Licensed products always get into trouble if they're not performing well. Even more so now, as retailers have become more discerning with regard to the brands they'll purchase for their store shelves. This got me thinking about more than the design development work we do for our toy … Read More
Although there are anniversary celebrations for licensed brands every year, there seems to be an exorbitant number of brands hitting major milestones of late. And many seem to be happening next year – enough to prompt Licensing International to refer to 2023 as the “Year of the … Read More
One thing I could never overemphasize is the importance of establishing a perfect fit between licensed brand and licensee partner. Every licensed brand owner should pursue “perfect fits” rather than granting a license to anyone who would be willing to enter into an agreement and emblazon their … Read More
As Hasbro continues blazing the path of sustainability by eliminating all plastic components from their toy packaging by the end of 2022, it’s interesting to see the innovative solutions that they’ve instituted to replace a broad variety of structural configurations that relied heavily on blisters and acetate … Read More
Two of my favorite brands, Vans and Crayola, have come together yet again for what I refer to as a “perfect fit” colab. Twelve years after their first partnership, the brands are getting back together with the much bigger and more explosively-colorful Vans x Crayola Capsule Collection. … Read More
If you’ve been in the toy industry for as long as I have, you have fond memories of the glory days of NY Toy Fair… the incomparable human traffic jam at the front doors of 200 5th Avenue (aka the International Toy Center, which we lovingly referred … Read More
As a self-proclaimed Star Wars geek, I had been anxiously awaiting Disney+’s latest Star Wars live-action series, The Book of Boba Fett, since that feeling of sadness and emptiness washed over me after the incredible first season of The Mandalorian was over. The Book of Boba Fett debuted … Read More
The development of a packaging program for a licensed brand, when done correctly, is approached from a modular point of view, with its design assets seamlessly accommodating any potential structural configuration across a broad range of consumer product categories throughout the retail environment. Getting this right is … Read More
Packaging for toy and entertainment brands, whether licensed or non-licensed, can't be successfully developed without first considering its context at retail. After all, it won't exist in a vacuum in the retail environment, so it shouldn't be designed in one either. Gain insight by conducting a retail audit The … Read More
This past weekend, while digging through a storage unit filled with toy packaging that our company has designed over the past three decades, I came across the package I designed for the original Super Soaker water gun while employed as Art Director for Larami toys back in … Read More
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