Clark Barron’s Post

B2B visual design & creative is an actual war crime. If your branding looks like everyone else’s, 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦’𝘴. B2B companies have no concept of what actual design work looks like. None. First, let's talk Branding vs. Brand, and why B2B gets it completely wrong. Most B2B marketers don’t actually understand brand, much less branding. Brand = gut feeling people have about your company Branding = visual language... the aesthetics, the wrapper, the vibe Branding gets you noticed. Brand keeps you remembered. Most B2B companies have neither. Go look at any random carousel ad, any LinkedIn display banner, any generic “ebook” promotion. You’ll see the same tired template: • A stock photo of a guy in a suit shaking hands • A big, bold claim nobody believes • A blue gradient background • A button that nobody clicks Have you noticed that most all of my graphics have that same design look and feel with my stupid face on it? There's a reason. And listen to me right now... People don’t scroll through their feed reading—They scroll looking. If your design doesn’t stop the scroll, you’ve already lost. • Ads • Videos • Content All of it matters. This is the fundamental problem with B2B advertising, content, and most everything involving attracting a top of funnel audience. Marketers obsess over copy, split-test headlines, and argue over CTA placement—like any of that shit matters if your ad looks like the same AI-generated LinkedIn sludge as everyone else’s. Brand is a strategy. Brand design is a weapon. Good visual design in your branding can 100% impact immediate results. When everything in your category looks the same, good design is the only unfair advantage left. And yet, in B2B, the ugliest, most forgettable garbage imaginable gets greenlit daily. B2B marketers are obsessed with playing it safe, and in doing so, they’re actively making their brand invisible. Good design isn’t just aesthetics—it’s a forced pattern break. And here's something that's going to sting: The people running “brand” at most B2B companies don’t actually know shit about design. Stop hiring "brand marketers" who don’t understand actual design principles, color theory, typography. This shit matters, folks. Instead, they outsource creativity to agencies, default to “corporate” aesthetics, and approve whatever looks safe enough to make it through legal. And then they wonder why their brand isn’t memorable. If I was a CEO with a CMO that wants to do a "rebrand", there's no way in hell I'd ever let them without a very strong background in brand and visual design. No chance. Even if you're outsourcing creative, you must be able to dictate creative direction—period. And because I know you're going to ask: Don — Torq ^ Absolutely crushing it right now, start there ^ Don, tag somebody for everybody to check out after they look at Torq.