Bolt!

The Design Force Newsletter

Subscribe

There's been a paradigm shift in the licensing world mirroring the fundamental transformation of consumers. It isn't sufficient for licensors and their partners to co-brand consumer products in numerous categories and hope to collect significant revenue. All while hoping to keep their properties relevant and evergreen. If … Read More

There's a lot at stake when prepping a brand for licensing. While it has the potential to become a valuable business opportunity for licensors and their partners, a licensing program should only be put in place when a brand is ready for it. Translation: the property has … Read More

Marketers seem so intent on using every conceivable platform to leverage their brands, digital or otherwise, that they often lose the customer in the process. Brand-centric thinking isn’'t necessarily customer-centric, is it? Consumers aren’'t interested in purchasing branded products that are largely viewed as commodities in one … Read More

Marketers are fond of saying: "“What’'s old is new again.”" They refer to wistful consumers who associate retro brand packaging with a sense of nostalgia; a recalling of simpler, less complicated times. With all due respect: there’'s more at play here. Of course, consumers who see classic … Read More

Less is more. There’'s a great deal of insight in that statement. We, as package designers, understand that clarity and simplicity help consumers to hone in on specific brands to the exclusion of everything else. But “"less”" can allude to something that’'s not quite perfect as well. … Read More

User Experience Design. It’'s a goal for which many brands are aiming. But UX design is about more than usability and accessibility. It’'s about providing pleasure and enjoyment in interactions with the brand. And before consumers interact with products, they usually engage with packaging in many categories … Read More

Many industry experts have theorized that the rise of technology would spell doom for traditional toys. If anything, the opposite has been true. Today’'s kids, tech savvy almost from birth, have found traditional toys engaging because of the integration of technology, which has given rise to a … Read More

It’'s an American thing. We’'re attracted to individuals who swim against the cultural tide. Artists. Rebels. Challengers of mainstream groupthink. Heroes, real and virtual, who accomplish amazing feats against overwhelming odds. They are all the purveyors of unconventional viewpoints, lifestyles and philosophies, forming subcultures within society. They … Read More

We admire brands that carve out unique niches within categories. We’re even more enamored by those that stake out new ground and join an elite group known as the “category of one”. These are brands that actually create new product categories because they dare to disrupt. They're … Read More

Successful packaging for consumer product and licensed brands not only fosters attention and an emotional buy response out of the gate but satisfies consumers' unconscious need to identify who they are by the brands they choose and to get "emotional validation" from them after they make a … Read More