How Polarised Sunglasses Killed Generic Brand Design

Walk into any sunglasses store and try to tell the brands apart. Same shapes. Same gradients. Same lifestyle photography of attractive people on boats. The category killed its own differentiation, and it is a warning for every industry where brand design defaults to category convention.

When design becomes wallpaper

Generic brand design happens when identity is treated as a template exercise, apply the category visual codes, add a logo, ship it. The result is brands that are invisible not because they are bad, but because they are identical.

Polarised sunglasses became a case study in sameness: every brand communicated “premium outdoor lifestyle” with the same visual language. When everyone looks the same, no one wins.

The strategic fix

Differentiation is not a design problem. It is a strategy problem that design solves.

Before any identity work, the question should be: what does this brand believe that competitors do not? What audience are we specifically for? What should we look like that no one else in this category looks like?

Those answers come from brand strategy, not a mood board.

Lessons for founders

If your brand looks like every competitor in your category, you do not have a brand problem. You have a strategy problem wearing a design mask.

At Maker Street Studios, we start every identity engagement with positioning work that ensures the design has a reason to be different, not just a brief to be different.

To discuss strategy, identity, or a full brand development engagement, start a conversation with our studio.

Questions founders ask

Why do brands in the same category end up looking identical?

Because identity gets treated as a template exercise: apply the category visual codes, add a logo, ship it. The result is brands that are invisible not because they are bad but because they are interchangeable. Sunglasses became the obvious case study, with every brand selling premium outdoor lifestyle in the same visual language.

Is looking different a design problem or a strategy problem?

A strategy problem that design solves. Before any identity work you need answers to what this brand believes that competitors do not, who it is specifically for, and what it should look like that nobody else in the category looks like. Those answers come from positioning, not from a mood board.

How do I know if my brand has this problem?

Cover the logo on your website and on your competitors' websites and see whether anyone could tell them apart. If your brand looks like every other business in your category, you do not have a design problem. You have a strategy problem wearing a design mask, and a new typeface will not fix it.

Is it risky to look different from everyone else in my category?

Less risky than looking the same. Category convention gives buyers no reason to choose you, so you end up competing on price and spend. Difference needs a reason behind it, which is why it should come from positioning rather than from a brief that simply asks for something bold.

How does Maker Street Studios approach differentiation?

Every identity engagement starts with positioning work, so the design has a reason to be different rather than a brief to be different. That means defining the belief, the audience and the competitive gap first, then building a visual system that occupies territory competitors have left open.