Notes from the desk
- October 2026For CPG, the packaging is the whole ecosystemNobody follows a food brand. Nobody checks a snack's website before buying it. For a consumer packaged goods product, the pack is the social, the site and the campaign in one object, because it is the only piece of marketing every customer touches, every time. A hot take on where the money should go.cpg, packaging, branding
- October 2026Brand guidelines nobody opens, and the one-page version that worksMost brands pay for a guidelines document, get a long PDF, and never open it again. The brand drifts anyway, one post and one sell sheet at a time. The long document is not wrong. It is just not the thing a team uses. This is what they actually use.branding, brand guidelines, brands, cpg
- October 2026The shelf is not a screen: what D2C brands get wrong going into retailA D2C brand that works online has learned to win a scroll. Retail is a different test: four feet, three seconds, forty competitors on either side, and no product page to explain anything. Here is where the move usually goes wrong, and what to fix before the first buyer meeting.cpg, d2c, packaging, retail, startups
- October 2026Everyone has the same tools now. That is the problem.AI can make a logo, a strategy, a campaign and a website before lunch, and it makes roughly the same one for everyone who asks. That has not made creative direction less valuable. It has made it the only thing left that is scarce.creative direction, ai, branding
- October 2026What actually works in a CPG booth at Expo WestI worked a CPG brand's booth at Expo West from the brand side. Most of what gets a buyer to stop has nothing to do with the size of the booth. Here is what I watched work, and what I watched fail, in the ten feet between the aisle and the counter.trade shows, cpg, expo west
- September 2026Why I left a brand team to do this aloneI spent two years inside a CPG brand team, took every project I could get my hands on, and learned the whole ecosystem by doing it. This is the story of why I left to build a one-man studio.origin, cpg, career
Go deeper
Print and retail, in detail
The work that goes to a printer, a fabricator or a buyer. What it includes, how it goes, and the questions I get first.
- Trade show booth designExpo West, Sweets & Snacks, Fancy Food Show, NACS. Ten-by-ten to island.
- In-store displays & POSShelf talkers, endcaps, floor displays, shippers, PDQs. Grocery, club, specialty, c-store.
- Packaging designFood and beverage, supplements, beauty, household. One SKU to a full line.
- Sell sheets & line review decksOne-pagers, line sheets, line review decks, distributor and price sheets.
Let’s build something amazingpremiumsicklegitboldbeautifulunskippableloudon-brandtimelesscleanscroll-stoppingunforgettableyours
Work with meTrusted by dozens of business leaders
