Hmm, I’m not sure about the logo. I vertically centered it. LinkedIn and Twitter are a bit higher up whereas Medium is dead center.

I don’t disagree about the gradients. Though I believe that’s true with every technique I’ve shown. The logo color, patterns, gradients, illustrations are all tied to brand. I think a fairly simple gradient style is evident with LinkedIn because they don’t introduce another color. I think that is probably a safer bet for most.