Grabbing texture ideas from food pics backfired on a branding job

I used to think coffee stain textures from food blogs made designs feel warm and natural. For a tech company's logo, it just came off as sloppy and off brand. These days, I check if the inspiration fits the project's vibe before adding it. This small step avoids major redos and keeps clients happy.

3 comments

3 Comments

wood.viola1mo agoMost Upvoted

Oh man... your coffee stain thing reminds me of a friend who used wood grain textures on a bank's app icons. They thought it would feel stable and classic, like an old desk. It just looked weird and out of place next to all the clean digital buttons. They had to swap it all out for simple, solid colors in the end. It's crazy how a good idea in your head can feel so wrong in the actual use.

cole_patel141mo ago

In my experience, wood textures never translate well to screens.

loganrobinson1mo ago

Yeah a designer friend told me something similar about leather textures on a fitness app. Sounded tough but just made the interface feel heavy and slow to users.