What the studio is reading.
Daily, curated. 5 to 7 items a day across design, branding, packaging, consumer trends, technology, and India.
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100 Top Designers Used Chocolate Bar Wrappers as a Canvas for AGI Open 2025
100 designers turned AGI Open 2025 chocolate bar wrappers into a collective canvas — proof that tight constraints and a shared brief still produce the most interesting design work.
Read on Dieline -
EXCLUSIVE: Accenture Song Will Buy Whalar, Gaining Global Scale in Influencer Marketing
Accenture Song buying Whalar gives it global influencer infrastructure overnight — the consulting-to-creative land grab is moving faster than most agencies want to admit.
Read on Adweek -
adidas adds corners to the iconic stan smith with square-toe SQ edition
Adidas squared off the Stan Smith's toe for its SQ edition — a small geometric shift on a 50-year-old silhouette that shows how much mileage a single design decision can still generate.
Read on Designboom -
‘The Bottle is the First Impression’: Aaron Paul’s Vision for Dos Hombres Tequila
Aaron Paul on Dos Hombres: 'the bottle is the first impression' — a useful reminder that for a challenger spirits brand, packaging *is* the pitch deck, not an afterthought.
Read on Dieline -
At What Point Are Brands Launching New Products Just To Launch New Products?
Dieline asks the uncomfortable question — at what point are brands launching new products just to fill a content calendar, and who actually benefits when the answer is no one?
Read on Dieline -
What Brands Can Learn From IPL’s Saturation Problem
IPL's ad saturation problem is a case study every brand team should read — when every slot is sold and every brand shouts, the ones who stay quiet start to look like the smart ones.
Read on Brand Equity (Economic Times) -
Advertising agencies should completely pivot towards a holistic business advisory: Ram Charan
Ram Charan argues ad agencies must pivot to holistic business advisory — a bold call, and one Indian founders hiring agencies for the first time should weigh carefully before signing a retainer.
Read on Brand Equity (Economic Times) -
six murano glass flowers turn into portable table lamps that glow at a touch
Six Murano glass flowers that collapse into portable lamps and activate by touch — small-batch craft meeting interaction design, and a reminder that tactility is still an underused brand asset.
Read on Designboom -
PAX proposes a cavernous museum embedded into norway’s fjord landscape
PAX's proposed museum carved into a Norwegian fjord treats the landscape as load-bearing architecture — the building doesn't sit in nature, it disappears into it, which is a harder brief than it sounds.
Read on Designboom -
A European textile designer in Japan, Mae Engelgeer transforms memory and tradition for the future
Dutch textile designer Mae Engelgeer spent time in Japan translating memory and traditional craft into contemporary fabric — a quiet case study in how cultural fluency produces work that neither culture could make alone.
Read on Wallpaper* -
ouka transforms a century old house into a stayable gallery of japanese woodcarving craft
Ouka converted a century-old Japanese house into a guestable gallery — the craft of woodcarving *is* the interior, not a decorative afterthought. This is what brand immersion looks like when it's structural.
Read on Designboom -
casa langosta opens as nereidas’ pink concrete stay in the coastal desert of mexico
Casa Langosta is a pink concrete hotel in Mexico's coastal desert — the kind of project where the building *is* the brand, and no campaign budget could do what the architecture does.
Read on Designboom -
davidpompa and mexican artisans handcraft ceramic series tracing human touch and heritage
Davidpompa's new ceramic series documents the literal fingerprints of Mexican artisans in the clay — a case study in how heritage craft becomes a brand differentiator, not just a backstory.
Read on Designboom -
The ₹40 Lakh Crore Blind Spot in Indian Marketing
Indian marketers are ignoring a ₹40 lakh crore consumer segment — Brand Equity names it the biggest blind spot in the country's marketing right now, and the math is hard to argue with.
Read on Brand Equity (Economic Times) -
The Anti-Marketing Phenomenon will change marketing
The brands winning without traditional marketing aren't lucky — they've built something structural, and this piece breaks down why the old playbook is losing its grip on Indian buyers.
Read on Brand Equity (Economic Times) -
LEGO honors antoni gaudí with 12,060-piece sagrada família architecture set
LEGO's 12,060-piece Sagrada Família is the most ambitious architecture set the brand has made — proof that when IP and craft align at the right scale, the product markets itself.
Read on Designboom -
The World Cup Is Back, But U.S. Brands Are Still Lost in Translation
The FIFA World Cup is weeks out and U.S. brands are still fumbling cultural context — a useful reminder that global moments punish generic briefs harder than any other media buy.
Read on Adweek -
Lagunitas and Iron Maiden Partner On Latest ‘Trooper’ Beer
Lagunitas and Iron Maiden's Trooper beer collab is a masterclass in fan-brand licensing — two cult followings, one SKU, and a packaging brief that practically writes itself.
Read on Dieline -
Young Jerks’ Eastern Gold Looks Like It’s Been on the Shelf Since 1987
Young Jerks designed Eastern Gold to look like a forgotten 1987 shelf find — deliberate retro patina as brand strategy, and it's more convincing than most heritage brands with actual history.
Read on Dieline -
How Oura’s CMO Took It From Sleep Tracker to Wellness Disruptor
Oura's CMO reframed a sleep ring as a full wellness platform — the strategic move wasn't the product, it was deciding what category they were actually competing in.
Read on Adweek -
‘the community is the client’: how fernando laposse turns craft toward rural regeneration
Fernando Laposse treats rural craft communities as the client, not the raw material — a model that reframes what 'design with purpose' can actually mean for a studio's practice.
Read on Designboom -
Shift to pricing feelings; not products
Brand Equity argues the next pricing frontier isn't tiers or bundles — it's charging for how a product makes someone feel, and Indian brands are barely at the starting line.
Read on Brand Equity (Economic Times) -
The premiumisation problem no beverage brand saw coming
India's beverage brands chased premiumisation without solving the core tension — consumers want to trade up, but the category's price-value logic was never built for it.
Read on Brand Equity (Economic Times) -
Colombian Studio Epigrama Design New ‘Reuse’ Symbol
Colombian studio Epigrama has designed a new 'Reuse' symbol for packaging — a quiet but serious attempt to give circular design a visual language as recognisable as the recycling arrow.
Read on Dieline -
Jack Daniel’s and McLaren Built a Whiskey Box That Works Like a Race Car
Jack Daniel's and McLaren built a whiskey box that opens like a race car's DRS system — proof that packaging can be a product experience in its own right, not just a wrapper.
Read on Dieline -
Nike Reveals a World Cup Universe That Rips Up Its Own Script
Nike's World Cup campaign tears up its own brand playbook — a rare move from a company that usually protects its visual grammar like a trademark, worth studying before the tournament noise peaks.
Read on Adweek -
Is Packaging’s Secret Weapon Photography?
Dieline makes the case that photography — not illustration, not 3D render — is still packaging's most underused strategic tool, and the argument is more rigorous than the headline suggests.
Read on Dieline -
EXCLUSIVE: Criteo Cuts ChatGPT Ad Minimums, Offers Incentives to Woo Retailer Brands
Criteo is cutting ChatGPT ad minimums and offering incentives to pull retailer brands into AI-native placements — early infrastructure moves like this tend to set the rules everyone else inherits.
Read on Adweek -
Cleared for takeoff. Not for content.
India's aviation regulator has cleared new routes but content restrictions remain — Brand Equity's framing points at a wider tension between platform growth and creative control that brand teams here know well.
Read on Brand Equity (Economic Times) -
Green signal: Suzlon rebranding shifts focus to integrated energy solutions
Suzlon's rebrand drops the wind-only identity for an integrated energy positioning — a signal that India's clean energy sector is maturing fast enough to demand brand architecture, not just logos.
Read on Brand Equity (Economic Times) -
Apple Turns Rival Browsers’ Trackers Into Creepy Chrome Stalkers
Apple's new Safari ad reframes rival browsers' tracking pixels as literal stalkers following you home — sharp creative that makes a privacy argument without a single policy word.
Read on Adweek -
‘quiet luxury is utterly boring’: stuart semple’s happywatch shows a squished smiley face
Stuart Semple's Happywatch puts a squished smiley face on your wrist and calls quiet luxury boring — a deliberate provocation, and a useful reminder that personality is still a viable brand strategy.
Read on Designboom -
How To Make Your Design System AI-Ready
Smashing Magazine lays out what it actually takes to make a design system legible to AI agents — token naming, semantic structure, the unglamorous work that determines whether your system survives the next tooling shift.
Read on Smashing Magazine -
Sitecore Snaps Up GEO Startup Scrunch for an Alleged $225M
Sitecore paid an alleged $225M for Scrunch, a GEO startup focused on generative engine optimisation — the clearest signal yet that the SEO-to-GEO transition has a real dollar figure attached to it.
Read on Adweek -
Googly at Google Sparks Hope, Ethics Debate
Google's antitrust ruling is reopening questions Indian founders should be asking about platform dependency — Brand Equity frames the ethics debate, but the business risk underneath it is the real story.
Read on Brand Equity (Economic Times) -
Body by Cheese: ‘Parm Bars’ Rebrand Parmesan as a High-Protein Gym Snack
Parm Bars rebranded Parmesan as a gym snack — proof that repositioning a 700-year-old ingredient is a packaging brief, not a product brief.
Read on Dieline -
OpenAI Needs Two CMOs Because It Has a Problem Marketing Can’t Solve
OpenAI hired two CMOs because its core problem — what exactly is it selling, and to whom — isn't one marketing can fix without a clearer answer from the top.
Read on Adweek -
Pack of the Month: JKR Gives World’s Oldest Soft Drink a Redesign Worthy of its Heritage
JKR redesigned Dr Pepper — the world's oldest soft drink — and the work earns its heritage claim without leaning on nostalgia as a crutch.
Read on Dieline -
Nammi Turns the Dubai Chocolate Moment Into a Full, Illustrated Universe
Nammi built an illustrated universe around the Dubai chocolate trend instead of chasing it — the difference between brand-building and moment-chasing.
Read on Dieline -
Havas Bets on a Record Label to Reshape Brand-Music Partnerships
Havas launched a record label to broker brand-music deals — a structural bet that the old sponsorship model is too blunt for what culture actually costs now.
Read on Adweek -
Ad spend could fall 10–15% in next quarter amid ongoing uncertainty: Navin Khemka
Ad spend could drop 10–15% next quarter, per Navin Khemka — if that number holds, every Indian brand team should be rethinking where the remaining budget actually works.
Read on Brand Equity (Economic Times) -
Use AI to augment design, not replace it
Fast Company makes the case that AI belongs in the designer's toolkit, not in the designer's chair — a useful frame for any studio still figuring out where to draw the line.
Read on Fast Company Design -
Use AI to augment design, not replace it
Fast Company makes the case for AI as a design collaborator, not a replacement — the argument is familiar, but the framing is sharper than most takes doing the rounds.
Read on Fast Company Design -
for bad bunny’s tour, a stadium became a lush puerto rican landscape
For Bad Bunny's tour, an entire stadium was transformed into a Puerto Rican landscape — proof that concert design has become one of the most ambitious branding canvases alive.
Read on Designboom -
Dukes Coffee Makes Its Presence Felt With Blind Debossing
Dukes Coffee skips ink entirely, using blind debossing to make its packaging speak — restraint as a design decision, not a budget one.
Read on Dieline -
In World Cup Ad, Hyundai Signals Its Future Ambitions With Players You Don’t Know Yet
Hyundai's World Cup ad bets on unknown players rather than established stars — a deliberate signal about where the brand sees itself heading, not where it already is.
Read on Adweek -
Do brands play favorites with influencers?
Indian brands are quietly tiering their influencer relationships, and Brand Equity is asking the question founders should have asked first: who actually gets the good brief?
Read on Brand Equity (Economic Times) -
What does the controversy mean for Ranveer Singh’s brand value?
Ranveer Singh's brand value is under scrutiny after the recent controversy — a sharp reminder that celebrity equity is borrowed, not owned, and brand teams should plan accordingly.
Read on Brand Equity (Economic Times) -
Are ads becoming memes?
Brand Equity asks whether Indian ads are becoming memes — and the answer matters, because if your campaign only works as a joke, you may not have a campaign at all.
Read on Brand Equity (Economic Times) -
RETROCORE reimagines retro-futurist lighting as modular wall and ceiling compositions
RETROCORE's modular lighting system pulls retro-futurist aesthetics into configurable wall and ceiling compositions — proof that nostalgia works hardest when it's also functional.
Read on Designboom -
antony gormley fills italy’s galleria continua with bodies built like labyrinth cities
Antony Gormley packed Galleria Continua with human-scale figures built like labyrinthine cities — sculpture that makes you think about density, bodies, and how space holds meaning.
Read on Designboom -
5, 4… 3, 2, 1? Renault’s central role in the triumphant return of the small European car
Renault is leading the comeback of the small European car — and the design language behind it says more about where consumer culture is heading than most trend reports will.
Read on Wallpaper* -
This tropical Indonesian home is less style and more feeling
This Indonesian home was designed around feeling first, aesthetics second — a useful reminder that the strongest brand environments are experienced before they're photographed.
Read on Wallpaper* -
photo series distorts manhattan’s cityscape through fractured glass reflections
A photo series refracts Manhattan through broken glass — the kind of image-making that reminds brand photographers what a single constraint can do to a familiar subject.
Read on Designboom -
mirrored interiors and sculptural canyon-like forms shape skin1004’s soho flagship by LMTLS
LMTLS turned a Soho skincare flagship into a mirrored canyon — the kind of retail space that makes the product feel secondary to the experience, which is exactly the point.
Read on Designboom -
Yum Brands in exclusive talks to sell Pizza Hut to LongRange Capital, source says
Yum Brands is in exclusive talks to offload Pizza Hut to LongRange Capital — a signal that legacy QSR brands are becoming private equity restructuring projects more than marketing ones.
Read on Brand Equity (Economic Times) -
historic shipyard in china becomes walkable volcanic stone rooftop by kengo kuma
Kengo Kuma converted a historic Chinese shipyard into a walkable volcanic stone rooftop — adaptive reuse at a scale that makes most heritage projects look timid.
Read on Designboom -
self-sufficient solar lighting installation by ttal transforms frankfurt’s riverfront
TTAL's solar lighting installation on Frankfurt's riverfront runs entirely off-grid — proof that public infrastructure design doesn't need a utility bill to be ambitious.
Read on Designboom -
V taller proposes forest retreat around monolithic stone core for NOT A HOTEL in japan
V taller's NOT A HOTEL concept in Japan wraps a forest retreat around a single monolithic stone core — restraint as a design strategy, not a budget constraint.
Read on Designboom -
L’Oréal India appoints Publicis Media as integrated media AOR
L'Oréal India hands its integrated media mandate to Publicis — a consolidation move worth watching if you care about how large beauty budgets shift agency power in India.
Read on Brand Equity (Economic Times) -
Myaizg Borrows Ciggy Pack-Cool and Injects Its Coffee With Whimsy
Myaizg's coffee packaging borrows the visual language of cigarette packs and plays it completely straight — proof that the most interesting category disruption often comes from looking sideways at another category entirely.
Read on Dieline -
Lay’s Turned Soccer Scarves Into Country-Coded Chip Bags For The World Cup
Lay's turned soccer scarves into country-coded chip bags for the World Cup — packaging that earns its place in the cultural moment instead of just slapping a logo on it.
Read on Dieline -
Minted spent two decades building an artist-led business. Now it’s experimenting with letting AI in
Minted spent 20 years betting on human artists over algorithms; now it's quietly letting AI in — and the tension between those two positions is exactly the question every creative business is sitting with.
Read on Fast Company Design -
oscar magnuson on building a brand DNA that resists fleeting trends
Oscar Magnuson on building a brand DNA that doesn't chase trends — a rare, honest account of what it actually takes to make something that holds its shape over time.
Read on Designboom -
The Experience Is Now the Product
Adweek argues the experience *is* the product now — not a wrapper around it — and the brands that haven't restructured their thinking around that are already behind.
Read on Adweek -
tamagotchi and casetify launch custom device and nostalgic y2k accessories collection
Tamagotchi and Casetify's Y2K collab isn't nostalgia for nostalgia's sake — it's a sharp reminder that the most defensible brand asset a company can own is a feeling people already had at age nine.
Read on Designboom -
futurewave designs furniture-like home robot that communicates through movement
Futurewave's home robot communicates through movement rather than a screen or voice — a genuinely different design bet on how domestic AI earns trust without demanding attention.
Read on Designboom -
‘design intuition is not magic’: designers talk how creativity emerges subconsciously
Designers push back on the myth of the eureka moment — subconscious creativity is real, but it runs on input, constraint, and repetition, not waiting around.
Read on Designboom -
moffat takadiwa turns plastic waste across zimbabwe into record of extraction and repair
Zimbabwean artist Moffat Takadiwa builds sculptures from discarded plastic waste — the work is a material record of extraction, and it's harder to look away than most gallery shows.
Read on Designboom -
Wuben Craft Beer Grounds Its Identity in Ancient Chinese Philosophy
Wuben Craft Beer anchors its entire visual identity in Taoist philosophy — proof that a strong conceptual brief produces packaging that doesn't need a trend to hold its ground.
Read on Dieline -
How Crocs Turned ‘Ugly’ Into Cultural Cool ft. Chief Brand Officer Terence Reilly
Crocs CMO Terence Reilly breaks down how a brand built on mockery became a cultural touchstone — the 'ugly' wasn't a problem to fix, it was the whole strategy.
Read on Adweek -
Marketers Can’t Optimize Their Way Out of Their Trust Problem
Adweek makes the case that brand trust isn't a metrics problem — no amount of A/B testing recovers what you lose when audiences stop believing you mean what you say.
Read on Adweek -
Nike, McDonald’s, and Devin Booker Turned a Sneaker Drop Into a Desert Scavenger Hunt
Nike and McDonald's hid Devin Booker sneakers across a desert for fans to find — experiential drops are getting wilder, and the scarcity is now the campaign.
Read on Adweek -
Is doomscrolling coming to e-commerce?
Indian e-commerce platforms are borrowing the infinite-scroll logic of social feeds — and Brand Equity asks whether that's a conversion play or a slow erosion of purchase intent.
Read on Brand Equity (Economic Times) -
Uniting with Alpine, Gucci is the first luxury fashion house to be a title partner of a Formula One team
Gucci becomes the first luxury fashion house to title-partner an F1 team — Alpine's 2026 livery will carry the brand, and the line between sport sponsorship and fashion campaign just dissolved.
Read on Wallpaper* -
Marketers Keep Conflating Gen X With Boomers—And It’s Costing Them
Marketers keep lumping Gen X in with Boomers, and Adweek makes the case that the misread is costing real money — two generations, entirely different cultural references and spending triggers.
Read on Adweek -
NOCAFF is Unapologetically Caffeine-Free Canned Coffee
NOCAFF built a whole canned coffee brand around the absence of caffeine — the positioning is the product, and the packaging earns the shelf space without apology.
Read on Dieline -
Chobani Puts Soccer’s Unsung Heroes on the World Cup Stage
Chobani put grassroots soccer players — not stars — at the centre of its World Cup campaign, a bet that authenticity outperforms celebrity when the audience actually plays the sport.
Read on Adweek -
The Most AI-Fluent People Are Being Filtered Out Before They Even Land a Job
Adweek reports that AI-fluent candidates are being screened out by ATS systems that can't parse non-linear career paths — the hiring process is already behind the skill set.
Read on Adweek -
Adland Turns Sadland as Big Ideas Fade
Brand Equity's 'Adland Turns Sadland' argues that big ideas are fading from Indian advertising — not because talent left, but because the briefs stopped asking for them.
Read on Brand Equity (Economic Times) -
Did Meta Just Kill the Marketing Manager?
Brand Equity asks whether Meta's AI tools just made the marketing manager redundant — a question every Indian brand team should sit with before their next hiring round.
Read on Brand Equity (Economic Times) -
OpenAI Hires ServiceNow CMO Colin Fleming to Lead Business Marketing Push
OpenAI hired ServiceNow's CMO Colin Fleming to lead business marketing — a signal that the company is moving from product-led growth into serious enterprise brand-building territory.
Read on Adweek -
Beyond Plastics Finds Starbucks’ Cold Cup Recycling Claims A Venti-Sized Misrepresentation
Beyond Plastics called out Starbucks for overstating the recyclability of its cold cups — a reminder that sustainability claims are increasingly a legal and reputational liability, not just a marketing choice.
Read on Dieline -
How Blueland Reinvented Its Packaging for the Retail Aisle
Blueland rebuilt its packaging entirely for retail shelves — a real test, since what works DTC almost never survives the physical aisle without a rethink of hierarchy and shelf presence.
Read on Adweek -
Etsy Bets Human Moments Still Matter More Than Algorithms
Etsy is running a campaign that bets against algorithmic curation, arguing human-made and human-chosen still means something — a direct swing at Amazon and AI-generated product floods.
Read on Adweek -
What Brands Are Actually Worried About Behind Closed Doors, According to Ad Leaders
Ad leaders name what brand teams are genuinely anxious about behind closed doors — worth reading if you're the one in the room being asked to justify a brand budget right now.
Read on Adweek -
Shelf Life: Does Every Food Have To Have A Function Now?
Dieline asks whether every food brand now needs a functional health angle to justify shelf space — a sharp question for any founder building in the food and beverage space right now.
Read on Dieline -
ferrari unveils luce, its first electric car designed by jony ive and marc newson
Ferrari's first EV, the Luce, was designed by Jony Ive and Marc Newson — two people who've never done a car together — and the result looks like nothing else on the road.
Read on Designboom -
ferrari luce gives ferrari’s first electric car a strange new look with interiors by jony ive
Jony Ive's interior work on Ferrari's first EV, the Luce, is the most consequential design brief he's taken since leaving Apple — and the result is worth studying closely.
Read on Designboom -
from rainfall to textile, frances van hasselt shapes a slow, women-led practice in south africa
Frances van Hasselt's slow, women-led textile practice in South Africa — rooted in rainfall patterns — is a useful reminder that the most durable brand stories come from genuine process constraints.
Read on Designboom -
this sculptural iphone grip puts accessibility first by challenging the default smartphone form
This sculptural iPhone grip rethinks the default smartphone form around accessibility — a rare case where a constraint produced a more interesting object than the original.
Read on Designboom -
a biophilic retail interior shaped by organic textures, fluid transitions and soft light
A biophilic retail interior built on organic textures and soft light shows what happens when a store stops trying to sell and starts trying to feel — the commercial case is quietly strong.
Read on Designboom -
MIT researchers 3D print three-sided zipper that stiffens into rods, coils, and arches
MIT's 3D-printed three-sided zipper that stiffens into rods, coils, and arches is early-stage material research, but the structural logic has obvious implications for packaging and product design.
Read on Designboom -
Safe is Expensive
Brand Equity's argument that playing it safe is now the *costlier* strategic choice is the kind of uncomfortable reframe that Indian brand teams need to sit with longer than they will.
Read on Brand Equity (Economic Times) -
The Rise of the Anti-D2C Playbook
The anti-D2C playbook is gaining ground in India — founders who built on owned channels are quietly reversing course, and the reasons matter more than the trend itself.
Read on Brand Equity (Economic Times) -
ocean vortex envisions a spiraling floating parliament built from recycled marine waste
A spiraling parliament built from recycled marine waste — Ocean Vortex's floating structure is a rare concept that makes infrastructure feel like a political statement worth taking seriously.
Read on Designboom -
flexispot reinterprets traditional japanese joinery in a minimalist wooden bed frame
Flexispot's wooden bed frame borrows from traditional Japanese joinery — proof that the most durable design moves aren't invented, they're borrowed from craft traditions that already solved the problem.
Read on Designboom -
studio i/thee designs architecture that listens to mud, algae, wood, and weather
Studio i/thee is designing buildings that respond to mud, algae, and weather in real time — a quiet but significant shift in how architects are thinking about material as collaborator, not just medium.
Read on Designboom -
this fully 3D-printed book turns its own G-code into raised lettering
This fully 3D-printed book converts its own G-code into raised lettering on the page — the process *becomes* the content, and that's a genuinely interesting idea for anyone thinking about form and medium.
Read on Designboom -
clouds evoke hope in delicate drawing and sculpture series by mario trimarchi
Mario Trimarchi's cloud series in drawing and sculpture is restrained work that earns its emotion — a reminder that the most resonant brand imagery rarely announces itself.
Read on Designboom -
ZAV architects weaves a modular yellow playground through an olive orchard in iran
ZAV Architects threaded a modular yellow playground through a working olive orchard in Iran — infrastructure that earns its place in a landscape rather than interrupting it.
Read on Designboom -
As the AI Battle Rages, Yusuf Mehdi Becomes the Latest Microsoft Veteran to Walk
Yusuf Mehdi's exit is the latest in a string of senior Microsoft departures as the AI race accelerates — the talent churn at the top tells you more than the product announcements do.
Read on Adweek -
Goafest 2026: PepsiCo India named client of the year; Leo India tops creative agency rankings
PepsiCo India took Client of the Year at Goafest 2026 while Leo India topped creative agency rankings — a signal of where the serious India work is being done right now.
Read on Brand Equity (Economic Times) -
How Recurrent Ventures Rebuilt Itself
Recurrent Ventures rebuilt its media portfolio after a public stumble — the playbook is worth reading if you think independent publishing is a dead model.
Read on Adweek -
OF A’s dark botanical landscape ‘slow dream’ seems to float at chelsea flower show
OF A's Chelsea Flower Show installation 'Slow Dream' floats a dark botanical landscape mid-air — spatial design that treats a garden show as a serious exhibition format.
Read on Designboom -
Inside Palace’s new Shanghai store, a play on the traditional Chinese garden
Palace's new Shanghai store reinterprets the traditional Chinese garden as retail space — proof that the strongest global streetwear brands build places, not just shops.
Read on Wallpaper* -
monsieur plant covers AI robot’s mechanical body in organic plant growth
Covering an AI robot's mechanical body in living plant growth isn't just an art stunt — it's a provocation about what we want machines to look like as they get closer to us.
Read on Designboom -
Jollie Made Collagen Look So Good You’ll Want to Eat the Box
Jollie's collagen packaging is doing what most supplement brands can't — making the product feel like something you'd actually want on your counter, not hidden in a cabinet.
Read on Dieline -
Pour One Out for the Glass Bottle? Noiseless Just Made Vodka in Pouches
Noiseless put vodka in a pouch and somehow made it feel considered — a real test of whether structural packaging innovation can carry a premium brand without a glass bottle to lean on.
Read on Dieline -
what kind of world will your actions create? serpentine’s online game makes ethics playable
Serpentine turned an ethics framework into a browser game — a sharp reminder that the most effective brand communication sometimes looks nothing like communication.
Read on Designboom -
alex chinneck twists NYC taxis and LA cars into storefront sculptures for dior
Alex Chinneck twisted real NYC taxis and LA cars into Dior storefront sculptures — when the brand environment *is* the campaign, you've skipped the media buy entirely.
Read on Designboom -
Marketing Vanguard Summit 2026: 9 Truths Behind CMOs’ Most Urgent Priorities
Nine CMOs at Adweek's Vanguard Summit surfaced one consistent truth: the marketing org is being restructured around speed of decision, not depth of planning — worth reading if you're building a brand team right now.
Read on Adweek -
Goafest 2026: AI is becoming the new gateway to consumer decisions
At Goafest 2026, the conversation shifted from AI as a tool to AI as the first touchpoint in consumer decisions — Indian brand teams should be thinking about what that does to the top of their funnel.
Read on Brand Equity (Economic Times) -
Max Lamb debuts materially-efficient chair for Hem
Max Lamb's new chair for Hem is built around material efficiency as a design constraint, not an afterthought — the result is quieter and more interesting than most 'sustainable' furniture announcements.
Read on Wallpaper* -
Nike’s Surprise World Cup Cast Signals a New Marketing Playbook
Nike's World Cup cast reveal ditched the usual athlete roster for something stranger — a signal that their post-Jordan Brand era is rewriting what a sports marketing playbook even looks like.
Read on Adweek -
The $15 Trillion Audience Marketers Still Treat Like an Afterthought
Adweek puts a number on the ignored: the $15 trillion spending power of consumers over 50, a demographic most brand teams still brief around rather than brief for.
Read on Adweek -
“Melody Itni Chocolatey Kyun Hai?” Echoes Globally as PM Modi gifts Meloni Melody Toffees
PM Modi gifting Melody toffees to Italy's PM Meloni sent a 40-year-old Indian candy global in 48 hours — no ad spend, no campaign brief, just context doing the work.
Read on Brand Equity (Economic Times) -
More Than a Feeling? Why Packaging Forms Drive Brand Preference
Dieline's case for packaging form over finish: the physical shape of a container drives brand preference more reliably than color or copy — a useful corrective for founders who treat structure as an afterthought.
Read on Dieline -
how yasmeen lari turns survival into shared wisdom through reparative design
Yasmeen Lari's reparative design practice turns post-disaster rebuilding into community knowledge transfer — proof that the most durable brand asset an architect can build is a replicable system, not a signature.
Read on Designboom -
Goafest 2026: Aman Gupta says brands must stop playing safe and start listening to Gen Z
boAt's Aman Gupta told Goafest 2026 that brands still treating Gen Z as a demographic to decode are already behind — listening, not targeting, is the actual brief now.
Read on Brand Equity (Economic Times) -
Goafest 2026: Build brands from India, not just Brand India
Goafest's sharpest session wasn't about campaigns — it was a direct challenge to build brands *from* India's own logic, not just export a polished version of it abroad.
Read on Brand Equity (Economic Times) -
Color Does All The Talking For Crumb
Crumb's packaging lets colour carry the entire communication load — no copy, no icons, just hue doing the heavy lifting, and it works because the system is tight enough to trust.
Read on Dieline -
Design B&B Strips Naked Down To Its California Roots With Brand Refresh
Naked's brand refresh by Design B&B strips the California wellness brand back to its agricultural roots — a clean case study in how origin story, done right, is a sharper tool than trend-chasing.
Read on Dieline -
google, samsung and gentle monster partner for smart eyewear that edits images on the go
Google, Samsung, and Gentle Monster's smart eyewear collab puts real-time image editing on your face — the brand pairing alone tells you this is a product designed to be worn, not just used.
Read on Designboom -
Luxury lodge Shakti Prana redefines slow travel in India’s remote north
Shakti Prana, a new luxury lodge in India's remote north, is betting that slow travel with genuine design intention can compete with the global lodge circuit — and the early look suggests it can.
Read on Wallpaper* -
Blue and Red: Amul’s New Game Plan
Amul is reworking its colour strategy — a brand that's owned blue and red for decades making a deliberate visual shift is worth watching closely for what it signals about legacy-brand identity moves.
Read on Brand Equity (Economic Times) -
Google Revamps Its Iconic Search Bar for the First Time in 25 Years
Google redesigned its search bar for the first time in 25 years — a quiet reminder that even the world's most-used interface eventually admits it needs a refresh.
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Olipop Launches ‘The Feel Good Soda’ Platform, Complete With a Refreshed Identity and Sonic Signature
Olipop didn't just update a logo — it launched a full platform called 'The Feel Good Soda,' with a sonic signature, proving challenger brands now compete on sensory systems, not just visuals.
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72andSunny Bakes A New Brand Identity For Panera Bread
72andSunny rebuilt Panera Bread's identity from scratch — worth studying if you've ever had to make a tired, familiar brand feel worth choosing again.
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Ring Leader: How Ōura Became an Icon of the Wearable Health Movement
Ōura turned a $300 ring into a health movement by betting on restraint — no screen, no noise, just data — and Adweek traces exactly how that single product decision became a brand position.
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Jim Lecinski on the New Zero Moment of Truth in the AI Era
Jim Lecinski argues AI has fundamentally changed the Zero Moment of Truth — the research window before purchase — and most brand teams haven't caught up to what that means for how buyers find them.
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Startups-Selling a commodity or Marketing a Brand?
Brand Equity asks whether Indian startups are selling commodities or building brands — a question that sounds obvious until you try to answer it honestly about your own business.
Read on Brand Equity (Economic Times) -
Turner Duckworth Looked to Farmstead Signage to Redesign Bob’s Red Mill
Turner Duckworth redesigned Bob's Red Mill by pulling from farmstead signage—proof that the best rebrand research sometimes happens at a roadside barn, not a mood board session.
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Tavern’s RTD Hyper Blast is Fueled By Vintage Jet Skiing
Tavern's RTD energy drink built its entire visual identity around vintage jet skiing—niche cultural specificity used as a brand strategy, not an afterthought.
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Amazon Cut Affiliate Commissions Up to 50% for Some Publishers, Leaving Them Reeling
Amazon slashed affiliate commissions by up to 50% for some publishers—a quiet policy move that will force a lot of content businesses to rethink who they've been building for.
Read on Adweek -
heatherwick studio turns rippling water into sculptural eyewear for JINS
Heatherwick Studio translated rippling water into sculptural eyewear for JINS—a rare case of a design studio brief that actually demanded the metaphor, not just reached for one.
Read on Designboom -
EXCLUSIVE: Omnicom Advertising Creative Lead Javier Campopiano Exits Months After IPG Takeover
Omnicom's global creative lead Javier Campopiano is out just months after the IPG merger closed—the first senior casualty that signals how quickly the new power structure is reshuffling the deck.
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Saying Goodbye to Minute Maid and its Frozen Can of Nostalgia
Minute Maid's iconic frozen concentrate can is being retired—and with it, a packaging format that built a category, a reminder that nostalgia doesn't pay distribution costs.
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Brand building Beyond Rationality
Brand Equity's piece on building brands beyond rationality is worth the read for any founder who's been told to justify every creative decision with a conversion metric.
Read on Brand Equity (Economic Times) -
The Ordinary Would Like To Know If You Want To Buy a $175.90 Banana
The Ordinary is selling a $175.90 banana — a packaging stunt that says more about how far a brand can stretch credibility than it does about skincare.
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AI Agents Are Coming to Netflix to Grow Its $3 Billion Ad Business
Netflix is deploying AI agents inside its $3 billion ad business — the gap between streaming as entertainment and streaming as a performance channel is closing fast.
Read on Adweek
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