Art Direction
Mouthwash Studio’s identity for eyewear brand Bonnie Clyde might be confusing, and infuriatingly historically inaccurate – but it’s ultimately rather lovely
This is an identity that’s not very easy to instantly get your head around – arguably, at a glance, it’s downright confusing. Sometimes it comes on strong all antiquey – like the branding equivalent of once-beloved UK high-street also-ran Past Times – at others, it’s all Trewley Precious lash brand partnership, all hearts and dusky pink and half-arsed girly girly...
Creative Spark’s bold, no nonsense identity for hair loss brand Leo
Leo is billed as a “hair rejuvenation brand”, founded by duo Jason Saks (who carries the rather sweet, and quite funny job title of Director of Hair Loss) and his son Joe, with the broad aim to make hair loss feel “less isolating and less complicated”. According to Manchester-based design agency Creative Spark, which has created the superb new identity,...
Pink! pink! everywhere!
Wine company Nice started life in 2019, and ever since, has aimed to be a far more straightforward alternative to the wildly confusing, jargon-packed, somewhat stuffy world of wine. In Nice’s words, the whole idea is to “liberate drinkers from wine headaches” both literal and metaphorical, “whether it’s inflexible packaging, confusing labels or next day regret”… Now after more than...
Feel the heat
Most branding has to give some suggestion of what said brand is, or does, or stands for – it’s usually not ideal if they bear little to no resemblance or representation of their category, audience or ideals. The exceptions are usually things like record covers, or other inherently creative entities like musical instruments, editorial projects; occasionally booze brands, like the...
Evil Ray by Seachange
Until fairly recently, arguably sunscreen brands have had to do little in the way of brand design. Instead, they’ve been able to coast along relying on their credentials alone – and the fact that (in the UK at least) there hasn’t been a ton of competition. Things have been largely almost medicinal and rigidly adherent to category tropes: orange, yellow,...
Yoshi by Saint-Urbain
Early days for sure, but this is hands down the best brand identity design I’ve seen this year – kudos to Saint-Urbain for once again putting a project out into the world that’s not only an absolute joy to look at, but which shows a razor-sharp nous for branding that’s both searingly zeitgeist and resolutely, timelessly future-facing. Said project is...
Cocolab by Wedge
It’s pretty hard to get excited about dental floss. Oral care, for the most part, lives firmly in the realm of obligation rather than desire, a twice-daily chore that sits somewhere between setting your alarm and taking the bins out. It’s precisely this emotional dead zone that Cocolab (formerly Cocofloss) set out to disrupt when it was founded in California...
4P’s by Base Saigon
What with it being the season to be jolly and all that, it feels almost contrarian to not be as positive as I usually am in covering projects for BP&O – after all, it’s about showcasing the very best in brand design and packaging. But in the spirit of the ‘O’ for ‘Opinion’, it’s tricky to be as nigh-on-unanimously gushing...
Current State by Werner Design Werks
Current State is a skincare line launched by sisters Emily and Lanie Parr a couple of years back, which aims to “disrupt the status quo”, according to Werner Design Werks which created its boldly multicoloured branding. There’s a lot to love about this packaging and brand design – not least, that expansive approach to colour. It seems that Werner Design...
Double Diamond by Alec Tear
Our seemingly indefatigable fetishisation of the ghosts of branding past (i.e. why the design world is still talking about JKR’s Burger King rebrand nearly half a decade on) is perhaps little surprise: whether we’re consciously doing so or not, and to whatever extent we’re even aware we’re looking at something archival, returning to an amorphous yesteryear — real or imagined,...
Society De La Rassi by Blurr Bureau
Ideas around the ‘new codes of luxury’ have come up a lot lately; an updated, contemporary take on what makes something look special, valuable, covetable, and ultimately, expensive. The long and short of it is that it’s out with the old – lavish foils, gold everywhere, bling and ornamentation and ostentation – and in with a quieter, more subtle aesthetic...
Monica Rich Kosann by Here
There’s been a fair bit of chatter in recent times in the brand design world about the ‘new codes of luxury’ – how today’s hip young well-to-dos are eschewing the signifiers of yesteryear (ostentation, gold, bling, anything remotely showy) for a more understated aesthetic. Being fabulously rich today, then, is perhaps a little like the whole ‘no makeup’ thing: anyone...