Back in the early 00s – the era when arguably Hollyoaks was at its zenith, and bellybutton piercings their most bejeweled – Botox was gradually emerging from the hushed clinics of Harley Street and LA to become part of common parlance. As such, brands cottoned on to the word’s ‘eternal youth’ connotations: I distinctly remember a shampoo ad promising that...
Running a design blog sharpens your eye for category conventions. Stick with it long enough, though, and you’ll start to see those conventions unravel. What once felt fixed begins to flex. This creates a challenge for writing about design: you’re constantly assessing the landscape, but that landscape is always shifting. Take minimalism, for example. Once the dominant aesthetic of the...
Long gone are the days when ‘energy drink’ connoted unwashed teenage gamers, amped up Twitch streamers, hungover/still going city boys on the Tube, or 2-4-1 deals on vodka Red Bull in sticky-floored suburban student nightclubs. Like many things – such as reading books, going for a walk, or having a bath – the energy drink sphere has now collided with...
StrangeLove is an Australian soft drinks brand that began with a four flavour range of energy drinks. Although mass-produced, each of these was created with the intention of evoking a taste of the homemade through carefully sourced and high-quality organic ingredients. The range was developed in response to energy drink brands who StrangeLove believed had failed to live up to their...
Responding to the continued and widespread use of preservatives, artificial sweeteners and cheap aromatics, Charles Rolls and Tim Warrillow combined their experience of the beverage and luxury food industries to develop a tonic made from natural high quality ingredients. Since its launch in 2005, under the brand Fever-Tree—the colloquial name for the cinchona tree, source of quinine, a key ingredient in tonic—the range has grown year...
StrangeLove is an Australian energy drink creator with a four flavour range made up of Ginger Beer, Blood Orange & Chilli, Smoked Cola and Bitter Grapefruit. Although mass-produced, each variety has been crafted to taste homemade using high quality organic ingredients, and developed in response to other energy drink brands who have failed to live up to their premium positioning. Keen to avoid...