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.