The role of internal branding in employee retention
February 9, 2024Look, I get it. You discovered the "Backdrop Blur" toggle. You threw a shadow behind a card once and thought, Damn, I’m a designer now. But let me stop you right there: Slapping shadows on everything doesn't make your UI better - it makes it unreadable.
And you know what's worse than a bloated, depth-confused layout?
Floating. Goddamn. Logos.
Your logo is not a UI element. It's not a button. It’s not a hover state. It’s not crying out for an inner glow like it just spawned in a fantasy RPG. It’s a mark - a core brand asset - and you just turned it into a blurry sticker drifting in a UI swamp.
Here's what actually happens when you abuse shadows:
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No visual hierarchy. Everything fights for attention. Nothing wins.
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No grounding. Instead of layout clarity, you get design soup. A bunch of floating layers that feel like someone spilled UI components across a whiteboard and gave up.
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No restraint. Design isn’t about piling on - it’s knowing what to leave out. That’s the difference between clutter and clarity.
You want depth? Use spacing. Use contrast. Use type scale.
Use design thinking, not filters like a teenager editing selfies.
If your design looks like a bowl of UI cereal and the logo’s bobbing around like a sad Cheerio, I’m not critiquing your work. I’m questioning your taste. And that’s harder to fix than layout.
