O Canada, why didn't you deploy the red team?
It happens to the best of us: you’re online, coffee in hand, minding your own business, when suddenly a new logo explodes across your feed. Not for a soft drink or a shoe company, but for an entire army. The Canadian Army’s freshly-minted logo recently made the rounds, and if you haven’t seen it, imagine if Minecraft and a bag of generic clip-art crashed into a moose, chopped off the antlers, and called it strategic branding.
Cue uproar. Cue memes. Cue bewilderment on both sides of the Atlantic. And, for anyone in design, cue a moment of schadenfreude tinged with horror. This sort of thing becomes a Twitter punchline only on the surface. In reality, it shows what can happen when nobody is responsible for testing the work, asking difficult questions, or calling for a tactical retreat.
This is precisely the moment when a red team is needed.
Why This Matters
Rebrands, especially those for institutions with centuries of history and public scrutiny, carry huge consequences. They shape reputation, spark emotional responses, and (let’s not mince words) live forever on everything from recruitment posters to the camouflage your troops actually wear.
When branding goes wrong, the costs go well beyond wasted money. It triggers backlash, erodes trust, and forces expensive reversals. In less time than it takes to drop and give me twenty, a “bold new identity” can become a national punchline. Worse, it can make the organisation look indecisive, out of touch, or, in the case of certain falling maple leaves, a bit limp.
Whether you’re rebranding your army or your community choir, you need to get it right the first time or be prepared to spend the next few years explaining that, no, it’s not actually a moose in peril.
Common Pitfalls
If there were medals for design disasters, “design by committee” would clean up at the awards night. Here’s what most people get wrong:
1. The Echo Chamber Effect
Someone pitches an idea, the room nods with the sort of polite enthusiasm reserved for new parents at a baby group, and before you know it, nobody speaks up. Bad ideas slip through, often because everyone’s too busy being agreeable. The Canadian Army logo? A masterclass in this. If it weren’t already camouflaged, it’d be blushing.
2. Too Many Cooks (and Colonels) in the Kitchen
Stakeholders from every corner toss their ingredients into the pot: “Make it modern!” “Don’t forget tradition!” “Add a moose, but maybe also a kangaroo!” The end result is a muddled mess—a camel: that infamous horse designed by a committee.
3. Skipping the ‘Red Team’ Step
Every project needs someone who’s encouraged, even rewarded, for tearing it to shreds. No matter how slick your mood boards look, if you skip this step, the flaws you missed will debut centre stage, right in front of your actual audience. Online crowds relish the role of red team when given the chance, and their feedback can be merciless.
Step-by-Step Fix
After years of watching good ideas die a thousand paper cuts, here’s the process I use at Pixelhaze, and it has salvaged my reputation plenty of times.
1. Build Your Red Team Early (and Make Them Fearless)
The red team should be assembled as soon as your first draft doesn’t make you cringe. This can be a colleague who missed the kickoff meeting, a friend who’s brutally honest, or your nan (who famously called one of my logos “very energetic, like a dog with three legs”).
Give them one job: break the thing. Poke holes. Ask if it looks like it’s crying out for help. Challenge every assumption.
Frame red-teaming as an in-joke or a challenge. The more fun your “saboteurs” have, the more honest their feedback. Bribery with biscuits also helps.
2. Take the Gloves Off (Your Own Ones, Too)
Thin skins have no place here. Encourage the sort of feedback you’d never get from a polite client. Honest critique here is essential.
Example: When faced with the “falling” maple leaf, someone should have said: “Hang on. Do we want our entire army to look like it’s ready for a long nap?” Or, “At this angle, is that maple leaf doing a swan dive or retreating?”
If you’re wincing, that’s good. You are now seeing what the world will see. That is your cue to tweak, justify, or bin it.
Use analogies out loud. If you have even one person comparing your logo to an endangered kangaroo or a wilted lettuce, expect those takes to multiply after launch.
3. Document the Carnage
Don’t rely on memory. Take notes as you go—even the mean ones. If one red-teamer scratches out a sketch, save it. Build a log. Some ridiculous comments actually contain gold.
When presenting to clients or stakeholders you’ll be prepared: “We considered X, but rejected it because…” Or, better yet, “Yes, someone said it looks a bit like a sad chipmunk, but here’s why we kept the current shape and how it’ll present on uniforms.”
Keep a folder of all rejected versions and the feedback that killed them. It makes for excellent reference material next time egos run wild in a design review.
4. Refine, Defend, and Repeat
Turn those lessons into stronger work. If the red team found a potential meme-in-the-making, fix it, or be ready to defend it until it makes sense to everyone. Prepare your answers: “Actually, the tilted leaf echoes the forward momentum of the nation…” You may need to get creative; just don’t be caught off guard.
Run the improved work past your red team once more. Repeat the process until criticism dies down and your confidence holds up against a British press scrum, a TikTok teardown, and your mum’s group chat.
Never dismiss simple questions. When your neighbour’s teenage son points at your design and asks if it’s a squirrel or part of a tree, take the question seriously. Other viewers will have similar reactions.
5. Post-Launch Review (Optional but Highly Recommended)
If the public still gives your new design a proper roasting, don’t bury your head in the snow. Review what you missed, update your process, and stay accountable. Better to say, “Yes, we saw the moose-in-distress take, and here’s why we didn’t panic,” than pretend it never happened.
One approach that works: host a day to “roast your own logo” a couple of weeks before launch. Invite outsiders, give them anonymity, and let the honesty flow. You’ll see your work differently, which is exactly what you need.
What Most People Miss
Concern over egos or “hurting feelings” can dominate design circles. But the difference between a good project and a legendary one rarely comes from the first draft. The real turning point is radical honesty right from the start. When the red team is included early, that’s a hidden strength, not a threat.
A subtle but crucial detail: progress doesn’t come simply from hearing criticism. The real value lies in distinguishing feedback that matters from background noise (looking at you, “make it pop” gang). Taking the time to create a feedback process that welcomes pointed observations, records them, and highlights what really counts produces work that stands up to scrutiny.
To clarify: people often mistake “being bold” for “being different for the sake of it.” The red team’s job is not to kill innovation, but to make sure your bold move doesn’t become tomorrow’s meme (unless you want a viral fail, and if so, good luck).
The Bigger Picture
When this process works, you save time and money on backtracking, rewrites, crisis management, and the embarrassment of a public apology. Your team feels braver to experiment, since even the wildest ideas get tested before coming to light.
For brands, especially those unable to rebrand at a moment’s notice (think government departments and military branches), this approach is essential. It creates trust, sustains credibility, and strengthens your creative muscles for years.
After a few cycles with a red team, clients start to value the approach as well. It’s reassuring to know the design they’ll put on banners, buses, or battle helmets has survived a proper gauntlet.
This level of process leads to design that is resilient under real scrutiny.
Wrap-Up
The Canadian Army’s logo saga reminds us all: a sharp-eyed review from an outsider can make all the difference. If your process gets even one person to ask, “But what does it mean?”, you have protected yourself from many of the pitfalls that trap others.
So, make a habit of building your red team, value their honesty, and commit to the process. You’ll sleep better, and your work will stand tall, antlers intact.
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