welcome to the OwnTrail HQ, where I just concluded a rant about how you never design a brand based on your personal aesthetic unless you 1000% overlap with your core audience and sometimes not even then.

if your product is for high school students and you are a 40-sometime PC user who likes the color palette and rectangles of Microsoft, it's (technically speaking) hella bad to design to your likes.

easy way to avoid this? invest in knowing your audience!! this doesn't have to cost $, it's audience-building 101. spend time where they are and learn.

What trends are happening? Photos or illustrations? Ironic clip art? Neon? 70s vibes? short copy? text speak? And what ISN'T happening that you might be doing (for better or worse) in your design and messaging?

This applies to other brands talking to your audience but also your audience THEMSELVES. what does their IG feed look like? how do they talk? what memes do they share (or do they not)?

TL;DR you are not your brand, your audience is your brand.