questions to ask, which answers to listen to, and how to synthesize the information into a coherent brand strategy.

Research should be used to frame problems and business goals, not as a substitute for creative genius.

Branding decisions cannot be successfully crowdsourced.

Focus groups won’t help you make strategic decisions about the direction of your company. Nor will your employees.

That’s your job.

How to avoid design by committee in branding

Odds are you’ve never gone through a branding process or rebrand before. At the very least, it’s a rare experience.

It’s only natural that you lack the confidence to take charge of the process.

First, recognize that this is where the danger of falling into design by committee comes from: your own lack of clarity about the process, and the insecurity that comes with it.

Get clear on the process

Creative pursuits are best approached with a blue-collar mindset.

There is no “magic” involved.

It’s literally just a series of iterative, mechanical steps. Go through them one by one, and eventually you’ll end up where you need to be.³

First, you need a plan. There is no one right way to conduct a branding project: the most important thing is that you think about how you’re going to approach it before diving in head first.

My recommendation is that your plan include the following steps:

1. Brand strategy (outcome: brand positioning statement)

Customer motivations and triggers
Product features and benefits
Desired brand image
Point of view and core beliefs
Key differentiators
Proof points
Category framing

2. Brand messaging (outcome: brand messaging framework)

Tone of voice guidelines
Messaging pillars & talking points
Tagline
Brand story
Ready-to-use copy
Supporting messaging assets

3. Brand design (outcome: visual identity)

Visual research
Visual differentiation strategy
Stylescaping/moodboarding
Rough concepting
Round of refinements
Final designs (logo, typography, color palette, implementations)

4. Brand guidelines

Logo usage
Typography usage
Color palette usage
Implementations
Supporting assets

5. Brand implementation

Website design
Branded collateral
Packaging design
Etc.

Assign a single owner

You need a single decision-maker to be in charge of the process.⁴ The decision-maker’s job is to synthesize input and make the final calls.

I recommend the founder or CEO to be the decision-maker.

In extremely rare instances, the role can be delegated to a brand manager or even an external consultant. This is far from ideal, but if the alternative is no owner at all, it’s the lesser of two evils.

Limit inputs

You have to set boundaries, otherwise you’ll never get anything done.

The brand strategy is designed to collect all the inputs you need to make sound creative decisions throughout the rest of the project.

Beyond that, it’s important to get input⁵ early on in the visual design process: not halfway through it.

You have to conduct visual research to make sure you’re not inadvertently copying your competitors. Visual design offers an opportunity for differentiation, and you shouldn’t miss it.

Do your brainstorming early, then switch to structured critique.

Get stakeholder input on the concepts that spring from the research to make sure you’re headed in the right direction, but don’t make yourself a slave to the feedback.

Beyond that, only add input when absolutely necessary.

And always consider these questions when evaluating feedback at any point in the process:

Does it tie back to our strategy?
Does it improve clarity or distinctiveness?
Is it specific and actionable (not “make it pop”)?
Does this help the final product serve the target audience better?
Do we prioritize changes that create business value?
What’s the cost to change vs. impact?⁶

Keep the end goal in mind

Fundamentally, your brand should be grounded in fundamental truths about your business.

It should be something that you can be proud of. Something that stands out from the competition. That people connect with on a visceral level.

In pursuit of this, it’s better to be bold and make a few mistakes. If you really can’t live with the outcome, you can always change it later.

FAQs and objections

Isn’t collaboration the point of a team?

Yes. Collaboration gathers inputs; decision makes meaning. Different jobs.

How is this different from “design by dictator”?

I don't know. Call it whatever you want: as long as it gets results, that's what matters.

When should research overrule the Decider?

When it reveals a real mismatch with the chosen direction. Then you update strategy, explicitly.

How do I involve team members without derailing decision-making?

Give team members structured moments to weigh in, then let the decision-maker prioritize what ships. Inputs are welcome; final calls aren’t crowdsourced.

Where do brainstorming and iteration fit?

Use brainstorming early to explore options, then move into an iterative critique cycle. That way you prioritize the ideas that best serve the business goals.

Written by

Jon Persson