Simple looks easy. That's the problem.
A client once looked at a logo I'd spent three weeks on and said, "That's it? Just a circle and a line?"
Yes. Just a circle and a line. Perfectly proportioned. Optically balanced. Works at every size from favicon to billboard. Took three weeks to get there because simple is harder than complex.
Anyone can add. Adding is easy. More colors. More elements. More decoration. Keep adding until it looks like you worked hard.
Subtraction is harder. Because with every element you remove, the remaining elements have to work harder. They have to carry more meaning. There's nowhere to hide.
The FedEx logo has an arrow. You either see it or you don't. But once you see it, you can't unsee it. That arrow took weeks to get right. Nobody sees the weeks. They see the arrow.
The Apple logo is an apple with a bite. That's it. The bite was added so it wouldn't look like a cherry. That's the whole design decision. It looks obvious now. It wasn't obvious then.
Muji's entire brand is built on subtraction. No logo on products. No bright colors. No decoration. Just the essential form of things. A pen that's just pen-ness. A box that's just box-ness. This radical simplicity made them a multi-billion dollar global brand. Because when you remove everything unnecessary, what remains is pure function. And pure function is beautiful.
Simple design is expensive because it requires mastery. You have to know all the rules to know which ones to break. You have to understand complexity to eliminate it.
A junior designer makes things complicated because they're trying to show they can. A senior designer makes things simple because they're confident enough not to.
I spent the first decade of my career adding elements. Gradients. Textures. Details. Look at all the things I can do.
I've spent the last decade removing them. The details are the design.