Design Disharmony is a Canary in the Coal Mine of an Organization
“We don’t have brand guidelines for our brand. We’re making it up as we go along.”
“We have multiple logos we use for different things.”
“Nobody cares about the design. They care about the work.”
“We don’t have time to worry about the design.”
I have been deeply embedded in the brand and design world for over 20 years and when I hear any form of the above language from even the most talented teams, it signals to me that an organization may be in much deeper trouble than they think it is.
Design is a living thing that touches every part of your organization. It is not just a logo and a specific set of colors. It is the visual personification of how your organization is operating and is core to building trust and credibility with every audience that matters to you.
Think of your brand as a compass tied to your internal strategy. Your vision, mission, values, positioning, and the audiences you serve all show up in your brand design. And having a compelling brand presence can help move your mission from idea to action. The logo, the font systems, the colors, the design language are not just “nice-to-have” parts of your toolkit. A lack or misuse of them is a sign that there is discord and confusion across your teams that is showing up in your ability to cohesively visually communicate the purpose of your organization.
When we think of the health of organizations, we often think of the obvious markers: Are you meeting your monthly revenue/donor targets? Do you have the correct number of people? Are you attracting and maintaining staff? What is your reputation for delivering on your mission? One may argue that these are simply table stakes.
Brand and design should be added to the top of the list of health indicators for your organization. The lack of cohesion and consistency in these areas are often the canary in the coal mine for your organization because they highlight where internal cracks are emerging—racks you’ll want to pay close attention to so you can fortify what may be a crumbling foundation.
Here are four signs that something is amiss:
Lack of clarity in brand vision and missing or hidden brand resources
When your organization's branding is inconsistent and resources are difficult to find, it signals a fundamental gap in organizational infrastructure. The scattered branding and resources are how these structural weaknesses become obvious.
Design serves as a reflection of your strategy. Without a dedicated brand steward or clear processes, this manifests in concerning ways: inconsistent fonts, multiple logo versions, mismatched colors, and ignored guidelines. The impact is twofold—internally, teams waste time scrambling to maintain consistency, and externally, this disorganization signals to partners, donors/funders, and program participants that your organization may struggle to deliver on its commitments.
The root cause typically isn't the design itself, but rather the absence of centralized brand leadership and standardized processes. Without someone serving as the organizational hub for brand decisions and without established systems for managing and distributing resources, teams default to working independently. In this kind of reactive approach—where immediate needs consistently override strategic planning—ultimately undermines both operational efficiency and organizational credibility.
Different logos for different situations and for every part of your organization
When departments operate in silos, each team is likely to create their own visual assets without consulting others or considering the broader organizational identity. Without inter-departmental communication, new initiatives may launch with disconnected logos and branded materials. This isolation means each group is developing their own strategy independently from one another, rather than collaboratively working toward a unified vision.
The result is more than just visual inconsistency—it's a noticeable visible symptom of deeper organizational fragmentation. Without cross-departmental collaboration or regular communication channels, your organization appears as a collection of disconnected parts revealing how your teams are working in isolation and making decisions that serve their immediate needs—a process that ultimately weakens your organization's unified presence and impact.
The idea that design is not synonymous with the work
When organizations fail to invest in a cohesive brand presence, they reveal a deeper failure to prioritize their audiences' needs and expectations. Today's stakeholders—whether they're donors, program participants, or community partners—expect organizations to demonstrate professionalism and thoughtfulness in how they present themselves. This isn't just about aesthetics.If you don't pay attention to these elements, you risk not gaining the respect and credibility necessary in acquiring stakeholders to invest in your mission and goals.
A scattered brand presence signals that an organization is more focused on internal priorities than on how their stakeholders experience and interact with them. When leadership dismisses the importance of a unified, professional presence, they demonstrate a fundamental disconnect from what matters to their audience. This mindset often reveals an organization that talks about serving its community but fundamentally doesn’t understand how that community wants to be served or how they make decisions about which organizations to trust and engage with.
We don’t have the time for this
When organizations fail to invest time in creating cohesive brand systems, it reveals a pattern of reactive decision-making rather than strategic planning. The common refrain of "we don't have time for this right now" actually means "we're too busy responding to immediate pressures to plan for the future." This mindset creates a cycle where short-term solutions continuously take precedence over building sustainable systems.
In rapidly changing times, a reactive approach is particularly dangerous. While organizations may feel they're being agile by quickly responding to immediate needs, they're actually making themselves more vulnerable to future challenges. Without strong foundational systems in place, each new challenge requires a fresh scramble for solutions, draining resources and staff capacity. Operating in constant firefighting mode prevents organizations from building the infrastructure they need to navigate uncertainty effectively.
The irony is that investing time in strategic systems now—particularly in how you present yourself to the world—actually saves time and resources in the long run. Organizations that prioritize immediate tasks over systems-building end up repeatedly solving the same problems, creating a pattern of unsustainable growth that will likely create larger problems in the future.
The Way Forward
The warning signs highlighted by the visual confusion across your organization may be a source of overwhelm but it’s also telling you something significant about what needs to be addressed. And each warning sign can be addressed with specific actions:
When Your Brand Lacks Cohesion and Infrastructure: Establish clear governance with a dedicated operations leader who can develop standardized workflows, create accessible knowledge management systems, and build infrastructure that supports sustainable growth.
When New Logos Sprout Independently: Strengthen organizational unity by establishing cross-functional communication channels, creating clear processes for new initiatives, implementing regular strategic planning sessions, and developing a flexible organizational structure that maintains alignment while accommodating growth.
When Design is Dismissed as Superficial: Shift organizational focus by documenting how your audiences make decisions, gathering community feedback, conducting regular stakeholder research, and aligning your services and communications with your community's actual needs and expectations.
When "No Time" Becomes the Default Response: Transition to strategic operations by implementing regular planning cycles, documenting efficiency losses from rushed decisions, creating sustainable systems and processes, and building proactive management into your organizational culture.
Overall, design is a signal of organizational health. Acknowledging operational inconsistencies as symptoms of deeper issues, assessing governance structure, identifying and empowering strategic leadership roles, developing phased operational improvements, creating clear collaboration frameworks, and investing in building a culture of strategic thinking and stakeholder-centered decision making will only strengthen organizational health.