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Q&A with Nick Dormon, Managing Director and a Founder of Echo Brand Design: “We create the feel of things — that is what branding and design are all about”

Kate Belan — Fri, 25 May 2012 05:01:19 +0000

Having been set 8 years ago in London by our today’s interviewee Nick Dormon, Echo is made up of an eclectic mix of people, backgrounds, insights and experience which best matches the challenges faced by brand-owners — there isn’t a one size fits all approach. Echo’s fresh, but intelligent approach combined with uncompromised values influenced [...]

The Top Five Print Innovations for Packaging

Sara Jones — Mon, 21 May 2012 05:00:01 +0000

The article is written by Sara Jones, Creative Director at brand development and packaging design agency Anthem Worldwide, part of Schawk, Inc. The power of packaging to tell a story and engage with consumers is sometimes undervalued. And yet when a product is on the shelf, sitting next to its rivals, this is the point when [...]

Q&A with Gush Mundae, the founder of creative agency Bulletproof: “We have no time for mediocrity”

Kate Belan — Thu, 17 May 2012 05:00:22 +0000

Strategically seminal, creatively devastating, fiercely independent — they are Bulletproof. Today the team of 50 occupies two huge floors in Covent Garden with a second office in New York. Bulletproof was started back in 1998 by Gush Mundae, and soon after was joined by college friend Jonny Stewart. Hard work and a burning passion for design [...]

Agility: The Business Super Power

Emily Stubbins — Tue, 15 May 2012 05:00:46 +0000

The article was written by Emily Stubbins, Executive Brand Strategy Director at Hyperquake, USA In a recent conversation among colleagues – sparked, in part, by the release of the new “Avengers” movie – an interesting subject came up: If you had to choose the ultimate business super power, what would it be? Big budgets, global [...]

Toniq Trending: Age Groups

Cheryl Swanson — Fri, 11 May 2012 05:00:36 +0000

The article is written by Cheryl Swanson, Principal at Toniq, USA Elder Respect: Silent Generation (born 1925-1945) These are our parents, grandparents, great-grandparents. They are part of a generation that is ageing, surviving and most of all, still living a pretty active lifestyle. Life expectancy in the US has risen to 75.7 for men and 80.8 for [...]

The Digital Craft

Darren Foley — Thu, 03 May 2012 05:00:21 +0000

The article is written by Darren Foley, Managing Director at Pearlfisher, London This month we are welcoming some new additions to the Pearlfisher studio gallery space in London: a beautiful old letterpress (courtesy of the brilliant Mr Kelvyn Smith http://www.letterpress-workshop.com/) and a revolutionary three-dimensional printer. From opposite ends of the same discipline, these two machines led [...]

Future Homestyle

Greg Taylor — Wed, 02 May 2012 05:00:53 +0000

The article is written by Greg Taylor, Director of Brand Provocation at Elmwood, London Here in the UK last week, we hit the first double-dip recession since the 1970s. But there wasn’t wall-to-wall coverage or even that much front-page news. Do we have a collective sense of inevitability? Are we a nation resigned to economic depression? [...]

Q&A with Toby Southgate, CEO, UK & Ireland at The Brand Union: “For an average consumer the value of brand is down to making the right choice”

Kate Belan — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 05:00:12 +0000

Be it a small 5-employee company or a global business with 20 offices across the world, the people who manage them, their passion, entrepreneurial gut and leadership always inspire and admire. Toby Southgate, CEO of The Brand Union in the UK and Ireland, is one of them. He shares his point of view on the [...]

Crossing the Gender Divide: a Brand’s Ability to Speak to Women and Men

Kathy Oneto — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 08:00:10 +0000

Have your say, share your thoughts on the article written by Kathy Oneto, Vice President, Brand Strategy at Anthem Worldwide, USA With fewer new brands being created by large CPG companies, more companies are extending traditionally gender focused brands or product offerings to appeal to the other 50 percent, be it men or women. While [...]

Liquid Lunch: Food Becomes Drinkable

Jamey Wagner — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 04:00:26 +0000

The article is written by Jamey Wagner, Creative Director and Steve Leder, Associate Creative Director at Interbrand, USA Reflecting busy consumers’ demands for convenience in today’s fast-paced world, some food brands are offering the nutritional benefits of solids in liquid form. Take, for instance, V8, the original drinkable food, applesauce in pouches with pour spouts, [...]

Why Being a Design All-Rounder Is Key for an Agency’s Success

David Rogers — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 14:00:07 +0000

Have your say, share your thoughts on the article written by David Rogers, owner of packaging and brand design consultancy We Are Pure, UK With trading conditions still relatively tough, many packaging design agencies are fighting it out to win the lucrative big brand contracts. But, is it wise to focus all of their attention [...]

Q&A with Hugh Robertson, Founding Partner and CEO of RPM: “We sell passion to our clients. Passion for what we do”

Kate Belan — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 08:00:57 +0000

Our today’s interviewee is Hugh Robertson, Founding Partner and CEO of the London-based marketing agency RPM , Board Director at the MAA, successful businessmen, and simply a very bright and optimistic person. Hugh told Popsop about what a young person needed to start a business, how the role of ATL vs BTL marketing had changed over [...]

4 Major Ways Mobile Will Change Our Lives

Anna Rudenko — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 04:59:14 +0000

The technology is now getting integrated into our lives at a tremendous speed, so to be fully ready to what this can bring to us and not get lost among all these new services and gadgets, we should closely monitor new developments and be ready for upcoming innovations. The best place to learn about what’s [...]

Treasuring National Treasures

Darren Foley — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 05:00:14 +0000

The article is written by Darren Foley, Managing Director at Pearlfisher, London We often talk about great brands as icons. Well-respected and loved, they enter into our culture and consciousness to form reference points that shape our existence. Over time, brands with a specific provenance can become national treasures, symbols that represent our world. Heritage, legacy [...]

Semiotics and the Meaning of Meaning

Craig Swanson — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 04:00:23 +0000

The article is written by Craig Swanson, Creative Director, Partner of Toniq LLC, USA Kenneth Burke, the renowned 20th century literary theorist, defined man as the “symbol-using animal”. There are profound implications to this statement, but let’s consider just a single aspect: the idea that each little package of symbolic content we create is, cell-like, [...]

Euromonitor International: Top 10 Consumer Trends for 2012

Popsop Team — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 05:00:40 +0000

Today, identity also encompasses weight, online status, green thrift, and attitudes to reality culture—even in emerging markets, where the joys of spending are still being discovered. 1. City living reigns Swelling masses of urbanites with lifestyles to suit—style, tech and convenience-savvy—soak up new cultural influences that are blending with fresh brand experience-led approaches. In 2012, [...]

The Thumb Gutty Principle

Greg Taylor — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 05:00:03 +0000

The article is written by Greg Taylor, Director of Brand Provocation at Elmwood, London Recently, the kind folks at Prophet invited me to an evening of conversation. The headline was the ever-inspiring, self-confessed opinionator Mr. Mark Earls. He provided the stimulus for some lively chat around his latest book, ‘I’ll have what she’s having…’ (more on [...]

Making a Statement

Darren Foley — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 06:00:34 +0000

Have your say, share your thoughts with other readers It is probably an understatement to say that the logo for the London Olympics has received quite a few negative comments. At its launch in June 2007, the identity was criticised by the media, the creative industry and members of the public. Not the most auspicious [...]

Visual versus Verbal Communication: Why Packaging is So Essential to Brand-Building

Ted Mininni — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 08:00:18 +0000

The article is written by Ted Mininni, the President of Design Force, Inc., USA I wrote and published an article once with the title: “Advertising is Dead. Long Live Packaging”. Since POPSOP brought this up in my recent interview with them, I thought it worth discussing. While the title of the article is a bit of [...]

Consumer Polarisation as Mid-Range Brands Are Put on Ice

Dave Timothy — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 06:00:43 +0000

The article is written by Dave Timothy, Senior Account Director at strategic packaging and design consultancy Anthem Worldwide Looking back at previous times of austerity, our lives and shopping habits seemed a lot simpler then. People used to save up for what they wanted and ‘make do and mend’ was a way of life, rather [...]