Decoration, not a position

I had a thought.

Founders treat branding as a design project. A logo, a color palette, a font. Something to check off before launch.

And more and more, AI is the agency. I watch founders generate a brand as step one. A few prompts, and out comes a logo, a palette, a complete look. Before a single strategic question has been asked.

But that’s not branding. That’s decoration.

If everyone gets something that looks like a brand in a few prompts, nobody’s brand looks distinctive anymore.

The problem isn’t how it looks. The problem is that there’s no idea underneath it.

The brands that stick didn’t start with the logo. They started with something harder. Why would anyone care that we exist? What do we believe that our competitors don’t? What are we willing to be disliked for?

None of those questions has a visual answer. They have a strategic one. And no tool should be the one to come up with it for you. AI can only execute a position you’ve already taken yourself.

So why do founders let AI answer the question first, instead of answering it themselves?