Seeing is believing: A new look is coming for tech

If this was two years ago, I would say I was crazy. But a bear market, some spectacular failures in the tech world, and – lest we forget – the looming threat of sentient AI coming for art, college essays, and the way we flirt on the internet, have left a… particular smell in the air. And do you know what it smells like? Opportunity. An opportunity for a dynamic shift in how the Web2 and Web3 categories emerge from this crisis and start a new chapter of brand exploration.

From where I sit, as a creative director who has worked in the crypto and emerging tech space through the hard times and the good, I can see a change coming in how brands look. We’ve witnessed these transformations before. The financial crash of 2008 changed consumerism, so direct-to-consumer brands entered the market with a new approach. Customers turned to clear, online shopping interfaces held up by sans-serif logos, millennial pink, light blue backgrounds, and not a sharp edge in sight. Legacy brands followed their lead: we witnessed brand authority change. And it’s changing again now.

In the crypto world, we embraced what I lovingly call the space age. During this period, blockchain and crypto were so theoretical that all we could do was conjure galactic, interstellar images to represent how excited we were for the bold new promise of Web3. Devs caught our vibe, but our mothers were still confused at Thanksgiving.

I sense a growing desire for an antidote: texture and a doubling down of the digital handmade. More design that references old stuff, made fresh for a tech landscape in desperate need of some nuance.

So what does brand authority and trust look like, post tech calamity, and near meltdown? Well, in a brand world futzing with AI and over-vectored fakery, I sense a growing desire for an antidote: texture and a doubling down of the digital handmade. More design that references old stuff, made fresh for a tech landscape in desperate need of some nuance. More brand maximalism and the flexibility it affords. More joy, fun, and unpredictability, all placed on top of a strong grid like the ones we studied in design school. Kids, turn to page 20 of The Vignelli Canon, please.

I want tech to embrace a new look. Instead of morphing into “blands” buoyed by cheap AI stunts, and well-trod visual territories, tech brands should listen to the designers telling them to buy that typeface, to hire those artists, and to commit to actually saying something. I want brands in the tech space to wear differentiation like a badge of honor. No cheap tricks from the 2008-era rulebook, please.

Brands that invest in creative, will win. And if we want to leave FTX, SVB, and all the others behind, we have to look like we’ve moved on. Users need to see it to believe it. Now, more than ever, we must invest in the creative process and show the world we mean business.

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Blokhaus is a marketing and communications agency with a focus on Web3 and emerging tech. Since we were founded in 2021, Blokhaus has supported numerous high-profile projects and activations around the globe, working in partnership with some of the biggest brands in the world. To learn more about our work, check out our Case Studies. To get in touch, visit our Contact Us page.