Marketing & Design
Brand, creative, martech and the consumer, read for the decisions behind the work rather than the work alone.
Marketing and Design covers the work of making people want things, and the decisions that sit behind it. Three stories a weekday at 11: a rebrand and what it risks, a visual system and why it was built, a consumer shift and what it costs to ignore. The beats are brand strategy, creative and design, martech, and consumer insights, with a Funny lane for the campaigns that made us laugh, on purpose or otherwise. We write every summary ourselves and link to the publisher, because the reporting is theirs. What is ours is the choice, and the editor’s note under the day’s lead says why it was made. Readers here run marketing functions, design teams and agencies in India, the United States and the United Kingdom, and the stories are chosen for what travels between those markets.
Every story we have kept in Marketing & Design, newest first. Headlines link to the publisher; the tags below narrow the list.
Forget Frame TVs, this e-ink digital art frame is cheaper and nicer to look at
Swiss brand InkPoster's Affresco e-ink art frame starts at $499, using colour ePaper that reflects ambient light and a battery lasting up to a year, positioned against Samsung's Frame TV.
Seven buildings that demonstrate the versatility of bamboo
Dezeen rounds up seven bamboo buildings across South and Southeast Asia, including a Nepalese meditation centre by Abari and an Indian business-school pavilion by The Purple Ink Studio.
Editor's noteBamboo's appeal here is not novelty, it is proof at scale: a meditation centre and a business-school pavilion are institutional commissions, not craft pieces, which is a stronger signal for architects and developers weighing low-carbon materials than any individual showcase house would be.
Why the Mutti tomato tin is more than just food – it's ‘summer in a can’
Wallpaper's Objectify series has architect Carlo Ratti examine Mutti's red-and-gold tomato tin, tracing its packaging back to 1951 and arguing the design works as a cultural signifier.
Free Plastic Bags Are Back! What Happens When Green Policies Get Repealed?
The American Marketing Association covered a Journal of Marketing Research study showing that after Austin and Dallas repealed plastic bag bans, shoppers reverted to free bags, though Austin's elevated trash bag sales persisted longer.
Using LinkedIn for AEO: How marketers can use social media to improve their AI visibility [experiment]
HubSpot writer Mandy Bray tested whether three weeks of optimized LinkedIn posting could boost AI search citations, gaining ground on Gemini and Google AI Mode while ChatGPT and Perplexity results stayed largely unchanged.
Editor's noteAn experiment with a negative result in half the conditions is more useful than a case study. Three weeks of optimised posting moved Gemini and Google AI Mode and did nothing for ChatGPT or Perplexity, which says the citation mechanisms are not one market.
Enrollment and learning
Seth Godin argued genuine learning requires active enrollment from students and teachers alike, contrasting grade-driven compliance with curiosity-based and skills-based education, urging learners to absorb material before rejecting it.
Editor's noteA short piece leads the section because it names the precondition everything else in learning design assumes. Without enrollment on both sides, curriculum and delivery are just compliance mechanics, and the distinction explains a great deal of why corporate training does not stick.
Hender Scheme dresses Artek classics in leather – including ‘shoes’ for ‘Stool 60’
Tokyo leather brand Hender Scheme, led by Ryo Kashiwazaki, wrapped Artek's Stool 60 and Golden Bell pendant lamp in vegetable-tanned leather, launching the collection at London Design Festival ahead of an October 10 global release.
I questioned TWA's use of AI illustration in a branding project: here's their fascinating response
Creative Boom's Tom May questioned The Working Assembly's use of AI illustration for the Untold journaling app rebrand; founder Jolene Delisle said the adaptive AI system depended on sustained human creative direction, not cost savings.
Should you rebrand yourself this September, or just hold your nerve?
Creative Boom examined why creatives feel pressure to rebrand each September, advising them to test new directions quietly before committing, drawing on input from five design professionals including Caroline Addison and Paul Leon.
The call for an agentic standard: We need to stop shipping the same form four different times
Patrick Neeman argued the UX industry needs a shared agentic-interface standard, comparing fragmented AI assistant rendering from Google, OpenAI and Anthropic to the 1990s browser wars burdening interface maintainers.
A Pink Stair With an Atrium and Bookshelves Revives This 1930s Mexico City Home
Mexico City firm ZDA renovated a 1937 California-style home, restoring a lost double-height atrium and adding a pink helical steel staircase wrapped in an integrated bookshelf inside the original turret entrance.
Before & After: It Was a Grocery Store, a Dance Hall, and a Factory. Here’s How It Became a Home
Red Dot Studio converted a San Francisco building that had served as a grocery store, dance hall and factory into a home for an educator and arts administrator couple in the Mission District.
Ten steps on the road to efficient
Seth Godin outlined ten principles for improving repeated production processes, drawing on Frederick Taylor, Henry Ford and W. Edwards Deming, urging measurement, standardization and systemic thinking before pursuing speed.
Meta addresses ‘pervert glasses’ reputation with a privacy fix and a new marketing campaign
Meta has closed a privacy loophole in its AI smart glasses that enabled covert recording by covering the recording indicator light after capture began. The fix is accompanied by a public-awareness campaign to rebuild trust.
Editor's noteMeta closed the loophole that let its glasses keep recording with the light covered, and shipped the fix with a marketing campaign. That pairing is why it led Marketing & Design: the patch is engineering, the campaign is the admission that the reputation problem outlived the bug. When a product’s nickname is the story, a silent fix confirms the nickname.
Why more celebrity-led brands are shutting down
A number of celebrity-founded consumer brands are shutting down as early publicity fails to translate into sustainable growth. Their enduring success depends on product strength, distribution, customer retention, and sound economics rather than fame alone.
Editor's noteCelebrity brands are closing faster than they launched, and it led Marketing & Design because the reason is not the celebrity. Publicity buys the first month; product, distribution, retention and unit economics buy every month after, and fame covers for none of them. The uncomfortable version: awareness was never the bottleneck, only the part we were best at selling.
The Future of Trust: Where AI Meets Human Connection
As AI becomes embedded in everyday experiences, trust will increasingly depend on combining technological efficiency with authentic human relationships. Brands that balance convenience with empathy, transparency, and expertise are best positioned to win consumer confidence.
3D printed standalone alarm clock lets you smash a giant arcade button to wake up
Endothermal Systems built CinderClock, a 3D-printed alarm clock using an ESP32-S3 processor, OLED display, and physical arcade button, avoiding smartphone apps and subscriptions while publishing open documentation for repairability.
Editor's noteThe design argument here is the product. A device that does one thing, needs no account and publishes its own repair documentation is a direct answer to subscription hardware, and it leads the section because that answer is getting easier to build rather than harder.
Polaroid Put Pikachu on a $100 Camera Because Nostalgia Works
Polaroid’s Pokémon collaboration celebrates the franchise’s 30th anniversary with Pikachu, Sylveon and Poké Ball themed instant cameras, film and accessories. Priced from $100, the products rely on nostalgia, targeting adults who grew up with Pokémon.
Editor's noteNostalgia is the easy read and the headline says so. The lead earned its place for the harder read: a thirty-year-old franchise selling a hundred-dollar analogue camera to adults who never bought film. That is a licensing deal reaching a buyer the licensee could not reach alone. Judge brand partnerships on that, not on the mascot.
Brand marketers are adopting fan-first social media strategies
Major brands are increasingly prioritizing highly engaged fan communities over broad audiences, using social platforms for feedback, content amplification, trend spotting, and product development while adopting creator-style engagement strategies.
WEBTOON is turning 6 fan-favorite webcomics into microdramas
WEBTOON launches Short Dramas, six live-action vertical series adapted from popular romance webcomics, on August 17. The microdrama format condenses emotional narratives for smartphone screens, capitalizing on established fandoms and billions of cumulative views.
Raleigh's collapse proves that even iconic brands can't rely on nostalgia alone
Raleigh bicycles ceased operations after decades as an iconic brand, demonstrating that nostalgia and historical reputation cannot sustain a company without addressing modern market demands.
The ultimate phone case for art lovers: Casetify drops an exclusive Matisse collection
Casetify launches Henri Matisse-inspired phone cases and accessories featuring artworks from the artist's Jazz series and cut-out period, available worldwide August 13 at prices from £33 to £755.
Marc Jacobs Turns a Handbag Mix-Up Into a New York Microdrama Mystery
Marc Jacobs initiates a mystery-themed series exploring how fashion influences initial impressions and the narratives people construct about each other through a handbag mix-up scenario.
Pokémon is coming to Toniebox, and pre-orders just went live
Tonies announced a Pokémon collection launching August 12 for pre-order at Walmart and tonies.com. The Pikachu starter set costs $149.99, while individual character figurines sell for $19.99 each.
Target just dropped its 2026 Halloween lineup — shop K-Pop Demon Hunters, Pokémon, and more
Target released its 2026 Halloween collection featuring costumes, decorations, and candy. Sixty percent of decor costs under ten dollars, with half of costumes and accessories priced below twenty-five dollars.
Suprey: Evolved nutrition
Suprey, a plant-based supplement company, developed a brand name, strategic foundation, and visual identity to communicate joy, innovation, and meticulous product development.
The new 7UP rebrand is bound to be contentious
7UP undergoes its largest rebrand and taste reformulation in 15 years, a move likely to generate significant consumer and industry debate about the changes.
The Simpsons might be ending, and millennials think they know why
The Simpsons faces potential conclusion as audiences debate the show's relevance and quality decline after multiple decades of production and cultural shifts affecting viewership engagement.
Editor's noteA show ending is a culture story when the show outlasted the culture that made it. The debate here is really about what a brand does with decades of accumulated goodwill and declining relevance, which is a question a great many older brands are quietly facing.
