
Jul 26, 2025
Branding isn’t what you think it is.
It’s not your logo. It’s not your font. It’s how your brand makes people feel — and most teams are missing that completely.

Sophie Taylor
Lead Designer at Pokota
Let’s get something out of the way — branding isn’t your logo. It’s not your color palette. It’s definitely not the font you saw on some other startup’s homepage. Branding is how your product feels the moment someone lands on your site, scrolls your feed, or opens your pitch deck. And the reason your brand feels off isn’t because of the visuals. It’s because you haven’t made any real decisions yet.
A logo is not a strategy
You can spend $10K on a beautiful mark, and it still won’t matter if the rest of your brand says nothing.
Good branding starts before visuals. It starts with positioning. Who are you for? What are you actually promising? Why should anyone remember you after two minutes?
If that part’s fuzzy, the rest falls apart fast.
Fonts can’t fix a flat voice
You can’t type your way into personality. You need a tone. A perspective. A way of showing up that doesn’t sound like every other “modern solution for modern teams.”
A good brand voice doesn’t try to please everyone. It speaks clearly to the right people and filters out the rest.
Design is how you show up, not what you look like
Brand design isn’t just about looking pretty. It’s about showing up the same way, every time, in every place — from onboarding emails to product UI to your investor deck.
It’s the structure behind your presence. That’s why great brands feel consistent, even when they’re not trying too hard.
If people don’t feel anything, they won’t remember anything
Your brand doesn’t need to be loud. It doesn’t need to be quirky. But it does need to feel like something.
Indifference is the enemy. If people land on your site and feel nothing, no amount of gradients or animated buttons will fix that.
Final thought
A good brand makes you look legit. A great one makes people care.
Stop focusing on what your brand looks like. Start focusing on how it works, how it sounds, and what it helps people remember.