Jessica Hische

Sometimes stakeholders need to see a 'wrong' direction visualized to gain the conviction needed to commit to the 'right' one.

"There's designers that will really fight you tooth and nail, because they're like, 'That is wrong, that is wrong,' but I know that some people just have to see it before they can let it go. Sometimes..."

A successful brand system should be intuitive enough that non-designers can use the assets correctly without a massive brand book.

"My goal always when designing a logo is to design a logo that's so easy to use that you don't have to be an extremely skilled designer to design well with it. That's my number one goal, because I know..."

Effective design feedback must start with high-level goals and 'big picture' feelings before diving into specific technical details.

"The best thing is just seeing what's there and really being able to understand what's not working about it and what your goals are... Always think big picture before you think minutiae, because someti..."

True delegation involves providing clear parameters and then deferring to the expert's judgment on the execution details.

"When I hire people to help me do a thing, it's because there is this implicit trust in what they do and that that's why I want to work with them... I'm just like, 'Hey, this is your thing. You're the..."

Decisiveness comes from recognizing that multiple 'good' paths exist and choosing the most intuitive one rather than seeking a single 'perfect' answer.

"I feel like my strength with the work that I do in general is just being incredibly decisive and understanding that there's 10 good answers to every one question... I feel like I can look at 10 gray s..."

The final 0.2% of perfection often yields diminishing returns; recognize when a project is 'nearly perfect' and move on.

"Nothing is ever 100% perfect, and the most you can aspire and get to is 99.8 or whatever. That last 0.2%, you could spend your whole life trying to do that, or you could move on and do other things an..."

A brand's visual identity should serve as a symbiotic preview that sets the correct expectations and tone for the product experience.

"I think the logo and the brand assets can generate a lot of both internal and external excitement and just tell people what to expect from the thing that they're about to engage with. Some people say..."

Early-stage startups should avoid over-investing in brand vision until the product direction is stable, but should plan for a professional refresh once successful.

"If you invest super heavily on the whole brand vision from the jump, sometimes it's like throwing away money if you have to pivot. What I love about the work that I do is that I understand that a lot..."

Custom typography and logos act as a defensive moat against competitors attempting to mimic a successful brand's identity.

"One of the reasons why I tell people why having a custom logo or custom typography can really matter is that if you're using something that's available to everyone, the chances of someone else coming..."

For new or less recognizable brands, legibility is more important than abstract simplicity to ensure immediate recognition.

"When you think about logos and things like that, you want it to be something that, at a super fast glance, people can read it right away. That doesn't mean that everything has to be simple, but it jus..."

Brand design should be a conscious choice between leaning into industry tropes for immediate category recognition or diverging to signal innovation.

"I mean, everybody that does branding, one of the things that they do is they analyze the competitors of the company. You just look at a landscape of what are all the competitors doing, what is their v..."