Made in Europe = Made Everywhere
Character and a clear identity matter more than ever
I’ve been thinking a lot about identity lately — not just national identity, but product identity. It started with a simple observation: more and more French tech websites are branding themselves as “Made in Europe 🇪🇺” instead of “Made in France 🇫🇷”.
Maybe there’s a political reason for it, but commercially it feels like a strange choice. “French” carries meaning. “Europe” doesn’t! When I read “Europe”, my instinct is to go looking for the actual Country.
What am I supposed to picture? German robustness, French flair, Italian aesthetics, Spanish warmth?
And the more I think about it, the more I realise the same thing is happening in software.
We’ve entered an era where every product wants to look like Apple, or Linear, or whatever the current design darling is. Perfect gradients, perfect spacing, perfect icons — all polished into the same smooth, tasteful anonymity.
But sameness is not a strategy. It’s camouflage.
If your product looks and behaves exactly like everything else, you’re not signalling quality. You’re signalling that you have nothing to say.
That’s why Omarchy’s recent success fascinates me. A Linux‑based OS that looks nothing like macOS, Windows, or mainstream Linux distros. It’s opinionated. It’s weird in places. It has a point of view. And people love it for exactly that reason. It stands out in a sea of safe, tasteful, derivative design.
There’s a lesson there.
To succeed, you need to be a little different. You need to find your voice, your angle, your flavour. Otherwise, you’ll be drowned out by the ever‑growing noise, from social media, from AI‑generated content, from the endless stream of “best practices” that slowly sand away anything recognisable.
People don’t connect with generic things. They connect with things that feel rooted, intentional, and specific. They connect with character.
And that’s something worth protecting! In cities, in brands, and in the products we build.
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