Cara Possemato

Oooh. Landor does it again. That peeling T-lid treatment is so elegant, and somehow doesn't interfere with legibility at all (no small feat). That's gonna make a gorgeously effective little icon for small use applications. Me likey. A lot. #branding #logodesign #consumergoods #icondesign #typography #marketing #productdesign #homegoods

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Mountain Dew just rolled out a shiny new logo, and they’re going full throttle with a nostalgic, outdoorsy vibe. They’ve swapped “Mtn Dew” for the full “Mountain Dew” name, brought back retro fonts, and tossed in some topography to remind us all they’re literally all about the mountains now. 🌄🍋 While we’re not exactly guzzling it ourselves (I mean, we’re more of a kombucha crowd), you’ve got to love a brand makeover that leans into its roots. But here’s my hot take: will this rebrand really resonate it's loyal fanbase, or gain new customers with their more health concious, sleek rebrand and rollout? Either way, it’s bold. It’s bright. It’s got storytelling potential written all over it. What do you think—hit or miss? (Psst… If your brand needs a visual glow-up, give us a shout! We specialize in makeovers that don’t just look good but turn heads. 💥)

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The annual "October Surprise" of big agencies doing Q4 layoffs last week was brutal; so many of my former coworkers from past agencies and friends were affected. The design world has certainly taken a beating over the past 18 months. It feels like my peers from the last few rounds of cuts haven't even found their footing yet, but here comes—again and without apologies—another wave of RIFs. First of all, I'm so sorry. Many of you were victims of ageism and politics, or a rapidly changing business landscape. I'd recommend following Cameron Day's wisdom from his trilogy of books to recognize that this isn't a bug—it's a feature of a sometimes ugly industry. Second, please let me know how I can help—need a recommendation? Need some downtime, a drink, a distraction? Don't hesitate—give me a shout! I have tremendous faith that this uncomfortable chapter of the design industry will oxygenate the market, introduce new design voices & start-ups, and will allow for brilliantly talented designers who have previously gone unrecognized to have their day in the sun; it's what we do: we invent, we create, we do the impossible. #design #layoffs #mentalhealth

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What happens to all the Executive Creatives? Do they sail away with their 🦁🏆 to an island full of chunky acetate glasses and endless production budgets? It's a question I asked for most of my career. Where do you go after Creative Director? After CCO? Do you stay in that lane forever? It took a while for me to notice them: the creatives who didn't have 'Creative' in their title anymore. Because they became CEO. They started leading Growth, or Revenue, or People. 💡 Of course that's where they go. When you're solving complex business problems, you need someone to balance imagination and reality. Someone who will listen intently to what you're NOT saying, to what you're feeling. You need someone with insatiable curiosity — an opportunity truffle pig, rooting around to unearth the people on this earth who simply must have what you have to give. Creativity is the ultimate business and leadership skill.  So what's happening to this Executive Creative? 🙋‍♀️ No islands (yet). I'm going to keep straying from my lane: this time into a new race where Creative isn't in my title, but it's in my blood. (dramatic? Finally started GoT, sue me.) My new role is telling the story of Native Digital. This group of berserkers moonlighting as marketers, looking for brands who need an injection of perspective-tilting energy and quick wins that add up to long-term growth. I'll continue to pour into the creative powerhouses on the team, to convince every performance media team member that they are also creative, and to help our clients cut through the noise. I've been doing this for years. I won't start wearing power suits or stop getting tattoos. It's just a label change, but it comes with a request: TALK TO ME. Tell me what you need. Ask me anything. Dish out advice. I want to listen.

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Gang, Wow. Sharing a unique perspective on where we go from here post-election & well, hold tight cuz the arc is...long. Hawai‘i’s own Norma Wong drops some big time ‘ike here in this podcast that was really the salve i needed. Norma, a contemporary of Aunty Puanani Burgess, is in conversation w/ Adrienne M Brown. Highest level takeaway: We gotta evolve.  It’s the only way out. Here are the key meanings I made: 1. Perspective on the election “I would say that it took about 4,000 yrs for us to get to this point, & so the notion that it could somehow right itself in the course of a few election cycles? That also means we've completely bought into a consumer notion of human history. We can package & sell & buy the answers that will somehow right our ship. The rest of the living universe has figured it out long before we can: if the living universe wants to continue to live, it has to continuously evolve. & we as humans are not doing that very well.” 2. Don’t despair. Stay in the light to build forward “As long as our purpose is about fighting the conditions that we are in, then we will remain in despair….But if our purpose is about shared humanity, it requires the levers for thriving, it means we are the ones who have to do it, & we cannot look to the institutions and the structures that are collapsing around us to do it. And we go about that work. We are in a totally polarized world, that means that there are actually billions of people that we can count on, and billions of people we cannot. And somehow we're giving more power to the billions of people who cannot. We're giving them more power. What is it about that?” 3. We gotta evolve, transform, & work on the human condition. THROUGH STORY AND FIERCE IMAGINGING.  “To be in a state of the beginner's mind, I believe a fruitful state is in the exercise of story. And future story in concrete terms, in which no isms live, and in which thriving is the fiercest possibility. THROUGH BREATH AND MEDITATION. “When we say take a breath, it's not a metaphoric thing. It is to be in that embodied aspect of breath, which there are actual mechanical things to be learned in order for us to breathe deeply connected to the earth, in which the exhale is longer than the inhale. By our breath alone, become like a glowing energy ball in which fierce peace is emanating from us, & therefore we are capable of agency, of our agency... It's that which grounds us to the essential humanity. Without that, we're mechanical living beings rather than actual living beings. THROUGH BEING W/ EACH OTHER.  “…not for the purposes of a transaction.” “THROUGH THE PRACTICE OF THE CULTIVATION OF JOY, even in the most horrific circumstances, to not allow that to die. THROUGH THE PRACTICE OF GRATITUDE & ANCESTORS. “The practice of gratitude, particularly seeing and being w/ the various beings, not only human ones, who are every single moment making it possible for where we are right now, & what we can become.

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Multimedia Man… As the senior design director at Anthem/SF, I was tasked with the challenge of improving the brand recognition and overall sales of Safeway's snack foods private brand, The Snack Artist. The original "TSA" system, which was comprised of salty snacks, chips, pretzels, peanuts, popcorn, and frozen appetizers, was built around the concept of a "quick sketch" artist who liked to create funny "one-liner" sketches involving his favorite snacks. As Safeway continued to rapidly add new products and categories to The Snack Artist brand, it soon became apparent that despite the success of the current design system, we needed a way to flex and delineate the product categories so they could better perform within their respective competitive shelf sets. So, we were faced with a challenge for a very successful brand that had outgrown its retail strategy and design system. How do we revitalize the design system and segment the categories for increased performance without losing the original essence of the TSA brand? The solution came about through an epiphany that the "artist” could work in other types of artistic media beyond simple gestural sketches. He could broaden his skill set to create artwork that fits each product category individually and uniquely. In every case, we took the competitive sets, shelf placement, and store environment into consideration in determining the type of art that would be appropriate for each category. This overall "loosening" of the TSA design system revitalized the entire brand and enabled the individual product lines to perform at a much more successful level within their respective competitive shelf sets. For more on The Snack Artist design as a whole, a case study can be viewed here: https://lnkd.in/g6hspPPg I’m currently available to help on design projects of any scale and phase, from initial creative concepting to revitalizing entire branding & packaging design systems. How can I help? 🧠✋🔥 P.S. The multitalented & fabulous illustrator (and human being) John Worthen did the illustration, product photography, compositing, and retouching work…all of it. #CPGdesigner #branddesigner #packagingdesigner #artdirector #designdirector #creativedirector #cpgindustry #gamesindustry #adaptivedesigner #freelancedesigner

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You've likely heard "pets are the new kids." But it's more nuanced than that, says Senior Creative Director Meredith Post: "We're noticing how pets are treated differently than children: they are an idyllic extension of a person's identity. We treat them better than we treat ourselves and use them as a signal of who we are and want to be.” It means pet CPG is extending into realms like personalized nutrition and luxurious self-care. For more insights from Meredith Post, Carina Sandoval and Kyle Schutte, head here: https://okt.to/fA9oNI #petbrands #petcpg #consumerstrategy #petcare

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Perhaps an unpopular opinion: Corporate companies worth $259.43 million should not be contacting small creative companies or solo freelancers and asking for spec work as part of a proposal. Period. I shared with the corporate employee the AIGA Design professional stance on spec work - it is against it - in hopes that it helps this person (who is getting paid to conduct this search) stop asking creatives to work for free. Creatives: Stop doing spec work.

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I love this advice by Focus Lab Creative Director, Natalie Kent. From their Create First newsletter: Clients want to feel that their project is in capable hands, even if the journey involves navigating through inevitable uncertainties. By taking ownership, you not only set the tone but also ensure that your clients feel secure and supported. * Always make a recommendation of what you think is best. * Don’t let a lack of title prevent you from taking the reins. * Come prepared to meetings. Do your homework. * Focus less on saying the perfect thing, and focus more on facilitating and guiding conversation so the best outcome can be achieved. * Lead with courage. The world needs more courage. Embrace this approach and you’ll unlock a new level in your client relationships. https://lnkd.in/e7mCNgch

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A common issue we see brands encounter is figuring out what their packaging looks like across their entire product range. Many companies face the dilemma of maintaining a consistent visual identity across an array of packaging formats: - Bottles - Tubs and jars - Pouches - Labels - Boxes How do you make sure your brand stands out while keeping your packaging range cohesive? There are two paths: 1. Consistently Different (think Byoma) 2. Consistently the Same (like Boots Glow) Which way you choose will come down to some key factors: Audience: What resonates with them? Product Range: How diverse is it? Market: What do your competitors do? Brand Archetype: Are you the disruptor or the traditionalist? Both strategies can succeed, but purposeful execution is crucial.

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With the Bay Area absolutely scorching under this crazy "heat wave," I was inspired to give my "We Scream for Ice Cream" 2D illustrations an incredibly realistic, drippy melting effect in 3D! As someone who's been a diehard 2D artist forever, seeing my finished artwork pop off the screen in 3D for the first time was like experiencing those jaw-dropping images from the James Webb Space Telescope – a whole new mind-blowing dimension to dive into! But after really immersing myself in this 3D world, I realized something profound: 2D has its own electrifying magic that even 3D can't quite capture. I've come to the thrilling conclusion that it's my personal, signature style that steals the show, whether in 2D or 3D: the way I boldly scratch those lines, the funky shapes I cook up, how I wildly exaggerate those events – that's the real sorcery, with the actual medium playing second fiddle! So hey, what's your take? Do those bangin' 2D illustrations just nail the vibe better than the 3D versions? I'm thinking of turning these wacky characters into actual figurines for my niece. Now asking the experts what’s the slickest workflow to make that fantasy a reality?

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Agreed! Reminds me of how David Butler (ex-VP Design, Coke) used the Lego analogy in his book Design to Grow to apply not just to brand systems (especially needed for global brands such as Coke!) but to everything a company does, to enable Scale and Agility. He also talks about how designers need to make it "easy to do the right thing," which is exactly what a modular system enables. A fascinating read if you haven't picked it up yet! https://lnkd.in/exaNJ_ts

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“I work in this industry because I love it, but it’s brutal”. Yet another person I had a coffee chat with told me the same thing. This is especially true for creatives. The way they process things often allows more self-doubt and anxiety to creep in. They want to do their best, yet their efforts often are under the radar. They don’t respond well to “shaming and blaming” when things don’t go as planned. But, oddly enough, a “bossy” attitude isn't welcome either. Straight shooters suffer in highly political office environments too. No matter their job level, years of experience, and background. Now, I’ve been extremely lucky in my company. I’ve always had understanding and support when I needed it. Not all of us are that lucky. So I want to ask you: Would it be such a bad idea if we made it a daily practice to notice the things we do that are unique to us? And then took time to notice the things that others do that are unique to them? Accepting and appreciating these differences would take us a long way. The more you focus on becoming more aware of the uniqueness of each person in your company, the more energetic, impactful and influential you become as a leader. You won’t waste your energy being frustrated that others don’t understand you or don’t see things your way. Instead, you’ll have a profound impact on others as they begin to see you as the person who “gets it.”

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Really good piece here from It's Nice That on a common creative struggle: feeling uninspired at work due to some rather monotonous briefs. Alex Bec provides some great advice here on finding inspiration outside of work and how to channel it back into your projects. Check out the full article below - definitely some good food for thought! Personally I'm a huge believer in people having some form of creative outlet in their life, whatever that may be, big or small. For me it's music production and sound design (as I often bang on about), it helps me switch off from the outside world. I'm by no means expecting everyone to be producing Beethoven-level compositions, or paintings like Picasso, but even things such as knitting, writing, and cooking I feel can really positively impact our daily lives. Its great to see this being spoken about, as it is something I'm hearing more often recently from creatives. Some agencies are actively addressing this by dedicating specific days or times each week for designers to focus on self-initiated projects, helping to spark creativity and break the routine. Is there anything in particular you do to help spark creativity?

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This will be a fun little series where we answer some of the questions we get. The first is about how closely connected campaign sub-brands can be with organizational or institutional brands.

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When you're on the job hunt, it's easy to get caught up in titles, salaries, and perks. But I think there's something even more crucial to consider: the people you'll be working with every day. Your manager and team can make or break your professional career. These are the people you'll likely spend more time with than your own family at times. They shape your work environment, influence your growth, and play a huge role in your overall happiness. So, when you're evaluating a new opportunity, look beyond just a JD. Ask yourself, “Can I see myself thriving under this manager? Can I collaborate and learn from this team?” Choosing the right people to work with can be the difference between just having a job and building a fulfilling career. Pick your tribe wisely. ✌️

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Tethered Closures on Bottles are the New Hot Trend in Beverage Packaging Design

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Rereading Elizabeth Goodspeed's "I'm a Hater" today. What a great article. It's hard not to compare and contrast her thoughts with my own relationship to criticism. Early in my career, wading into the internet (which felt so much deeper back then) searching for design work to aspire to I usually found one thing alongside all the best work: 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗻𝗲𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗰𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗺. I often worried that work that I was less proud of would be found and ripped to shreds by the sharks I saw swimming in those waters. Generally though, I realized I was pretty thick-skinned when it comes to critique. And I think we all should be. When I excise as much of my personal style/preferences as possible and do my best to simple LISTEN to a client I feel much more like a translator. Should a translator feel defensive for mistakes in translation? I hope they don't. Accuracy is the goal. This line from Elizabeth stood out: "The design critic then, should aim to serve as a sort of proxy for this audience, even at times when doing so is in conflict with their own personal aesthetic preferences or knowledge of the complex production required to make a piece of work." It's a great read for reminding us of the difference between genuine criticism (harsh or not) and opinions. Even beyond the world of design.

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