The Cost of Looking Like Everybody Else

I recently set myself a simple exercise.

I opened website after website from architecture practices across the UK.

Different practices. Different people. Different projects.

Yet after a while they all started to blur into one.

The language was familiar. The promises were familiar. Even the way the work was presented felt remarkably similar.

None of it was bad.

That's what struck me.

There were some genuinely good practices in there. The problem wasn't the quality of the work. It was how difficult it became to understand why one practice was meaningfully different from the next.

When that happens, clients naturally start comparing other things.

Fee.

Location.

Size.

Availability.

Not because they're the most important factors, but because they're often the easiest differences to spot.

The irony is that I don't believe architecture practices are the same at all.

Every practice has its own way of thinking. Different strengths. Different ambitions. Different clients. Different opinions about what good design looks like.

I've found that very little of that distinction makes its way into the way the practice presents itself.

And that's a missed opportunity.

I don't think standing out is about being louder or more creative than everyone else.

I think it's about making it easier for people to understand what makes your practice worth choosing in the first place.

Talk soon,

B