Generative AI has made competent imagery, copy and video cheap and fast to produce. That is useful — and it creates a new problem. When everyone can make something that looks professional, professional-looking stops setting anyone apart. Feeds fill with work that is smooth, plausible and forgettable.
Distinctiveness is the scarce resource
The brands that stand out are the ones people can recognise without seeing the logo: a colour used with conviction, a typeface with character, a tone of voice, a way of moving on screen. These distinctive assets take time to build and discipline to keep, which is exactly why they can't be generated on demand by a competitor.
Give the tools a brand to follow
Teams will use generative tools; the question is whether the output looks like you. A brand system built for this era goes beyond a logo sheet:
- Clear principles for imagery, voice and composition that can guide prompts and reviews.
- Reusable, approved assets — patterns, illustration styles, motion templates — that generated content is built around.
- A review step that checks work against the brand, not just for mistakes.
Motion and sound are part of the identity
Much of a brand's life now happens in video, apps and short-form content. How a brand moves — its pace, its transitions, the way its logo resolves — is as recognisable as its colours when designed deliberately, and as forgettable as stock footage when left to chance.
A point of view can't be generated
What people ultimately connect with is a perspective: what you believe, what you make, how you treat people. Tools can help express it. They can't invent it for you.
Our Brand Identity practice builds distinctive brand systems, brought to life by our Motion & Animation team and put in front of the right people by Digital Marketing & Growth.