[jayventura]

You'll see a similar thing in branding and advertising. For all the new yorkers on here, have you all seen the consumer brand ads on the subway? Almost every brand looks the same.

I'm imagining it has to do with the way designers work. They generally have stakeholders moodboard (basically creating a pinterest board with inspiration from different brands), and then they create a similar "feeling".

As humans, we're kind of evolved to recognize patterns, so when we start seeing the same branding art direction it stands out to us and we may try to conflate some deeper meaning to it. But in reality, it's just a few brands that share the same branding art direction probably because some execs liked the way it looked and felt and asked their designers to do something similar.