Everything looks the same.

Somehow, an invasive species has taken over the world. And the Don Corleone of this Mafia is a Greyscale interface and the font Inter. Microsoft, Apple, Notion, Linear, Cursor, ChatGPT, Visual Studio Code, Grok are just some of the companies I’ve interacted with recently that feel like they are variations of the same thing. Yes okay, all my examples are of tech, but isn’t all of life tech-focused these days?

I have nothing fundamentally against Inter or minimalism. In my agency days, I recommended and spearheaded the use of Inter across multiple commercial projects.

But such wanton copying irks me. Companies are less willing (or perhaps able?) to be original. Layout, colour, font and interactions are all knobs that are begging to be dialled. Why is there such a Dearth of originality in popular Branding?

The way to be visually original is to be deep, honest and precise. What is really at the Root of your business? What’s your core belief? That will inspire an interface that is very different to everyone else’s. Brands are a bit like human beings—some similarities but each starkly different.

Claude is an interesting example of a product that has tweaked some of the dials. In a copycat industry, it feels somewhat different. The cream background, the serif font, the Orange highlight. It feels friendlier, softer, more thoughtful, calmer. That’s not by accident.