Taschen's 'The Elements of Brand Design' Reviewed: A Beautiful Catalog of Surface, Missing the Substance

A review of Taschen's new 496-page book 'The Elements of Brand Design' by Katharina Sussek and Jens Müller argues that while the book is a stunning catalog of 110 identity systems across 17 chapters—covering Logo, Typography, Color, Sound, Generative & AI, and Variation—it fundamentally misrepresents what branding is. The review praises the book's design and case studies (Nike, Netflix, IBM, Klarna, Uber, DHL, MUBI) and interviews with Pentagram's Paula Scher and Michael Bierut, calling it definitive on how brand systems are built. However, it criticizes the framing of branding as 'alchemy' of visible elements, arguing that true brand value lies in judgment, decisions, and conviction—the invisible mass below the waterline. The review notes that with AI now able to generate logos, palettes, and motion cheaply, execution becomes a commodity, making the book's catalog of elements a record of things that no longer differentiate. The honest answer to what brands are made of, the review concludes, is choices defended under pressure, not design elements.