Adobe Express: The B&Q of Graphic Design

There’s a certain thrill in the DIY aisle. I walk into B&Q with a basket, a head full of ambition and a YouTube tutorial or two saved in my tabs. Shelves stacked with the promise of new beginnings... paint tins, power tools, flat-pack dreams. And for a moment, I think: I could build an entire house with this stuff.

Adobe Express sits in that same aisle - except for graphic design. Logos, social posts, flyers, brand templates: all lined up like screws in little plastic bags. It’s the B&Q of design software. Ready-made, approachable, tidy. And yes, it gives me that same dangerous feeling: I could build an entire brand with this.

But here’s the question -

Sure, I could build my own house. But should I?

The Promise of DIY Design

Adobe Express is clever. It makes things simple, fast, accessible. I don’t need to wrestle with Bézier curves in Illustrator or obsess over kerning. I can pull together something that looks half-decent in minutes. That’s the whole appeal - design, demystified.

For small projects, quick posts, or testing an idea? Brilliant. For some, it’s the perfect entry point. But, and it’s a big but, branding isn’t just about something looking “good enough.” It’s about building foundations that last.

The Problem with Flat-Pack Brands

Think about flat-pack furniture. Looks nice in the catalogue, gets the job done, but you wouldn’t expect it to last a lifetime. Same with Express templates. They’re pre-made, generic, and thousands of other people are using them. That logo you just crafted? Might be sitting on the business card of a café three streets away.

A brand isn’t just wallpaper you stick up and hope no one notices the bubbles. It’s strategy. It’s psychology. It’s detail, consistency and precision. It’s building something that stands tall when the trends shift and the crowd thins out.

The Professional Blueprint

Hiring a designer isn’t about paying someone to click the buttons you could click yourself. It’s about experience. It’s about knowing when to break the rules, how colour affects emotion, why typography choices matter and how to shape a visual identity that actually connects.

It’s the difference between a house I bodged together with a cordless drill and one designed by an architect who understands structure, flow, and light. One might stand for a while. The other? It’s a home.

So Where Does Adobe Express Fit In?

Adobe Express has its place. It’s the weekend DIY kit, the “let’s knock up a shelf” of design. But when it comes to a brand, an identity, a business, the thing I want people to trust, remember, and invest in, do I really want to risk it on a flat-pack fix?

I’m not here to knock Adobe Express. In fact, I get it. It’s empowering. It’s fun. But just like I wouldn’t want my neighbour building my extension with an Allen key and blind optimism, I don’t want my brand built that way either.

After all, a brand, YOUR BRAND, deserves more than “good enough.”

Lets connect - stuart@pwr-gfx.com or fill out my contact form.