This article was first published on CreativeBloq on 16 October 2025.

Jason Braddy

Executive Creative Director, Singapore

As an advertising creative within a brand design consultancy, I appreciate the irony. The tension between creativity and distinctiveness is an age-old industry conundrum. In the pursuit of fresh ideas, cultural relevance and innovation, we often see the sacrifice of the very thing that gives creativity its power: the brand.

Mark Ritson says the golden rule of advertising is “…first they must know it’s me.” Yet too often, the brand disappears into the shadow of the celebrity or the concept itself. As a creative it can be heresy to admit I am a fan of the evidence based school of thinking, but I’ve always aspired to break things in the cathedral of advertising.

Effectiveness is my love language. Driving campaigns that deliver measurable results is just as satisfying as creative that delights and disrupts – and even better when both are true. Byron Sharp reminds us that mental availability drives growth. As an agency this intent to impact the business is the ultimate objective.

Thinking inside the box

(Image credit: The Ordinary/Uncommon)

Sonic mnemonics. Colour palettes. Tone of voice. These are a creative’s superpowers. They’re memory shortcuts. Daniel Kahneman says it best: “Thinking is to humans as swimming is to cats; they can do it but they’d prefer not to.” For anyone in the attention business, this is a dilemma we face every day. In our studio, we remind ourselves to Think Inside The Box. There is an infinite amount of stories to tell for a brand – if we use brand assets to amplify these stories we create short-term wins and long-term brand building .

As an agency we do a lot of work in beauty and The Ordinary is a brand we have heart for. The Ordinary understands that distinctiveness beats novelty. By embracing its clean, clinical design and refusing the excesses of traditional beauty branding, it has created assets that are instantly recognisable with a tone of voice that is culturally resonant. This has built deep trust with younger consumers fluent in spotting inauthenticity. A favourite of mine is how The Ordinary explain their simple product names ‘…Scientists are terrible copy writers so we stuck with Hyaluronic Acid.” It encapsulates a 50 page brand book in one line and creates ‘a smile in the mind’ which drives attention focusing.

The Ordinary aren’t just advertising; they’re refreshing memory structures in every execution. They understand that breaking through the noise requires more than disruption – it requires consistency, authenticity, and relevance. If you remove distinctive codes in the name of ‘creativity’, you don’t make the brand more relevant – you make it more forgettable.

Attention is cheap but memory is priceless

Attention is the cheapest currency in advertising. Novelty can provide millions of views, but attention without memory is worthless. As Sharp’s research shows, brands grow not by being momentarily loud, but by being repeatedly remembered. Advertising’s first job is to remind, not to convince.

A recent example of this is the Columbia Sportswear campaign “Engineered for Whatever” – Linkedin’s latest campaign to debate. This creative is fun and fresh and breaks through while living into the brands core truth: gear built to perform in any condition. It’s a case study in turning functional heritage into a mental asset, showing that in outdoor wear, adaptability isn’t a tagline, it’s the brand’s DNA.

No matter which side of the Columbia campaign debate you’re on, I’m with Jess Wheeler, one of my favourite follows on LinkedIn, who commented “Haven’t thought about Columbia in years. In an exciting category that has often found a way to make itself boring, this reconnects Columbia with its base audience.

Creativity without branding? That’s not advertising

Without considered branding – without intent to impact, even the most talked-about ideas become anonymous. The work that moves markets is where creativity and brand are one. Where the idea lives in people’s minds, creating memory structures with that brand’s identity.

Levi’s recent “Reiimagine” campaign does this. By blending nostalgia with social currency, it turns heritage into a cultural moment only Levi’s could own. Sydney Sweeney’s jeans campaign? However you feel about it, the idea places more weight on the celebrity than the brand. In 5 years we’ll probably think it was a GAP ad (love GAP creative btw).

As brand consultant, P&G alum Daniel Epstein says, “Consistency is a better brand builder than you or me”. The real challenge for today’s creatives isn’t making work that looks different from last year. It’s making work that is undeniably your brand in a world trying to make everything look the same. Creativity that amplifies brand assets isn’t safe – it’s iconic.

Branding isn’t killing creativity in advertising. It’s saving it. I guess you’d say it’s a hill I’m willing to die on.

This article was first published on Campaign Asia-Pacific on 1 November 2025

Susie Hunt
Chair of Asia, Elmwood & MSQ

I often think about what the future of work will look like for my three children. Like many, I imagine the thought is both exciting and unclear.  

When I began my career, brand design and the creative journey were chatty and tactile—boards, markers, tear sheets and endless late nights crafting kerning, typography and debating the placement and practicalities of supermarket shelf standout.   

Now we are designing for the digital shelf, hiring designers fluent in art directional prompts, chasing algorithms, and making friends with agents who don’t need to sleep. The creative origination and creative production process continues to change at the speed of AI, as fast as we humans can imagine, prompt, and iterate.  

The question today isn’t whether AI will reshape our industry. It already has. The real question is how we ensure creative origination, empowered by AI, stays deeply authentic and human, and how brand design continues to give brands their soul.  

Stephen Hawking once said AI could either be the best or worst thing to happen to humanity. He was right on both counts. Which means it’s up to us to decide what side of that line we stand on.

Where humans still lead

AI is astonishing at pattern, logic and speed. But what gives design its power has never been logic. It’s emotion—that almost invisible layer of meaning that sits beneath the rational.  

Robert Heath’s research on low-attention processing (how the brain responds to high speed messaging—exactly how we engage with social commerce) shows that emotion, not logic, drives recognition. We don’t remember ads because they explain; we remember them because they move us. That’s why a small curve under a logo, Amazon’s famous smile, can make a billion-dollar difference. It’s a fraction of a second of recognition, but a lifetime of emotional coding.  

That emotional intelligence is what designers bring, and it’s what no machine can replicate.  

From assets to ecosystems

Today, a brand isn’t just a logo or a pack. They stretch across screens, shelves, feeds and storefronts. Each touchpoint adds another layer to how people experience them. The challenge now is to keep all of that connected, consistent, and emotionally true.  

When we worked on Whiskas, we weren’t just refreshing a logo. We were trying to capture the spirit of ‘cattitude’ – that peculiar blend of grace and defiance that every cat owner knows instinctively. The refreshed design didn’t just look right; it felt right. The emotion was immediate, and that’s why it worked everywhere from e-commerce thumbnails to supermarket aisles

From luxury lifestyles to multi-channel luxury ecosystems

Our new normal of connected commerce also empowers design to create more powerful multi-channel impact than ever before. Louis Vuitton catapulted the familiar ‘pop-up store’ into a new dimension with the ‘Louis’ cruise ship museum (see below) and lifestyle temporary store in Shanghai—attracting huge numbers of customers.

In the same way, brands like The Beast & Butterful and Cremourous in China have shown how physical space and digital storytelling can be fused together through design to create sensory, culturally grounded premium experiences. The Beast launched the next chapter of its Chinese Designer lifestyle platform in Shanghai earlier this year: The ‘China Atelier’. Design becomes a bridge between people and place, between meaning and commerce. Butterful and Cremourous have taken the Chinese and Korean bakery experience to new levels. When was the last time you queued for an hour for a croissant?

The new hard skills

LinkedIn’s Aneesh Raman recently said we’re moving from a knowledge economy to an innovation economy, one that values creativity, curiosity, courage, compassion and communication. I’d add another: the curiosity of culture.

In Asia, culture isn’t a backdrop; it’s context. There are many Asias, each with its own codes, contradictions, nuances, and sensitivities. When Heineken’s Bia Viet beer in Vietnam was re-energised with the Đông Sơn Drum and the Lac Bird, it became more than a redesign. It was a story of national pride, renewal and belonging. The result was a 27% growth in sales and 55% rise in brand power. As Sir John Hegarty reminds us ‘You can judge the quality of ideas by the obscurity of the sources’.  

That’s what good design does: it translates culture into commercial resonance.

Design at the speed of Asia

Speed defines this region. ‘China speed’ isn’t a phrase; it’s a way of working. It can feel relentless, but it’s also thrilling.  

AI has a role to play here, not as a replacement but as an accelerator. It can take care of the repetitive so that people can focus on the remarkable. The next creative frontier isn’t prompt writing. It’s art direction for AI: teaching technology to understand tone, nuance and emotion the way a human team would.  

The most exciting work I see today at Elmwood and across MSQ happens where design craft meets intelligent automation, not where one replaces the other. As Steve Gatfield, vice chairman of MSQ, puts it: “AI will most definitely impact production—including edits and adaptation — but creative origination still demands deep human imagination. Today AI can’t imagine. What it gives us is a bigger, more dynamic palette to explore possibilities. The best and most imaginative minds will always seize that potential to find new ideas and forms of expression.”  

That distinction is crucial. AI expands the canvas for creativity but it doesn’t paint the picture. It enables personalisation and responsiveness in ways we’re only beginning to explore, yet the spark that makes ideas meaningful remains deeply human.  

And sometimes, the best ideas remain disarmingly simple. When VanMoof discovered that their bicycles were getting damaged in transit, they printed the image of a television on every shipping box. Damage dropped by 80 percent. That’s pure human lateral thinking: empathetic, witty, effective.  

The magic of mistakes vs the perfected prompt

The actor Tom Holland was recently interviewed on the future of entertainment and film when everything is possible with AI. His view was that live theatre was the future because of its imperfections and mistakes. The same is true for the future of the design process in the era of AI. As Andy Lawrence the global creative director of Elmwood always teaches ‘we still need to create time to fail as part of the creative origination process—this is how the great ideas are developed’.  

Ethical imagination

As AI becomes woven into creative practice, ethics become non-negotiable. How we use these tools will shape how people trust both brands and the industry itself.  

As Air India’s Deva Joseph put it, ‘The future belongs to those who can leverage AI to explore the bounties of creativity.’ The word leverage is important. AI should amplify the authenticity of our imagination, not outsource it. The best design leaders I know treat technology as a partner, not a substitute.

From intent to impact

Design has always been more than decoration. It’s a way of thinking, connecting purpose with emotion and emotion with action.  

In the AI era, that loop tightens. When brand ecosystems are designed with intent, they become self-sustaining; flowing from strategy to storytelling to commerce, all powered by empathy and guided by data.  

We’ve seen this in our work for Glanbia’s Optimum Nutrition, cost-effectively scaling content creation for all markets by creating a product playground. The result is a suite of assets that build consistency and memory structures while delivering content and imagery that drive aspiration, reinforce RTBs and product superiority. It’s proof that design systems, when built with intent, can balance efficiency with emotion, enabling brands to scale impact without losing humanity.  

Design is the golden thread that ties it all together. It keeps technology centred on human needs and helps achieve the kind of innovation AI alone never could.

To the next generation

If you’re entering this industry, stay curious about people. Notice how they scroll, shop and share. Study behaviour. Learn to draw. Be obsessed with subconscious human behaviour, rituals and moments of unprompted emotion.  

The tools will keep changing; the reasons people care won’t.  

This is why human-led creativity and design aren’t just important in the AI economy. It needs to thrive. Because authentic, original and human-crafted design, at its core, is what keeps technology human and what our audiences seek.  

This article was first published on Creativebrief on 1 September 2025

Andrew Lawrence
Global Executive Creative Director

Those who have been around the industry for the last 15 years or so will have seen a clear creative cycle coming to bear on the brands that we have all been working on.

The 90s and early 2000s trend of over-styling, star-busts, and photoshop embellishment led to new aesthetic possibilities, but not surprisingly, this began to wane and instead, albeit with some relief, gave way to a more reductive, mindful era of design. Design for brand identity became so much more iconic in a way that allowed a message to be delivered so much more clearly.

This move towards minimalism could be seen as a direct response to the increasing complexity of the digital age and the move from big screen to small screen. Consumers were looking for clarity and ease of navigation in a world filled with information overload.

This era of reductive brand design focused on simplifying a brand’s visual identity to its most essential elements, aiming for clarity, efficiency, and a more modern aesthetic, often involving minimising visual clutter, prioritising functionality, and emphasising a clear message by storytelling through brand assets as a vehicle to communicate the big brand idea. But in some ways stripped of emotional resonance.

“The hunger for reduction has left some brands shortchanged when it comes to their ability to storytell on a super-regional level.”

Whilst we don’t want a return to the old ways of over-polishing, I for one am all about a simple design aesthetic, the hunger for reduction has left some brands shortchanged when it comes to their ability to storytell on a super-regional level. We will forever need to embrace the beautiful tension between global and local. For markets like China, this is a must; the hunger for unlimited editions and the rise of Involution means there is a real need for intentional brand flex. The competitive retail landscape and the entrepreneurialism that we are seeing in the region means we need to plan for space to innovate and pull consumers and fans in with new news. As designers, we should go about this with a mindset of ‘Intent’ to deliver true next generation brand building, a school that is in stark contrast to the singular focus on reduction.

I’ve just returned from a trip to France, and what struck me whilst sitting in a French bar was the difference in drinking rituals and experience, particularly when the beer glass is in hand. Smaller glasses, a more mindful, almost foody experience and very much less of a commodity… Maybe taking inspiration from wine, it made me think about where some of those global mega brands are heading and their ability to flex harder to connect with consumers on a level that is so much more meaningful.

Much of the change we are seeing is driven by the events of the last eight years or so. We all know it’s been a slog with no end in sight. Brexit, COVID, financial meltdowns, and war have had profound changes politically, economically and socially.

Millennial minimalism is built on the reductive brand aesthetic, which we saw playing out heavily in many of the DTC beauty and health/well-being brands like Deciem’s The Ordinary.

Then, in the middle of all this, Gen Z came along, and we witnessed the rise of the undesigned aesthetic and a backlash against minimalism. A generation, overwhelmed with choice, that said ‘I’m just going to let myself go a little and follow my dopamine desires’. A generation happy with neon clashes of colour and typography that ran the gauntlet of legibility, but it doesn’t matter, it’s how it makes you feel. A new landscape to navigate. Gen-Z brands like Starface and Alani energy drinks are typifying this attitude.

I wonder, therefore, if a lot of what we are beginning to see in design is driven by a combination of the need for people to express themselves to feel more connected to things and the creative technology like GenAi that enables them to do it. Design trends are a response to what is going on in wider culture, and what people need as a response. Minimalism felt honest and pure; the return to maximalist dopamine design is a boost of positivity and a way to stand out in a world where everyone is trying to get your attention. We’re guaranteed to see new trends going forward, and the important thing is to know how and when to use them.

Reduction in design was the result of cultural shifts, but it’s not set in stone as a rule to live by for design. The ‘less is more’ adage is one thing, but now brands need to embrace novelty. We are in the era of creator effectiveness, and notably, brands are shifting from buying reach to buying influence. This means that what’s powerful isn’t just reacting to design trends but figuring out how to most effectively design for who you are and what you stand for.

It means we need to be tighter on what is sacrosanct and define regional shifts or evolutions to keep up with culture, so brand owners can unlock the power of community and collaborative creation – it’s going to mean letting go a little! Which is always difficult, as our fear of loss is always greater than the joy of gain. Nevertheless, brands need to learn to ensure brand effectiveness with creators.

For example, McDonald’s embraced its anime fanbase with a WcDonald’s campaign in 30 markets honouring the artists that have long inserted the fast-food brand into their own creations, inverting the “M” to avoid trademark infringement issues.

With Instagram, everyone wanted to be a stylist, TikTok allowed us to become the entertainer, and the advent of AI now allows the individual to become an artist and creator. Only recently, Sir John Hegarty said something quite profound: “We are all artists, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we should all exhibit.” (I couldn’t agree more.)

The same can be applied to the creative use of AI. At the end of the day, owning a hammer does not make you a sculptor! The quality of what we produce is linked inextricably to what you are prepared to settle for. And for brands, the tightrope between what should be protected and what is up for grabs is going to become so much more important.

At the end of the day, we can strive for consistency and cohesion, but it’s key that you know what you stand for and go about that with absolute Intent. This will give you the confidence to also then adopt more of a Wu Wei approach, a 2000-year-old Chinese mindset of ‘letting things happen’. It’s in this space that we invite others in and prompt co-creation that is mutually beneficial.

For brand owners, true balance lies somewhere between knowing what is sacred and then delivering a healthy dose of authenticity and magic by inviting others in.

This article was first published on DesignRush on 25 August 2025.

Design has to do more than just look good, and data shows this is increasingly true.

According to a McKinsey report on personalization, 71% of consumers expect personalized interactions, and 76% get frustrated when that doesn’t happen. 

And when it comes to growth, companies that excel at personalization generate 40% more revenue than slower competitors.

As Justin Fines, Executive Creative Director at Elmwood, a globally recognized brand design consultancy, puts it:

“We’re not just making pretty pictures; we’re creating meaning, building equity, and helping brands behave with clarity and consistency across every touchpoint.”

For today’s creative leaders, that means:

• Surface-level aesthetics aren’t enough; design must go beyond decoration.
• Brands need to connect on a personal and emotional level to matter.
• Every decision needs intent so creative choices are always purposeful.
• Consistency builds trust when design works across every touchpoint.

In an exclusive DesignRush interview, Fines shares why designing with intent, rather than just aesthetics, is the key to building brands that endure.

Invest in People First to Unlock Better Work

Strong creative output comes from the conditions that allow talent to thrive. When people feel supported, challenged, and valued, their work naturally reflects that energy.

For Fines, building that environment is non-negotiable.

“Elmwood’s strong focus on making space for creatives from all backgrounds, where they can make the best work of their career and feel supported, is paramount,” he says.

“With a real investment in people and their lives, the great work is a natural byproduct.”

Rather than treating culture as a “soft” benefit, he sees it as the bedrock of originality and momentum. A team that feels seen and supported is more likely to take risks, bring fresh ideas forward, and push projects past the expected.

Go Beyond the Brief to Find Breakthrough Ideas

The strongest brand systems start with curiosity. Too often, agencies jump straight into design execution without digging into the bigger questions behind a client’s challenge.

The most valuable creative work comes from slowing down, listening deeply, and being willing to challenge the original assumptions.

“The most important insight I have gained is to prioritize strategic thinking in all phases of the project,” Fines says.

“Sometimes that means going beyond the original brief and treading into territory the client did not foresee, finding blind spots we can turn into opportunities.”

Once the strategy is sharp, the goal is to make it come alive across every sense and setting where people meet the brand.

“Every choice needs to be informed by one catalyzing idea that joins and inspires all the pieces that follow,” Fines adds.

By pushing past the brief and grounding the work in a unifying idea, brands can create experiences that feel coherent, immersive, and far more memorable.

Align Every Creative Decision to a Clear Purpose

With new design trends emerging almost daily, it’s tempting for brands to chase what feels current. But design that lasts is anchored in something deeper.

Intent is what separates memorable work from forgettable work. It’s about ensuring every decision ladders back to a brand’s purpose.

“Intent is the courage to make bold moves that propel a brand beyond the expected… Great work requires seeing beyond trends in both business and the visual landscape,” Fines explains.

That clarity of purpose creates stronger campaigns in the short term and builds resilience and equity over time.

“Intent is the courage to make bold moves that propel a brand beyond the expected… Great work requires seeing beyond trends in both business and the visual landscape,” Fines explains.

“We’re not just making pretty pictures; we’re creating meaning, building equity, and helping brands behave with clarity and consistency across every touchpoint.”

Designing with intent means crafting systems that endure, adapt, and continue to make sense as the world shifts around them.

Align Every Creative Decision to a Clear Purpose

Speed has become a defining pressure in brand work. Projects are moving faster, timelines are tighter, and teams are asked to deliver more with less.

But for Fines, protecting craft is what ensures ideas land with clarity.

“to make ideas universally recognized, the thought behind them has to be expressed in the most simple and succinct way possible,” he says.

This simplicity is what allows a brand to be understood across cultures, platforms, and audiences.

And as design draws in more collaborators, Fines sees even more opportunity for originality, so long as the creative process keeps humanity at its core.

“in the face of ai and emerging technologies, my challenge is to keep the ‘art’ and its human origin at the center of the conversation,” he says.

True craft is about distilling ideas to their essence, then expressing them in ways that feel unmistakably human, even in an era defined by technology.

Why This Matters

The takeaway is simple: people expect brands to know them. When that doesn’t happen, loyalty slips.

When it does, the payoff is real — stronger connections, better experiences, and faster growth.

But getting there means building from strategy, grounding ideas in culture, and protecting the craft that makes them resonate.

In the end, intent and empathy are what make the difference between brands people notice once and brands they remember.

Design With Intent FAQ’s

What does "design with intent" mean in branding?

Designing with intent means every creative decision ties back to a brand’s purpose. It’s about creating meaning, building equity, and ensuring clarity and consistency across every touchpoint.

What does "design with intent" mean in branding?

As timelines shorten and AI tools rise, Fines emphasizes that simplicity, clarity, and human-centered craft are what make ideas resonate. True craft distills complexity into something universally understood and deeply human.

What does "design with intent" mean in branding?

Elmwood is expanding from its packaging roots into holistic brand experiences. Under Justin Fines’ leadership in the U.S., the agency is focusing on strategy, cultural insight, and craft to build brands that connect on a deeper, more human level.

Daniel Binns
Global CEO

Elmwood CEO Daniel Binns explains why purpose isn’t dead—it’s evolved into strategic brand intent that drives measurable business outcomes.

What are those fundamentals of your brand, the toolkit of things that you’re going to use to express yourself in different environments, so much so that it doesn’t matter what changes around you?

In a world full of diminishing attention spans, you know you have got split second to communicate what your brand stands for. What does that better than anything, is design.

“You only get to your destination if you have clear intentionality. “

Andy Edmonds
Head of Integrated Solutions & General Manager, Asia

In a fragmented, attention-starved world, creative that blends in gets blocked out. Today’s consumers scroll fast, skip faster, and forget even faster. So if your brand isn’t instantly recognisable, it’s at risk of being misattributed—or worse, invisible.

This is where distinctive brand assets matter. Not as buzzwords or checkboxes, but as powerful memory structures that anchor your brand in the minds of consumers. They are, quite simply, foundational to effective marketing today.

At Elmwood, this thinking underpins how we approach content and communications through Brand Out Creative—a capability designed to bring brand assets to life in the real world, ensuring they resonate in motion, not just in guidelines.

Mental Availability Drives Growth

We lean heavily into the evidence-based thinking from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, which has consistently shown that brands grow by increasing both mental and physical availability.

Mental availability is about being easily recalled in buying situations. It’s not just about memorable taglines (though we craft those too). It’s about building and consistently deploying a set of cues—visual, verbal, and sonic—that trigger recognition across time, channels, and contexts.

Logos, colour palettes, characters, typefaces, sounds, taglines—these aren’t just creative assets, they’re signals. The stronger and more consistently you use them, the more fluently your brand lives in memory. And in the battle for attention, fluency wins.

Consistency Over Novelty

Here’s the catch: even the best brand assets are often underused.

There’s a tendency—especially in campaign work—to prioritise novelty. But research shows it’s consistency that delivers results. The brands that win don’t reinvent the wheel with every brief; they codify their world and build meaning over time.d conviction, and you won’t just build another brand. You’ll build one that actually matters. Think:

There’s a tendency—especially in campaign work—to prioritise novelty. But research shows it’s consistency that delivers results. The brands that win don’t reinvent the wheel with every brief; they codify their world and build meaning over time.d conviction, and you won’t just build another brand. You’ll build one that actually matters. Think:

• Mcdonald’s Golden Arches

• Mastercard’s Intersecting Circles

• Netflix’s sonic mnemonic

These assets are more than logos or sounds. They’re cognitive shortcuts. Memory triggers. Signals that tell you who the brand is before a single word is read or spoken. 

The Creative Payoff 

When brand assets are consistently applied across touchpoints, content becomes more effective—even with limited reach. 

We’ve seen the benefits first-hand: 

• Creative wear-out slows – repeated exposure increases familiarity and impact. 

• Production becomes more efficient – core assets are already in place. 

• Performance improves – from brand recall to click-throughs to ROI. 

None of this means sacrificing creativity. Quite the opposite. Guardrails don’t limit ideas—they sharpen them. The more distinctive your brand world, the more space there is to play within it. 

Whether it’s a six-second ad, a TikTok, or an in-store display, the creative challenge is the same: to be recognisably, unmistakably you. Every time. 

Because when your audience is ready to buy, they rarely choose the best brand.  They choose the one they remember. 

This article was first published on CreativePool on 10 June 2025.

When a design agency as established and decorated as Elmwood decides to rebrand, it’s not just about changing logos or colour palettes. It’s about reshaping identity from the inside out. 

Global CEO Daniel Binns and Global ECD Andy Lawrence didn’t set out to refresh Elmwood’s image; they set out to redefine its purpose. What began as a strategic pivot away from a legacy in packaging design became a total transformation into a full-stack experience design powerhouse. 

In this exclusive behind-the-scenes look, they reveal how the new Elmwood (rooted in intentionality, business impact, and bold thinking) came to life.

What was the brief for the rebrand?

We wanted to showcase that Elmwood had shifted from being predominantly seen as a consumer packaging design agency. To being recognized as a full stack experience design consultancy, with dynamic brand world thinking at the heart of the work we do for the world’s leading consumer, corporate and healthcare companies.

How did the initial pitch/brainstorming phase go?

We knew it was critical that this was more than just a refreshed brand identity but an end-to-end transformation of the business. So, we started by working on the “plumbing” of the agency, ensuring we had an aligned vision and culture, expanded capabilities to be able to deliver corporate brand work and experience design across all four studios and the right leadership teams, structure and processes.

As we built out the visual territories, we did a historic appraisal of the Elmwood brand and made sure that we built on the past but set us up for the future. Bringing back the old Elmwood “hot” green was a very intentional act.

Describe the purpose of the brand and its target audience

We had spoken to many of our clients and prospects (CMO’s, heads of brand and marketing and senior design leads) about what it was they needed today from a world class strategic brand design agency.

They were clear that ultimately, they needed to deliver measurable business outcomes with every project they undertook. They needed partners who could provide a level of brand expertise and creative excellence that they couldn’t do themselves, but they also wanted strong collaborators who would work with them to create the right solution.

We wanted to build on our legacy of being the world’s most effective design agency, having won more DBA effectiveness awards than any other shop out there. But bring it into a more holistic story of business impact. 

We also recognized that employees were a critical stakeholder for this and brought them along through the process. We shared initial thoughts, first draft and final work in three major global town hall meetings. 

What was your thinking behind the rebranding solution?

Elmwood has been an entrepreneurial business focused on amazing craft quality for 45 years. We wanted to retain that sense of passion, agile and can-do spirit but bring with it a more considered and polished persona. One that was more intentional.  

We work with some of the biggest and most challenging clients in the world from Mars, Coca-Cola and Unilever, to Shell, Haleon and The CFA Institute. They know us as thoughtful, mature partners capable of leading and challenging them at every level of their business and we want to inject some of that sophistication into our new identity.

The idea of intentionality is clearly reflected in the shape language of the new brand. We were clear that we wanted a more purposeful ‘e’ marque that would reflect the sentiment of our new purpose – cutting through the noise and confusion with bold strikes. 

Did you learn anything new during the project?

I guess a reminder. Never hang on to your first idea and allow things to evolve. We started with an idea centered on ‘Design Better’. That then moved to be ‘Better by Design” which when we shared with the team someone said. I really like that it feels like everything we do is intentional.

We paused and said actually that’s a bigger idea! We then played with “Building brands with intent that are better by design” but quickly realized we were just hanging on to something we initially built, and the most powerful idea was intentionality, hence the final idea of simply “Building Brands With Intent”. 

What was the biggest challenge? How did you overcome it?

It’s always the hardest thing… working on your own identity. The cobblers’ shoes and all that! Client work always takes president. It’s the eternal challenge of keeping it all moving forwards and having enough distance from the business to see objectively and clearly.

What do you hope it achieves for the brand?

We want people to see Elmwood in a new light. An experience design business, working on global consumer, corporate and healthcare brands, crafting exceptional creative work backed by deep strategic rigor. A balance of scrappy and informal but grown up and elegant. Delivering measurable impact for our clients. 

Were there any unexpected insights or discoveries about the brand that emerged during the rebranding process?

One interesting observation was that what didn’t work for many of the more senior members of the team, really resonated with our younger workforce! Learning how to balance the need for change versus grounding in the past was an important part of sharing the work effectively.

How did you ensure that the new brand identity resonated with the brand’s existing audience while also attracting new ones?

An ongoing conversation with clients and internal influencers to ensure we had powerful voices supporting the new work at every step.

Jackson Ong
Strategy Director, Singapore

Let’s start with a hard truth: consumers don’t trust brands the way they used to. PwC’s 2024 Trust Survey spells it out: while 90% of executives believe their companies are highly trusted, only 30% of consumers feel the same.

And yet, in boardrooms around the world, brands continue to chase the next shiny object — jumping on A.I bandwagon tactics, purpose-washing their way through campaigns, and engaging in yet another round of the eternal Brand vs. Performance Marketing war of words. The result? A sea of sameness, where differentiation is debated at length, rather than decisively acted upon.

How do we break free?

The answer isn’t more frameworks, more buzzwords, or more complexity. It’s intent — the fundamental mindset separating brands that actually matter from those that merely exist.

At Elmwood, we believe that truly intentional brands embrace key mindset shifts. The kind that challenge conventional wisdom:

Brand Fix → Brand Fix & Flex

• Forget rigid consistency. Today’s most intentional brands flex with coherence — shapeshifting across channels, formats, and cultural moments while still feeling unmistakably them. Nike doesn’t rigidly stick to the same look, tone, or execution across all touchpoints. Instead, it adapts with intent — whether it’s an inspirational “Just Do It” campaign, athlete-driven storytelling, or hyper-localised content.

Manufactured Purpose → Enlightened Self-Interest

• Great brands don’t just chase a cause — they align with one that serves both their consumers and their business. Carousell doesn’t preach about the circular economy for the sake of it; they champion a world of ‘win-win’ where second-hand items unlock real value for both buyers and sellers. Their sustainability story isn’t just a moral high ground; it’s a commercial edge.


Product Claims → People Experiences

• The strongest brands don’t just shout ‘faster,’ ‘stronger,’ or ‘better.’ They craft experiences that make people feel something. Red Bull doesn’t sell energy drinks; they sell human limitlessness. Apple doesn’t market tech specs; they iconise the power of seamless creativity. These brands don’t just exist in a category; they exist in culture.

So, how do you ensure your brand is operating with true intent?

The answer lies in the following four fundamental questions. These aren’t just another set of marketing theory to glance at and forget. They are first principles for brand-building in an era where meaningful differentiation is everything.

Q1. What’s the Big, Ambitious Role in People’s Lives?

• Your brand is more than a product or service. It’s more than just a commodity. What role does it play in the everyday reality of your audience? What bigger effect can it have a stake in?

Q2. What’s the Clear Enemy?

• A strong brand stands for something, but more importantly, it stands against something. Who or what is the brand’s philosophical enemy? Defining an enemy isn’t about petty industry rivalries — it’s about making a cultural statement that resonates.

Q3. What’s the Founding Legend?

• Every brand has an origin story — but the best brands own theirs and use it. A well-crafted founding legend isn’t just storytelling. It’s a strategic truth that infuses authenticity into the brand.

Q4. What’s the Tension to Resolve?

• The most powerful brands bridge contradictions by offering two benefits that traditionally don’t go together. Being able to resolve a tension isn’t just interesting — it demonstrates why exactly your brand is indispensable.

Bring in the right people in the business to answer these with intent and conviction, and you won’t just build another brand. You’ll build one that actually matters.

Esther Hastings
Strategy Partner

What do you think of when you think of brand architecture?

I’m betting it’s that chart. 3 different models? Going from Branded house to house of brands? Handy ‘doesn’t quite fit’ hybrid option in the middle? I’d guess that the second thing that comes to mind is a lengthy bit of theoretical deliberation and deep thought. An academic pursuit that results in a categorical system, with everything neatly in a place and ‘finished’. There’s a reason those are the things that come to mind, because they are, unfortunately present in a lot of brand architecture projects out there. But for us they obscure the real intent of architecture. Every Forbes article will tell you that Brand architecture is 4 or 5 models – because outwardly when you look, most brands find themselves—broadly —in one of those configurations.

But these are solutions. Blunt, reductive tools that belie architecture’s real potential.
Great brand architectures intention is to seek to solve problems. External, commercial problems like how to arrange your portfolio to unlock future revenue and profit, or how to compete and win in a crowded or consolidating market.

And internal, cultural challenges like how to give people clarity and pride in where they belong in the organisation, or how to find unity of purpose in a fragmented portfolio group that has grown by acquisition.

Great architecture is designed with intent to drive action. It’s not something done for its own sake. It’s a tool that helps us actively, consciously change how people think, feel or behave. It’s a tool that helps us design better behaviours.

And as such it should be judged in its effectiveness to drive changes not models.

It’s practical. It is often simpler than tearing the existing structure down and starting from scratch (though that is often useful). In today’s lightning speed world, great brand architecture needs to be about prioritising the ‘fixes’ that will get you into action as fast as possible. So you can start to reap the rewards of those changes. It’s projective. An exercise that’s as much about strategic inspiration as logical rationalisation, that asks how it can open future opportunity as much as how it can order and organise the now. It’s our opportunity to rehearse the future; a solution for tomorrow that we get to put into play today.

It’s creative. More than a rational ‘filing’ exercise of products and services, it’s an exercise in communication of what you stand for. Where your brand idea is baked in, not bolted on. And crucially it’s always on. Those static models can make you believe there is an answer. To life the universe and everything. (it’s 42 by the way). But the truth is that really there is no finish line; for as long as you have an innovation pipeline, competitors, customers, you have a need to have an eye on your architecture. Your architecture, like your brand needs to be plugged into category and culture, reflective of and responsive to the world around it. It’s agile. Essentially architecture should be considered to be always in beta. And for us that’s the joy – it’s the rational satisfaction of creating a system that works for the now, but it’s the creative exhilaration of imagining an opportunity that will shape a future in flux. It’s the ability to design better futures for our brands.

Ambrish Chaudhry

Head of Strategy, Asia

It’s a confusing time to be a marketer these days.

A spontaneously built vibe on social media can be just as effective as years of carefully curated distinctive brand assets. Advertising is fast trending towards surrealism with Seal playing well… a seal and moustaches flying across windows, as evidenced in this year’s Superbowl. DE&I-related, purpose-led branding is becoming a distant speck in the rearview mirror. The cult of personality fast overtaking years of hard-earned brand personas.

To paraphrase a great literary work, these are the best of times and the worst of times. And while it’s not quite yet time to tear up the rule book, it’s worth updating it for sure. So, here’s some food for thought for continued brand growth in a post-branding world.

1. Unified > Uniform


Consistency has long been seen as the epitome of brand building. Doing the same thing over and over again builds precious brand assets and ensures the best return on presence. And while much of that is true, as many past doyens struggling for relevance will attest, there is a lot to be said for flexibility.

It is empirically proven that an omni-channel approach is the biggest multiplier of return on investment and maximises ad spends. However, implementing the same assets in a similar way across different touchpoints is a sure shot route to being ignored. Brands now need the inherent flex to have different conversations with differing audiences across differing media. And brand assets need to be set up for that.

2. Think kit-of-parts


The best brand guidelines do not constrain creativity and the altar of consistency. In fact, they become sandboxes that allow different permutations which, while staying true to the brand, create varied and delightful manifestations that keep audiences engaged. Think of the best brands and the way they communicate. You don’t have to see their logos to identify their messages. Multiple aspects such as emotional principles, tonality, sonic experience, use of photography etc. are hard at work to bring their messages to life. And here’s the kicker, it’s usually not done in exactly the same way. For example, while Airbnb’s brand identity is centered around “belong anywhere,” the way it communicates this varies significantly for different cultures, user experiences, and market trends and yet it is unmistakably Airbnb.

3. Know when to appear and when to disappear


Much like brands, businesses that own them are also in dire need of flexibility. From moving across price points, to collaborations with other brands and artists, to limited-time offers, businesses have multiple needs to extract value from one of the most precious assets – the brands they own. However, applying said brand in a singular fashion can often stretch credulity beyond repair. Often, the best role that the brand can take is offstage left.


4. It’s not heritage, it’s legacy

Many long-standing brands are facing death by a thousand cuts. An artisanal product here, an influencer-backed launch there, a competitive innovation and suddenly one is skirting with irrelevance. It is not that trust has become less important but there are many new signifiers of trust beyond heritage. From laser focus on the customer experience to innovative packaging, category-disrupting new formats etc., the route to trust now has many shortcuts. So, if you are a leading brand defending against the rising tide of competition, think legacy and not heritage. Legacy is a reminder of a promise you’ve made and lived up to over the years and while the manifestations of what that looks like may change, the essence does not.

5. And finally, for some hard-earned fun


To break the rules, you have to first master them. A rising trend amongst brands is to be selectively sacrilegious with their brand assets. Think KFC’s famous FCK ad or Pepsi’s fast-food combinations; the years of strongly adhering to brand assets can sometimes create gold if you’re willing to scruff up the rules, once in a while.

And there you have it. While as marketers we are trained to hear the siren song call of consistency, coherence is the lesser traveled path to lasting brand relevance. The true North Star, that focuses on the first-principles of brand building to engage and delight audiences. The perfect antidote to AI-induced blandness we are careening towards at break-neck speed.

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In China, there are two ways of interpreting the term “internet celebrity (pronounced as wang hong in Chinese)”. As a noun, it refers to social media influencers; as an adjective, it describes popular trends (e.g., a hotel or cake that becomes trendy on the internet can be called a wang hong hotel or a wang hong cake).

In the past few years, a phrase frequently heard from clients was: “We want to make our brand a celebrity brand.” At the time, 10,000 Red recommendation posts could create a blockbuster product, 100 videos could build a successful brand, and a single livestream by a top influencer could propel a brand to frame overnight. Becoming a celebrity brand drove phenomenal visits, purchases, and user shares. They were “top performers” and “sales champions.”

In the present day, however, clients are shifting their stance, saying: “Our brand can’t just be a celebrity brand.” Many brands that gained widespread attention because they relied too heavily on traffic, neglecting to improve their brand strength and product quality. These brands were eventually labeled by consumers as “low-quality” with short-lived success when the customer acquisition costs rise continuously in the fierce competition.

This is an era where “attention is king.” Consumers are easily drawn to the traffic but forget the brand itself. For a brand that becomes a celebrity brand, instead of being complacent about the fleeting halo, it should be thinking about how it can remain a constant winner.

The fragrance industry provides an interesting example. Although China’s fragrance culture can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn dynasties, fragrance has historically been a symbol of taste and status among the nobility. However, over the past two decades, as more and more overseas brands have entered the Chinese market, fragrance has gradually transitioned from a luxury item to a daily consumer product.

As a result, the Chinese fragrance market has dominated by international brands for a long time. Until 2018, the Chinese fragrance brand To Summer, inspired by oriental culture, carved out a unique niche in the market by using Chinese botanical scents that deeply resonate with the local audience, quickly establishing itself as a celebrity brand winning recognition. Six years later, while countless followers have entered or disappeared in the oriental fragrance industry, only To Summer remains a lasting favorite. Today, people no longer refer To Summer only as a celebrity brand, also as a representative brand of oriental aesthetics.

Rooted in oriental aesthetics, To Summer has built a cohesive product and content system. Each product series tells stories of oriental culture, art and history. For example, the classic series “Kunlun Boiling Snow” takes inspiration from China’s sacred Kunlun Mountains, encapsulating the grandeur of nature and the cozy warmth of a cabin in a small bottle. Its narrative paints a vivid scene: “On a snowy and windy night, a traveler returns to his wooden home in the forest, hearing the snow carried by the wind as firewood crackles inside.” 03 It feels as though the snow at the peak of Kunlun melts into trickling streams, carrying the resinous scent of subarctic conifer forests into the glasses shared by friends and family around the fire.

With a profound understanding of the subtle elegance of oriental aesthetics, To Summer draws from the depth of traditional culture, capturing and distilling minimalist yet iconic textual and visual symbols to construct its brand universe. From product naming, packaging design, and visual storytelling to the multisensory experience in its offline stores, To Summer delivers a consistent embodiment of “oriental aesthetics” across all brand touchpoints.

To Summer’s transition from “a short-lived celebrity brand” to “a lasting representative brand” lies in its unwavering commitment to its original intent: the revival of oriental culture. Through abstract scents, the brand evokes and reawakens long-dormant memories for its audience, allowing the enduring treasures of cultural heritage to be rediscovered and embraced by the world in the form of fragrance.

Scents can be replicated, trends will evolve, and more popular brands will emerge with the times. However, only with an unwavering intent can a brand always draw consumers’ attention amidst constant change and remain steadfast in its direction. A brand should aim not just to be a celebrity brand that captures attention one time, but to achieve success all the time. Rather than following trends, stay true to your intent and create future trends together with us. We build brands with intent.

Sources:
1. PINYIN HUI Celebrity Brands No Longer Look Cheap
2. Baidu Baike
3. Zhihu Sense Economy: Sniffing Out a New Blue Ocean  

Marti Rosenberger

Senior Strategist, New York

Brands across industries are vying for cultural relevance, activating this through brand partnerships, influencer collaborations, creative campaigns, social media, product innovation, and more. At the core of all these efforts is a reliance on trends to resonate in ways that are timely, relatable, and authentic. Achieving viral success can manifest in multiple forms—whether through impressions, widespread recognition, or the establishment of a new convention. As consumer expectations evolve and elevate, brands must adopt a more intentional approach to truly connect. Success is no longer defined by being the first to capitalize on a trend, but by being the brand that executes it most effectively. Understanding three key consumer behaviors can help brands act with intent.

1. If your brand behaves inconsistently, consumers pick up on it immediately.

As consumers are bombarded with countless messages, they’ve become increasingly discerning and critical – immediately picking up on any disconnects. Coming across as exploiting trends or opportunities purely for self-gain or as having an unstable brand identity undermines consumer trust and fails to nurture the relationships between brands and consumers. Van Leeuwen Ice Cream captures consumer attention in consistently surprising ways. From the outset, its focus has been on crafting high-quality, innovative flavors for a broad audience. Without a paid advertising budget, the brand has relied on product excellence and organic, word-of-mouth marketing to build its reputation. Its consumers have learned to expect unconventional partnerships that act as marketing stunts themselves. These partnerships and new flavor releases spark polarized reactions that fuel conversation and reinforce the brand’s distinct approach to ice cream. While not every flavor appeals to the masses, consumers have embraced this bold, distinctive approach.

2. If it doesn’t feel like your brand, consumers will forget it was your brand.

Trends are inherently transient, so capitalizing on them requires a timely and deliberate approach that delivers immediate impact without sacrificing a brand’s values. When executed well, these initiatives can serve as valuable extensions of a brand. But if these efforts don’t align with a its core identity, it can do more harm than good – undermining credibility and blending into the rest of the category. Glossier has meticulously crafted a cohesive aesthetic. By prioritizing skincare in an approachable, inclusive manner, Glossier has created not only a resonant makeup aesthetic but also a recognizable brand identity that complements it. The brand’s origins as a blog are evident in the way it fosters genuine conversation and engagement with its audience. Its ethos is reflected across every touchpoint – campaigns featuring real customers, product releases, packaging, and in-store experiences all feel like natural extensions of the brand’s core. This makes it easy for consumers to connect with and return to the brand.

3. If your brand feels like it’s trying too hard, consumers will reject it.

Consumers are quick to notice when a brand is trying too hard; they want brands to appear effortless. To achieve this, a brand’s engagement must feel natural and instinctive—never forced or contrived. When a brand’s actions appear overthought, they risk feeling cheesy or desperate. Luxury fashion brand Jacquemus creates notable, out-of-the-box marketing that stands out for all the right reasons. Whether through CGI, out-of-home advertising, or daring fashion week stunts, Jacquemus seamlessly integrates contemporary trends into its cultural presence and its products. Every aspect of the brand reflects its broader vision to create innovative, elegant, and original pieces of art that never compromise on quality or attention to detail. While leaning into trends and inserting oneself into culture is not one-size-fits-all, one thing is for sure: the most enduring and impactful brands are those that engage with the here and now both purposefully and authentically.

So, getting very clear with your brands intent helps you act consistently, stay true to your values and deliver a truly authentic brand experience to your customers.

Riyad Mammadyarov

Strategy Director, New York

Whether it’s the proliferation of AI technologies in Hollywood or the democratization of moviemaking and distribution of those movies, the entertainment and media industry has gone through seismic upheavals over the last decade. Upheavals that are set to continue to impact the category, pushing it to contract and evolve, particularly within the streaming business.

We have seen ongoing consolidation of streaming services over the last few years due to continued cord cutting, the shrinking margins of media content creation, and the souring of VC-subsidized capital injections that propped up tech and entertainment companies for years.

What we are left with at this point in time are mainstream streaming services that increasingly cater to the masses in a shotgun-spread kind of approach to satisfy users and reduce the ever-frightening churn.

Indeed, the biggest pain point for most streaming services is churn, which is the metric that measures the percentage of streaming services who cancel their subscription or allow it to lapse. A high churn rate is in many ways the death rattle that so many subscription-based streaming services fear and what prompted Netflix and others of its size to begin exploring and implementing new practices like price hikes and ad-supported tiering. It ultimately stymied the economic wound for the big brands but at what cost to consumer sentiment? Implementing brand moves that are abhorred by your customer base is one way to alienate them and erode the long-term value of your brand. It’s understandably a move that is necessitated by larger macroeconomic needs of the company and category at large, but one that is a risky proposition as long-term brand equity is critical to continued growth and consistent user relevancy. As a result, there appears to be a significant opportunity that other niche media brands have discovered. That they don’t need an army of talent, the latest technology, and eye-watering budgets to succeed. Instead, they’re recognizing that their smaller more nuanced content can live standalone on their own streaming services, appealing and attracting a dedicated user base that eventually can grow to become super fans and evangelize the brand to others who are looking for similar content.

It only takes looking at the increasingly potent business success of the smaller streaming services like Criterion Channel, Shudder, AMC+, BritBox and others to see that these brands have recognized something that the behemoths have not—that audiences’ tastes and behaviors are more sophisticated than many have expected. These genre-specific or traditional cable network players have seen sizeable subscriber growth over the last few years, with 24.5 million in 2022 subscribing to at least one niche streamer to more than double to 51.4 million by 2024, according to Antenna, a subscription research firm. As Antenna’s CEO puts it, “it’s an explosion.”

To put that growth into more context with the bigger players, active subscriptions for niche streamers grew 27% last year and 20% this year. These growth rates were nearly 2 times less for traditional streamers which stood at 17% in 2023 and 7% this year. These niche players are therefore a testament to the fact that intent—intent to meet audience’ true entertainment needs—is a driving force behind their success and an approach that bigger streaming brands could learn from. Brands that set out to achieve their ambitions with intent are poised to be attract smaller but more dedicated users by virtue of reflecting a stronger sense of authenticity and relevance to consumers. Putting bigger picture economic and inflationary concerns aside, these brands’ exposure to churn is reduced, as users celebrate the content that these services provide. Beyond that, many of them provide a bespoke curated approach that signals the intent of their business to meet consumer expectations and provide a sense of personalization to their content. That intent is a foundational catalyst that bigger players would be wise to heed as the landscape continues to grow ever complex.

Renee Zhang
Title

“Brands” are one of the most important factors influencing purchase decisions, as indicated by consumer testing results across nearly all categories. Over the past two years, declining consumer confidence in China has posed significant growth challenges for major brands.  In contrast, “white labels” — small manufacturers that produce unbranded goods — has defied the trend and reaped substantial profits.

Are consumers lying? We: “Why brands?” Consumers: “Because no other option offers same level of functionality, experience, or philosophy.” We: “Why white labels? ” Consumers: “Because the unbranded products are almost as good as the branded ones, yet only for a third of the price.” When there is little difference in product quality and functionality, 57.2% of the Chinese consumers prefer affordable alternatives. White label’s intensely focus on achieving swift profits through traffic on livestreaming platforms by competing in product quantities, livestream duration, and offering the “lowest price across the internet”. In contrast, brands strive to build recognition and connection at every consumer touchpoint: identifying consumers’ true needs, offering differentiated value at reasonable prices, and building trust through long-term commitment.

Consumers aren’t lying. Brands still matter in their purchase decisions, but the way they perceive brands has evolved. They no longer blindly trust brand labels or pay extra for products when affordable alternatives are available. Instead, they are willing to spend more on differentiated value — whether it’s cutting-edge driving technology, visible skincare efficacy, a uniquely crispy texture, or an irreplaceable sense of happiness. This is how today’s Chinese consumers define a Brand.

Take Coca-Cola as an example. Its differentiated value is no longer solely tied to its secret recipe but to a promise: “No matter how the world changes, your happiness is always my priority.” Coca-Cola brings “happiness” to life by transforming it into a tangible experience through its name, iconic red color, ribbon logo, music, stories, and new flavors — allowing consumers to see, hear, taste, and continually feel it. The value of brand differentiation stems from the brand’s intent, which incorporates a vision that goes beyond mere profits, embodies an innovative spirit to redefine categories, and demonstrates the resilience to navigate economic cycles with confidence.

Amid fierce competition, brands must continually innovate to align with their intent—for better, be better, and achieve better. White labels rise and fade, but their first step toward transitioning from short-term victory to long-term success is to define their brand intent and prepare for a protracted game. In the business world, there’s never a lack of opportunistic winners — but enduring legends remain rare. We believe white labels won’t replace brands, but they can evolve into brands. And real brands? They have no affordable substitutes.

Sources：
1. 2024McKinSey&Company China Brief: The Truth About Chinese Consumption
2. CBNDATA 2024 New Health Consumption Lifestyle Trends Report


Deborah Stafford-Watson

Head of Strategy, London

A women’s health product? For periods? Better make it pink then…. Thankfully, long gone are the days of stereotypical design choices in women’s health. Women have voted with their wallets and embraced brands that speak more to their real experiences and seek to solve real issues, but there’s still so much more to be done. In almost every global market, there’s increasing recognition of the gender health gap. Women can feel dismissed; their health concerns not taken seriously with products and services feeling irrelevant and inaccessible. There’s not only a need for more investment and understanding, but a shift in the way brands approach the design of products and services for women’s health. Design can play a powerful role in signaling this intent as we found with our groundbreaking design for Opill – the US’s first over the counter contraceptive pill.

Freedom from stigma and shame.

Brand and design should engage women to the point that they no longer feel the need to hide their experiences. We’ve seen a huge shift in this space from brand platforms like Hers, campaigns from established brands like BodyForm and digital trackers such as Flo Health but while normalisation is an essential ambition for brands in this space, not every brand needs to be an activist. Simple and uncomplicated storytelling – through universal symbolism like that of Opill’s ‘O’ – combined with warmth and approachability in language can deliver a sense of familiarity and freedom. Complexity is the enemy of comfort and by developing visual and verbal assets that are simple, clear and relatable, we were able to reject “discreet” femcare signals that may inadvertently contribute to contraception’s long-held legacy of shame

Designing with, not for, women.

Traditional female codes of design have only served to shroud women’s experiences of various health conditions – handing designers a huge responsibility to reverse the status quo. It’s a goal that begins with listening to, and elevating, women’s voices. And avoiding one-size fits all solutions. For example, with menopause set to affect over a billion people globally by the year 2030 – each experiencing different and completely personal symptoms, it can be a dizzyingly complex space to design for. When developing the Opill visual identity system, the use of abstract shapes and diverse illustration allowed women and people of all backgrounds (age, ethnicity, orientation) to find a place to self-identify with the brand. We listened and learnt from women throughout the process to find the right balance of standout appeal and scientific efficacy to inspire confidence and trust. Listening and co-creating are powerful tools in getting this right.

Consider the whole person, not just the issue.

While a cold or a stomach bug is an on-off incident demanding action in the moment, gender-specific issues – for example, period-induced migraines, or the misery of UTIs – are typically ongoing or cyclical in nature. This means designers need to think beyond the assumed dichotomy of a problem-solution set up, and instead design brands built for lasting partnership. People will tell you that ‘Gen Z broke the marketing funnel’ but in the world of women’s health, the path to purchase is rarely linear. Family and friends are often the biggest source of health information but social media’s influence can’t be ignored. Building a digital first brand, that shows up where our customers are in a way that’s relevant and culturally resonant was essential for Opill’s success.

At a point where many women still feel disempowered by healthcare systems that systematically overlook their needs, design can help by crafting a new type of meaningful brand language. As the journey for Opill® shows, it’s possible to build a brand that is approachable, aspirational and courageous in design; all while maintaining a baseline of clinical competence. And there’s so much more we can do in women’s health.