Design is a very personal thing. When choosing a look and feel for your brand you are going to have to accept that not everyone is going to like it. This means that you can avoid trying to please everyone.

A good example is the 7 Series BMW I saw in a car park today. When Chris Bangle took over responsibility for styling at BMW he introduced a whole new look to the product line. His design was controversial, largely because the BMW brand was already successful and the look of its existing product highly popular. Now, several years later, the old product looks dated and the new BMWs are as stylish as anything in their class.

If Chris Bangle had based his design decisions on offending the fewest people he would likely have created a “lowest common denominator” look that would not have positioned BMW for the future. The Pontiac Aztek, by contrast, was designed with full use of focus groups and customer input. It was an abject failure in the market, one of the most enduringly ugly vehicles of recent years.

Design decisions aren’t easy but they should represent you and what you stand for. Remember the old adage: “A camel is a horse designed by a committee”.