Box Packaging
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...
Diggin’ it
Just when you thought we were approaching a post-pet-parent era, a brand comes along and proves very much otherwise. Thankfully, though, while pet parenting seems to be alive and well; fingers crossed we’ve left behind the whole rather icky “fur baby” days of things like dog bandanas that read, “My Mom is Sooooo Obsessed with Me”; or dog nail varnish;...
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,...
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...
Butter Baby by Universal Favourite
It takes a skilled pair of hands/creative agency to make you fall in love with a fictional character (lore-laden backstory and all) who is literally a big blob of fat. But as has become increasingly apparent over the years, Universal Favourite (The Dinner Ladies, Monkey Baa Theatre Co., LBDO) is more than a skilled pair of hands – I honestly...
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...
Hank’s Bagelry by Studio Ongarato
Sometimes, a brand identity can be deeply strategic, have a rich heritage or an involving narrative. Other times, it can be simply eye catching and cool. Suites of custom designed icons, art directed photography, tone of voice, motion behaviours, programmatic graphic elements and bespoke in-house content generating tools…. not every brand needs these. They’re colours to paint with. I call...
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...
12 by Base Design
If New York really is the city that never sleeps, that’s in no small part thanks to coffee – and now, increasingly, a newer entrant to the socially acceptable uppers scene, matcha. Capitalising on the growing interest in the sludgy green pick-me-up is 12, a new-ish matcha-centric café and retail store that opened last year in Manhattan’s NoHo area. Sited...
Sigma by Stockholm Design Lab
You could argue that there’s a fair few similarities in terms of Japan and Sweden’s approach to design, and the aesthetics of life more generally. Both are known often for a specific kind of minimalism – a tastefulness that eschews fluff, luxuriates in crisp whites and keeps its edges, everything in its right place, rules and order and form following...
Tsukiyo by The Colour Club
I’d never really heard of Osaka’s Dotonbori district before encountering this project, let alone been there. Neither, I’d guess, have many of the patrons of Tsukiyo, a modern Japanese street food restaurant inspired by the area and based in Sydney’s Darling Square. But the power of great branding is such that even just looking at the identity in 2D, on...
BRiMM by Harriman Steel
Combining an online shop, journal, and collective, BRiMM describes itself as a platform for ‘planet-positive living’, drawing together some big ideas and ruthlessly sustainable brands. Based between London and Stockholm, it was founded last year by James Haycock, who’s billed as, ‘an exited founder, angel investor, and the vision behind’ it all. The fact the whole thing looks so great...