Five prominent speakers at the recent Paradigms conference in Morocco shared their thoughts on the most problematic trends currently plaguing the design industry. Their responses varied widely, touching on everything from branding strategies to typography misconceptions.

James Greenfield, founder of design agency Koto, expressed frustration with brands that let social media dictate their entire brand identity. He cited the UK electronics retailer Currys as an example, noting how the company went viral recently for employees using Gen Z language to describe products in their marketing content. "It was a cool bit of content, but if you go into a Currys store, it's an awful experience," Greenfield explained. "There's absolutely no point in spending all that time and effort on social if people turn up at the store and it's crap."

Greenfield attributed this trend to brands being overly concerned with copying competitors and chasing data metrics. "Everyone's desperate for data. I get that. But that's not brand building," he said. "Brand building is almost impossible to measure," emphasizing that authentic brand development requires a different approach than social media optimization.

Bianca Berning, Spotify's staff typographer, focused on a widespread misconception about Comic Sans font and accessibility. She explained that while many dyslexic people do prefer reading Comic Sans because its hand-drawn letters are easier to differentiate from each other, this has led to problematic generalizations. "Because some people said that works really well for them, there's now a general perception that Comic Sans is the most legible font for dyslexic people, which is not how it works," Berning noted.

She emphasized that dyslexic individuals have varying preferences when it comes to typography. "You can't make these kind of sweeping generalizations and claims that one thing works best for a whole group of people," she concluded, highlighting the danger of oversimplifying accessibility considerations in design.

Nkenna Amadi, co-founder and lead web designer and developer of The Blackpepper Studio, criticized the overuse of "neon greens that pop" in contemporary design. While acknowledging that such colors can work in specific contexts for certain brands, he warned against their indiscriminate application. "There's also a lot of research that goes into what they've chosen, and that's not necessarily translated to your brand," Amadi explained. "It's not just a case of copy paste."

Amadi's business partner, Asmah Mansur-Williams, expressed concern about the overwhelming prevalence of sans serif fonts in modern design. "I think we need more characterful type," she said, though she acknowledged that sans serifs can be effective when implemented thoughtfully. Her issue lies with poor execution rather than the typeface category itself.

Jonas Hegi, co-founder and executive creative director of Builders Club, took a different approach to the question. Rather than focusing on eliminating specific trends, he advocated for understanding why certain disliked trends become popular. "I think as a creator or someone who wants to be creative, it's important to sometimes look further than what you like and get inspired by things you don't like," Hegi suggested.

Hegi recommended trying to understand the appeal behind widely loved trends that individual designers might personally dislike. "I think understanding why something you don't like is loved by millions is a really interesting exercise, like knowing your enemies," he said. "So I'm not genuinely against anything... Out of things I don't like, I get inspiration to do something, maybe the absolute opposite."

The Paradigms conference, hosted by Frontify in Morocco, brought together leading voices in design and branding to discuss current industry challenges and future directions. The diverse perspectives shared by these speakers reflect ongoing tensions between following trends and maintaining authentic brand identity in an increasingly digital-first marketplace.