[u90g4u8904]

Good bye dumb old fad, hello new dumb fad.

Can someone tell me if this is because designers like to copy whatever look is in season? Or is it mostly the clients / managers who are afraid to have their brand identity be too different?

I knew a designer who couldn't tell you what made text legible, or how a grid system worked. But they were good at copying certain styles that were popular. They would read those articles like "20 stunning sites with flat design," pick a few to copy, and then give the client a look-a-like site, regardless if the design made sense for their business. Always thought they were a hack, but they were employed, so good for them.

Edit: Just wanted to point out that the return of serifs is probably a good thing - good designers seeing that minimalist logos are overdone and wanting to stand out. My comments are more directed at what is inevitably to come - hordes of smaller companies copying the most superficial aspects of this trend.

[ghaff]

Typography and logo design have fashions just like almost everything else. There are good reasons for the relatively simple logos and wordmarks you see today--mostly around legibility in small sizes because of mobile.

But, unless someone's deliberately cultivating a retro look, consider any batch of random logos from 20 years ago and compare them to a batch of current ones and you're going to see a lot of common patterns.

[SiempreViernes]

If you are talking design that is used for logos and whatnot, that's on the client: they make the final call after all. Some might just take whatever the designer gives them, but I imagine most want to do some bikeshedding.

In fact I suspect most of the value (for the designers) of those exercises where designers involve the client and make mindmaps and select "values" and whatnot is to trick the client into a self-made cage, resulting in manageable bikeshedding.

[gascan]

If you don't know what makes text legible, and you can't really justify a particular font choice- I think there is an argument to be made that following whatever the latest best-practice is, is in fact a sensible/desirable behavior.

(Until the point where you're changing your layout every three months)

[Eric_WVGG]

You could ask the same question about fashion. I think the answer is simply memes — not in the modern jokey sense, but the real definition of a contagious idea.