SKAGGS Blog - Branding

There’s something to be said about the power of fragrance. When you find a scent that you love, you treasure it forever. When you’re assaulted with a less than alluring whiff you don’t necessarily treasure it but you definitely remember it. Luxury fragrance company Le Cherche Midi are giving their customers the opportunity to design and create fragrances to treasure with their new Bespoke service.

“The Le…

Everyone has a morning routine when they arrive at work: check email, voicemail, news, etc. Part of my morning routine is checking out what is going on in the design world (and yes every word is a link).

If anything catches my eye I’ll take a look, but most of the time its a click here and there for…

I just remember thinking: “First day of school: Cold, cold, cold” I had forgotten my mittens in NY and my hands were purple when I walked into the schools library to present the assignment. I badly needed my gloves! I drank tea and more tea to warm me up until I started to sweat and stink :-( oh my… that’s exactly what I feared the most; a stinking teacher with bad…

Wolf Ollins have had their fair share of grief this year. From their much poo-pooed London Olympics 2012 logo and the Wacom “trumpet thing” to their part in the (I will say no more) NYC taxi redesign and NYC Visit logo. I’ll admit I was one of the many grief givers, however time has passed and I’m not gnashing and grinding my teeth as much. Today…

Colour Lovers recently highlighted the almost unbelievable story that T-Mobile and its parent company Deutsche Telekom (DT) have trademarked Color No. 395 52 630, also known as Magenta. No..Not Magenta!? It’s one of my favorite colors! I’ve actually never heard of anything so ridiculous until Bradley pointed out that UPS has its brown and Tiffany has its blue.

I wonder if UK mobile phone network provider…

Whilst on the subject of “not quite there” logos, I came across this little gem.
I really have to wonder who helped the CIA out with their new DCI Counterterrorist Center “Terrorist Buster” identity. Ladies and gents, I kid you not…this is 100% real.
Thoughts? Anyone?

Dear Smart Design,
First of all I’d like to begin by saying my views are not representative of SKAGGS or any of its other employees. Secondly I’d like to say that I’ve bitten my tongue for long enough. The new NYC Taxi Logo is absolutely awful…AWFUL!!!

Not a day goes by where I don’t gnash and grind my teeth about it. The fact that I have to see this big…

Food Glorious Food! — The best way to anyone’s heart, especially if it’s gourmet and specially prepared for you…The seasons of over eating are almost upon us and what better way to kick off the culinary delights fest, than announcing the completion of our latest “scrumptious” project. In collaboration with the brand gurus at KVD NYC, we created a brand identity, marketing collateral and website for Samantha McCuen — chief…

An interesting study came out earlier this week which found that children, some as young as 3, found food wrapped in McDonald’s packaging six times tastier than identical food in plain wrappers.

This study comes on the heels of other research linking skyrocketing childhood obesity rates to advertising and corporations backing away from marketing aimed at children under the age of twelve. Dr. Victor Strasburger, author of an American…

We all know that the world of fashion is extremely fickle and that exclusivity is pretty much key. I recently found an interesting article on HRH Posh Spice and her ability to kill a brand.

It brought me back to a long and heated discussion I once had regarding Burberry and their right to stop producing their infamous check because it was being “cheapened” by individuals they did not…

The 2012 London Olympics logo was unveiled to much mumbling, grumbling and criticism.

The four block-style jagged pieces combine to form the numbers 2012 in a variety of pink, blue, green and orange colours and is designed to appeal to young people. Stephen Bayley, London’s Design Museum founder and cultural commentator, described it as: “a puerile mess, an artistic flop and a commercial scandal.”

I’m myself am absolutely speechless…What happened!!??!?!
…

Jonina and I took a whole day last Tuesday for the PSFK Conference and I’ve been catching up ever since, hence my delay in posting. Wow, there’s a lot to say and quite honestly I don’t know where to begin. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was definitely an eye opener in terms of what other creatives are doing in the industry and what their thoughts for the future are.

As some of you might already know, Skaggs was asked to create a gift card or gift box for TOTO’s Neorest 600 product, a super, hi-tech toilet with a “wash your bum feature”, amongst other hi-end features (see here for more info) for the 10 most popular actresses in Hollywood. One of them being Helen Mirren.

I’m not sure if the gifts arrived before the Oscar Night, but I would…