Ever found yourself editing the edge out of your brand to fit some “timeless” aesthetic?
In this rant-slash-sermon, I’m coming for the minimalist branding obsession, the “clean” studio photo shoots, and every blank canvas that’s ever made you feel like your personality was *too much*. We’re talking about the White Cube (yes, the art gallery concept) and how it’s sneakily become the go-to model for brands trying to look expensive, exclusive, and totally devoid of context.
Because the truth is your brand was never meant to live in a sterile box. It was built in real-life chaos with colour, character, and messy behind-the-scenes layers. And THAT is what makes it magnetic. Not how well it fits inside someone else's aesthetic formula.
So if you’ve been toning it down, stripping it back, and wondering why your brand looks good but doesn’t feel like you anymore... this episode is the reminder you didn’t know you needed.
A couple of weeks ago, I saw this reel from a brand photographer promoting her studio space for photo shoots. The video itself was stunning — soft lighting, textured white walls with an industrial vibe, a beige couch, a fluffy cream rug, patterned pillows…
Everything felt polished and curated.
While I watched, part of me got it. This photographer needed to create a space that could work for a variety of different people with different personalities, goals, outfits, and props. So she had to keep the environment neutral — something that wouldn't clash with whatever someone brought to their shoot.
Now, I love a great photo shoot. To be completely honest, the only reason I haven't had many done is because it's really hard for me to find a space that fits my brand and the narrative I'm trying to convey. Like, it doesn't make sense to have this circusy and flamboyant brand, but then be photographed against a white wall. Do you know what I mean?
So naturally, while I was watching this video, I started thinking about what it would be like for me to be photographed in this studio. And very quickly, I realised it was a hard pass. Because I would end up with very similar photos to everyone else who also got their photos done in this exact same space.
The space itself felt so generic that it actually went completely against my brand as a whole. Even though the setting was technically beautiful, it was also blank. The studio could quite literally fit anyone.
This reminded me of the White Cube concept you see in museums all around the world, especially contemporary art galleries. If you didn't spend your early 20s writing essays on art history (congrats!), you might not be familiar with it.
The White Cube is a gallery aesthetic characterised by its square or rectangle shape, white unadorned walls, and a light source (usually from the ceiling), typically with hardwood or polished concrete floors.
The white walls act as nothing more than a frame, and you'd naturally be drawn to the work of art itself instead of the space in which it stands.
Which sounds smart. However, to me and to several other people, the White Cube makes the reading of the art itself kind of problematic.
Because first, it's detaching the object from the context in which it was created, which obviously alters our perception, our feeling, and our reading of it. But it also makes art difficult and appear more expensive and exclusive — and therefore not for everyone.
In short, by removing all context, the White Cube makes art feel distant, untouchable. It detaches the work from the world it was created in.
It trades context for curation.
And you can probably see where I'm going with this, because that's what we've been doing with our brands as well. Thinking that a neutral background and a minimal aesthetic is this one-size-fits-all solution to be successful.
And that's the thing that really grinds my gears, because there is no one-size-fits-all solution. There's no formula, no proven method that if you just follow to a T, you're guaranteed to make it. In no direction, in no industry. It's just not a thing.
That's how we end up with brands that look good, but don't say anything. That's how we end up editing ourselves out of our brands to fit a template or a trend. That's how we end up toning ourselves down to feel expensive and exclusive.
Things don't exist in this idealised vacuum where they don't have to compete with anything else.
Think of Times Square. How many ads are simultaneously there fighting for your attention? Or think of your local supermarket shelf. How many brands are sitting side by side hoping you pick them? Think of the internet, for God's sake. How many visuals, voices, reels, carousels, and pop-ups are all swirling around in the same space?
First, there's no such thing as a blank canvas. There is no quiet room. There is no white cube in real life.
It's a construct to make you believe that stripping away your personality is the price you have to pay for being taken seriously. That being exclusive, luxury, expensive is this ultimate mark of success. It's a false promise that there's a magic way to make it all work out.
And second, things don't materialise themselves out of thin air. Context matters. It's what informs me who you are as a person, as a brand owner, as a service provider. It's what allows me to decide if you're the right person for me to work with.
Context is your personality. It's your story. It's the layers that make you who you are and that build your character and help to build the way you do business.
No work of art, no brand gets created in a White Cube. They're created somewhere else, and then they're placed in a White Cube for the sake of curation. So we, as the audience, only ever get to experience the White Cube version of it — this final and perfected product, and we think that’s where we have to create our brand.
When you do try and create from a place of curation, you revert back to a random Pinterest pin you liked the aesthetic of (which also has no context surrounding it), and you end up creating something that's either really similar to it, or even perhaps inadvertently copying it.
Or you just end up relying on pre-made templates a bit too much, inevitably find yourself hating those templates or trying to find new ones because you're editing pieces of your brand out to fit the template — when it's the template that should be fitting you.
This has just been one of those things that once you see it, you can't unsee it: we're told all the time to build personal brands, to show off more of our personalities online, to be real and raw. But then everything we're shown is in a white cube. It's depersonalised in favour of an aesthetic or a clean-cut message.
I'm not saying you can't have both — a clean-cut message and an actual brand personality. But I do think there's a paradox at play here.
Because we end up feeling so stuck trying to create a perfect version of something from the get-go, without considering the many iterations it takes to actually get there, that we end up getting sold these pre-made templates and timeless styles and minimal aesthetics as a one-size-fits-all solution that's versatile enough to fit all these different people and their different goals and personalities and contexts.
But versatile quickly becomes vague. And the last thing you want to be as a brand is vague.
I know that putting the personal back into your personality feels really risky and scary, but your personality is not a risk. Your context is not a liability. It's the very thing that builds trust, that sets expectations, and that allows your dream client to spot you from a mile away and line up begging to buy from you because it's so damn obvious you're exactly who they've been looking for.
And let's face it: you've always built your brand in context.
Your business didn't just appear out of thin air one magical day. You built it with color, with texture, with meaning, over time. You built it so it could reflect who you are, your journey to get here, what you stand for, and how you want people to feel when they walk through your digital front door.
So why on earth would you hide all of those details from your audience? Why would you aim for a perfect white cube when that frame adds so much more to the story?
It's like that phrase: it's not the destination, it's the journey.
You don't start with what looks good, you start with what feels true. You have a point of view, you get clear on what matters to you, who you're trying to reach and what change you're actually here to create. And only then do you start choosing the visuals that amplify that.
And the right people — the ones who will end up choosing you — will make up a much stronger and united community if they can rally behind you and your journey. But for that to happen, you have to let them in in the first place.
When you place yourself inside this metaphorical white cube, this sterile blank box, you're not making your brand more accessible. That's the real lie. You're actually making it harder for people to see you.
Thanks for coming to my rant!
If you've been sitting inside your own white box and you're wanting to bring more of your personality into your brand, then I want to personally invite you to step out of that cage through The Extravaganza, your all-access ticket to branding, website, and marketing assets for the visionary service provider leading their industry.
And with that, I'll see you in the next show!
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This episode was co-produced with Adrienne Cruz.
Over the last 5 years as a Brand & Marketing Designer, I’ve helped freaks like us design their unconventional brands so they can step onto the main stage & own their weird. Because if you wanted to be, look or sound like everyone else, you wouldn’t be where you are today. Now it’s your turn.
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