Toothpaste hasn’t historically needed to do a lot, design-wise: it’s a category based on functionality and efficacy, over trends and aesthetics – sensitive teeth, whitening processes, goth-adjacent charcoal formulas, weird little crystals, and so on and so forth. That function over form thing has meant that over the years, toothpaste packaging has become incredibly monotonous – usually a predominantly white,...
Even the most fleeting scan through &Walsh’s portfolio makes it wholly unsurprising how Jessica Walsh’s semi-eponymous studio has achieved such a brilliant reputation. While Walsh herself has garnered countless design press column inches – as partner at Sagmeister & Walsh; one half of the 40 Days of Dating project; a creative conference regular; and an advocate for women in design...
Dutch studio FCKLCK’s all-caps, blood-red website is full of declarations of belligerent provocations such as ‘OUR FAVOURITE CLIENTS ARE THE ONES WHO HAVE EVEN BIGGER BALLS THAN WE DO’. Talk of ‘CUTTING THROUGH THE BULLSHIT’ is accompanied by a mouseover gif of a defecating bovine. The name is of course an expletive repudiation of serendipity (who needs luck when you’ve...
Like many a geriatric millennial, a lot of my childhood was joyfully spent in front of the telly absorbing cultural pillars like Zig and Zag, Stoppit and Tidyup, and, of course, Wales’ finest export after Charlotte Church, Fireman Sam. Alongside the titular Sam, the show starred icons including ‘Naughty’ Norman Price (fun fact – my dad once mended the boiler...
It must be something of a dream project when an agency gets commissioned to work on those big-name cultural clients – museums, art galleries, orchestras, theatre companies, et al. You’d expect such projects to be a departure from the constraints and stakeholder-limitations of corporate clients; and perhaps a chance to be more creative than usual, thanks to the nature of...
We’ve all, at some point in life, encountered a few “But Actuallys”: the kind of people who always know a little bit more than you, constantly correct you, diligently fact check in social situations. They’re perennially just that smidgen More Right than you: a heady combination of The Simpsons’ Comic Book Guy; the classic pedant (or pendant if you want...
There are many kinds of rebrand. There are rebrands that tread lightly, reverently refining and polishing what is already there, like archaeologists delicately exhuming sunken lucre so that it can once again gleam (National Portrait Gallery). Then there are rebrands that are a little more decisive in their handling of the raw materials—imagine our similetic Time Team creatively re-assembling the...
We’re undeniably in an age of pet care 2.0: the post-fur-baby era, where people are finally beginning to see their animals’ needs and wants as independent to their own (i.e. dried pigs ears over vegan dog treats, eschewing leads for cats, and so on). These shifts in how we think about what it means to have and look after animals...
The once laudable claim to have started a thriving business with ‘a small loan’ from a doting family member may have been muddied beyond recognition by the truth-stretching of serial tax-offender and part-time Presidential candidate Donald Trump. Despite this, turning ‘one thousand pounds from nan’ into a luxury watch and diamond dealership with a sparkling flagship store in Mayfair remains...
It’s all well and good for a design agency to make some wild, boundary-pushing, all-singing all-dancing work for things like Gen Z healthcare products; or ‘top shelf’ spirits; or craft beer. But most client projects aren’t going to be the sort of thing that merits bright orange and typography that dances around the boundaries of legibility. And arguably, it’s those...
According to The Collected Works, one of the main reasons its recent client Expensify was looking to rebrand was to remedy a perceived mismatch between the ‘wacky’ vibe of the brand’s marketing and ads (namely its 2019 Superbowl commercial), and its core visual identity. Which begs the question – how far does a brand identity itself have to mimic or...
Recchiuti Confections is a San Francisco-based gourmet chocolatier that creates chocolates with unique flavour combinations. Using traditional European techniques, with locally sourced ingredients from Northern Californian farms and markets, Recchiuti’s chocolates have earned a loyal customer base and several accolades. After 25 years in business, Recchiuti sought the expertise of Manual – a local design studio – for a brand...