Lilly Smith
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👩🏻💻 editor @fastcompany | lsmith@fastcompany.com
✍️ freelance reporter | smith.lillyr@gmail.com
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Articles by Lilly Smith
Glossier’s big brand revamp begins with a juicy ode to its New York City roots
New York City is lending its iconic I ♥ NY logo to your lips. For her first brand campaign since joining the company three months ago, Glossier’s new chief marketing officer, Nicole Solórzano, is utilizing an iconic Milton Glaser design on its new “I ♥ NY” Balm Dotcom as a juicy, literally apple-flavored ode to the brand’s New York City roots. It’s also the inspiration for a broad campaign rollout across retail, social, and the website that pays tribute to the city, where the company launched.
El nuevo sitio web de InfoWars hará que te olvides por completo de Alex Jones… eventualmente
La forma de comedia favorita de Tim Heidecker es hacerte perder el tiempo. Así que no hay mejor remate que internet, la mayor ladrona de tiempo de la sociedad. Este ha tejido sus tentáculos adictivos y algorítmicos en cada aspecto de nuestras vidas, culminando en la turbia, oscura y desorientadora irrealidad de Alex Jones. InfoWars, la marca emblemática y perjudicial del teórico de la conspiración de extrema derecha, salió a subasta en 2024.
The designs that define America
What makes a design “American?” That’s a question we’ve been asking ourselves as the United States nears 250 years of existence. In that time, the country has been defined through objects, ideas, and systems that, if not born in the U.S., at least reside here spiritually and culturally. But American design is a deeply personal thing.
The new InfoWars website will make you forget all about Alex Jones—eventually
Tim Heidecker’s favorite form of comedy wastes your time. So there’s no better punch line than the internet, society’s ultimate time suck, which has woven its addictive, algorithmic tendrils into every single aspect of our lives, bottoming out in the silty, dark, disorienting unreality of Alex Jones.
Pepper just got a DTC glow-up
When’s the last time you thought about pepper? Designers working in the consumer packaged goods category have reimagined many a pantry staple over the past several years, including olive oil, tinned fish, and even chili crisp, but pepper has remained as forgotten as it is ubiquitous. A playfully chunky new brand is giving the category design intentionality, functionality, and visual appeal—and could point to where food brand design is headed.
Victoria’s Secret tests a blueprint for the future of Pink with a new NYC store
Listen to this ArticleMore info The closest thing to the idealized mall you recall either from personal memory or from cultural lore exists on a block in the Soho neighborhood of New York City, New York Magazine aptly dubbed “Tween Row.” On a recent spring afternoon, tween girls outfitted in cable knit cardigans, pink camis, hoodies, and lowrise jeans, chatted with each other (or their willing parents) as they popped into favorite shops: Brandy Melville, Edikted, Princess Polly.
Rhode is a master class in modern branding. Here, Hailey Bieber shares her rules
Bieber flipped Rhode into a billion-dollar brand in three years. Here’s an inside look at her creative process—and her do’s and don’ts. [Photos: Rhode] Listen to this ArticleMore info A few weeks ago, a Rhode billboard appeared on the road along the way to Coachella. Powder pink background, hot pink type, and multicolored daisies. It didn’t look like Rhode’s typical visual brand, which is defined by subtle Swiss minimalism, conveyed in cool grays, white, and boxy sans serifs.
Rhode is a master class in modern branding. Here, Hailey Bieber shares her rules
This Suede Bag Is The One Piece From Hailey Bieber’s Mango Collection Destined To Sell Out First From micro shorts to sports jackets, the drop contains all the supermodel's style signatures When you’re photographed as voraciously as Hailey Bieber is – whether she’s walking a red carpet or running to Starbucks, there’s guaranteed to be a camera flashing – you quickly learn what looks good. Few …
Founder Spotlight: Brian Marvin & HSI Relax Release
Some people have lifelong dreams of owning a business or developing a new product, while others find themselves on an entrepreneurial journey they never expected. Ideas can come from the most surprising places. That’s exactly what happened to Brian Marvin, leading to the development of a bow release that operates differently than those previously on the market. Brian grew up in Wisconsin and spent plenty of time outdoors before heading to UW-Stevens Point for college.
Gap is dropping a Victoria Beckham collab, bringing her discerning eye to denim
I’m not one for binaries, but it’s likely you’re either aware of Gap’s 2025 comeback tour, or you have a healthy amount of screen time. For those of us who aren’t full luddite teen (aspirational), I’m here to tell you that Gap is continuing its play to cement its place among the fashion set—and cultural domination—in 2026.
Inside the creative collaboration that turned JFK Jr.’s political magazine into a sexed-up cultural moment
It was 1997, and Matt Berman, the creative director of JFK Jr.’s George magazine, had just gotten back to his hotel in Los Angeles. He had left the ‘Garden of Eden’ style set he’d concocted for the cover of the September issue: lush with greenery and replete with live animals. It would reach peak ripeness once the star, Pam Anderson, arrived on set the next day as the “first woman,” to illustrate a feature on the 20 most fascinating women in politics. But there was a problem.
Prada transforma andaimes de loja em arte em Nova York
A famosa Quinta Avenida de Nova York é conhecida por suas vitrines natalinas brilhantes e fantásticas. Agora, marcas de luxo estão transformando uma parte da arquitetura da cidade, muitas vezes negligenciada e às vezes criticada — os andaimes — em exibições artísticas de suas marcas. Localizada na esquina da Quinta Avenida com a Rua 56, a Prada revelou um novo andaime em seu prédio, atualmente em reforma, que cobre a fachada com camadas ondulantes de papel semitransparente verde-prada.
Prada’s NYC store turns scaffolding into high art
New York City’s famed Fifth Avenue is best known for its sparkling, fantastical holiday windows. Now, luxury brands are transforming an often overlooked, sometimes maligned part of city architecture—scaffolding—into artful branding displays. Located at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 56th Street, Prada has unveiled new scaffolding on its building, currently undergoing renovation, that covers its facade in rippling layers of semitransparent Prada-green scrim paper.
Inside the polarizing return of low-rise jeans
Listen to this ArticleMore info By now, you’ve surely noticed it. Jean waistlines, sky-high not so long ago, are going lower. Low enough that you might need to think of underwear as outerwear. Across the fashion industry, experts agree that in 2026, ultra-low-rise will be a key business driver in the denim sector, with some brands saying that their low-rise styles have replaced the eternally popular high-rise as their best selling cut.
The best data design of 2025
The data design category of Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Awards honors projects that harness the power of data to create better experiences for users, whether it’s an algorithm, a visualization, or an interface. This year’s winner, USAFacts’ chart, is an interactive Sankey chart that provides data visualizations to show how (and where) federal money is flowing. See all of the honorees below.
Innovation by Design 2025: Deloitte Digital's AI tool wants to transform branding on a global scale
Deloitte Digital, an in-house agency embedded within the global creative consultancy, just solved one of the biggest challenges of scaling internal branding by going all in on a generative AI–powered design tool. Two big branding challenges for corporations, especially conglomerates, are maintaining visual consistency across all its various sub-brands, teams, externally facing graphics, and everything in between; and second, doing all of that quickly.
Innovation by Design 2025: USAFact's simple flow chart finally makes sense of the huge federal budget
Numbers, in theory, are logical. But that doesn’t mean numbers are easy for the average person without a finance degree to crunch, let alone interpret—especially when those numbers are line items in the multi-trillion-dollar budget of the United States. That makes an agreed-upon understanding of budgetary facts a challenge.
Gap brings back its iconic Y2K jeans after 15 years
Lilly Smith|Published 23 minutes ago Imagine you have an iPod mini, preferably metallic pink. You toggle to the song“Milkshake” by Kelis, there in black pixelated font. You plug in your wired headphones, and without any notifications to distract you, you click play. About twenty years before a littleespresso fueled an addictively candy-coated cultural renaissanceof feminine braggadocio, Kelis brought the boys to the yard in super low-rise jeans. (Bossy.) Now,Gapis bringing both back.
Gap brings back its iconic Y2K jeans after 15 years
Lilly Smith|Published 8 hours ago Imagine you have an iPod mini, preferably metallic pink. You toggle to the song“Milkshake” by Kelis, there in black pixelated font. You plug in your wired headphones, and without any notifications to distract you, you click play. About twenty years before a littleespresso fueled an addictively candy-coated cultural renaissanceof feminine braggadocio, Kelis brought the boys to the yard in super low-rise jeans. (Bossy.) Now,Gapis bringing both back.
The internet's favorite hot sauce just repackaged for a post-DTC world
You might have a go-to hot sauce already. But for the past year or so, Sichuan condiments brand Fly by Jing has been repositioning to capture mainstream heat seekers, and its subtle packaging update, rolling out now, is the DTC darling's latest move to optimize for its new distribution channel of choice: mass retail. To call the visual changes a "rebrand" would be a stretch, but the subtle updates point to how the company is pivoting its messaging for analog sales.
Gap aposta na marca de luxo GapStudio para revitalizar imagem | Fast Company Brasil
Desde o ano passado, a Gap tem dado as caras em um lugar inesperado para uma marca de roupas casuais: o tapete vermelho. Em julho, Anne Hathaway usou um vestido branco com saia e top combinando, além de joias da Bulgari. Em dezembro, Demi Moore apareceu em um vestido de malha preto e uma jaqueta estilo motoqueiro. E, em fevereiro deste ano, Timothée Chalamet apareceu com um conjunto de roupa social preta de cetim.
With the launch of GapStudio, Gap wants you to rethink everything you know about the brand
Over the last year, Gap has been popping up in an unexpected place for a heritage casual wear brand: the red carpet. Last July, Anne Hathaway wore a white shirt dress with matching bralette and Bulgari jewelry. In December, Demi Moore appeared in a black knit jersey dress and moto jacket. And just this past February, Timothée Chalamet showed up in a black satin workwear set. Zac Posen, Gap Inc.’s executive vice president and creative director, had designed all of them under the new label, GapStudio.
Delta Airline Harrisburg Office +1–888–839–0502 -
One of my favorites was the Delta Airline Harrisburg Office facility, the Harrisburg Office. When I first arrived at work, the chat appeared informal and amicable. The personnel greeted me and quickly guided me through the check-in process. I felt in good hands because of their efficiency and genuine customer service. The Delta office in Harrisburg, which is renowned for its outstanding customer service, truly went above and beyond.
Banana Republic y HBO lanzan la colección de ropa White Lotus
Banana Republic quiere que estés listo para hacer check-in en cualquier lugar junto al agua que elijas después de meses aferrarte a tragos y cremas nocturnas con su nueva colección White Lotus. Creada en colaboración con la exitosa serie de HBO, es una colección resort pensada para que quienes la usen puedan disfrutar sin complicaciones de un cóctel y un baño de vapor, con opción a que puedan tomar su maleta mientras aprovechan sus días de descanso.
Banana Republic's new White Lotus collection is designed for you to look MOV (moneyed on vacation)
Banana Republic wants you to be ready for check in at whichever balmy, poolside escape you might venture to after months of clutching hot toddies and sloughing on heavy duty night creams. [Photo: Banana Republic] Its new White Lotus collection, made in collaboration with the hit HBO show, is a resort collection that’s about allowing its wearers to enjoy an uncomplicated spritz and shvitz in options they can pull from their suitcase while using their PTO.
Ray-Ban nombra a A$AP Rocky como su primer director creativo
Una marca icónica de gafas de sol tiene ahora un nuevo ícono creativo al mando. Ray-Ban anunció hoy que el rapero y referente de la moda A$AP Rocky será su primer director creativo. En su nuevo rol, Rocky dirigirá Ray-Ban Studios, una subdivisión de la marca que se define como “un centro creativo que celebra la autoexpresión”.
Ray-Ban appoints A$AP Rocky as its first creative director Original
An iconic eyewear brand has a new creative icon at its helm. Ray-Ban announced today that rapper and fashion trendsetter A$AP Rocky will be its first-ever creative director. In his new role, Rocky will lead Ray-Ban Studios, a sub label of Ray-Ban that it calls “a creative hub celebrating self-expression.” More broadly, he’s tasked with reinventing and contemporizing the brand by overseeing creative projects including a new Blacked Out Collection, which will release in April.
The most stunning desserts to serve this holiday season, according to professional chefs
Sure, sure, Christmas trees, Santa Claus, and snowmen are celebrity-like symbols of the holiday season. They’re the cause of TikTok trend-induced hardware store battles, decades of fainting M&Ms, and, according to the rather lusty writers of Netflix’s Hot Frosty, romantic storylines that can only go full-burn in below-freezing temps. Melting hearts has never been so mortally fatal. Having said all that, the ultimate holiday motif is really the dessert.
This GLP-1 drug maker is skipping the hard sell to focus on access and safety
Use of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro has become so widespread that the Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that one in eight U.S. adults has tried one. But as pharma giant Eli Lilly—maker of GLP-1 drug Zepbound—has been emphasizing, widespread use of these drugs for cosmetic weight loss has limited access for those who actually need them to treat conditions like type 2 diabetes and obesity.
Chloé, Givenchy, and now Uniqlo: Clare Waight Keller knows what the future of fashion looks like
British designer Clare Waight Keller’s move to Uniqlo, the Japanese mass market clothing brand, draws some stark contrasts. Coming most recently from Givenchy as its artistic director, her designs at the Maison were rarified gems.
Kate Spade continues its courting of Gen Z with a new M&M’s collection
We’re about to hit the perfect storm of sweet-treat season. Halloween (ceremonial rite), election (stress), holidays (parties). Kate Spade is prepared for the indulgence. Today, the fashion brand is releasing a new limited collection of leather goods, accessories, and jewelry with the unofficial sponsor of Halloween candy bowls everywhere: M&M’s.
How Speedo plans to compete with athleisure after its Olympic moment
How Speedo plans to compete with athleisure after its Olympic moment August 14, 2024 Olympic swimmers won gold in Speedo. Now how does the company get regular people to wear the brand while they work out? BY Lilly Smith Hundredths of a second. That’s the difference between being on the podium and off it at the Olympic games. Swimmers do everything they can to train for it, earn it, and—with high-tech swimsuits—game it.
Building products for kids that adults will love
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The embattled cofounder of Away has a next act: Building products for kids that adults will love
The cofounder of Away, Steph Korey Goodwin, is officially launching a new venture—her first since founding the DTC luggage company nine years ago. The company, Charmspring, is a children’s brand that will release products related to learning and development. Its first product, Springboard, is a design-forward scheduling board that uses magnetic tiles with illustrations of different activities to help kids plan their day.
Meta to Resume Training AI With Data From UK Facebook, Instagram Users
Meta announced it will resume training its artificial intelligence (AI) models using U.K. adult user data to better reflect British culture. This follows a delay due to privacy concerns. Despite initial opposition, Meta has now engaged with U.K. regulators and is nearing the launch of its AI products in the U.K. The company clarified that […]
5 information design classics that are so perfect you might forget they were ever designed
Some graphic forms are so ubiquitous today that it’s hard to remember that they were ever novel. But of course, there was a first time for everything. A new and comprehensive visual survey of graphic design history, Graphic Classics, seems to capture nearly all of humanity’s major design firsts in a way that’s not Guttenberg Bible–dense, but rather Esquire mag–flippable (both are in the book).
5 information design classics that are so perfect you might forget they were ever designed
Some graphic forms are so ubiquitous today that it’s hard to remember that they were ever novel. But of course, there was a first time for everything. A new and comprehensive visual survey of graphic design history, Graphic Classics, seems to capture nearly all of humanity’s major design firsts in a way that’s not Guttenberg Bible–dense, but rather Esquire mag–flippable (both are in the book). Phaidon’s new visual survey of graphic design history, “Graphic Classics,” launched August 20.
Summer isn’t a season. It’s an annual rebrand for you and everyone else
I was texting with a friend before meeting her at a bar on a Saturday night in early June. The night felt heady and special not because there was an occasion, like a birthday or goodbye party, but because it was the first truly hot night in New York City. Even before the official start of summer, the days are longer and the sun sets later. There’s a feeling that, after months of hibernation, people are more social. Work slows down and summer Fridays set in. Outfits are smaller and sexier.
Summer isn’t a season. It’s an annual rebrand for you and everyone else
I was texting with a friend before meeting her at a bar on a Saturday night in early June. The night felt heady and special not because there was an occasion, like a birthday or goodbye party, but because it was the first truly hot night in New York City. Even before the official start of summer, the days are longer and the sun sets later. There’s a feeling that, after months of hibernation, people are more social. Work slows down and summer Fridays set in. Outfits are smaller and sexier.
Innovation by Design 2024: Figma's Dev Mode bridges the designer-developer divide
Figma, the collaborative product design tool that has quickly become a favorite among designers, released a new product in 2023 that deals less with hex codes and more with straight-up coding. Figma Dev Mode is a dedicated space within the Figma platform with a user interface that’s cleaner and more familiar to developers, so they can more efficiently turn a design into a coded product. As an enterprise company, Figma can expand its value prop across a broader product design team.
The founder of Everlane is launching a new supplement company to tap into Gen Z's health obsession
Thirteen years after launching Everlane, founder Michael Preyman has launched a new company called Magna. The DTC sports beverage supplement company, which launched yesterday, looks to tap into consumer habits around wellness, longevity, and health—think supplement as lifestyle brand.
Kate Spade and Heinz's tasty new collection brings tomatoes from the farm to your arm
Baseball and hot dogs. Strawberries and shortcake. Excessive heat and air conditioners. Summer is the season for iconic American pairings, and now two heavyweight brands are teaming up to make their mark. Classic American fashion brand Kate Spade and Heinz, purveyor of summer’s favorite condiment, are releasing a capsule collection of ketchup-themed, Heinz-branded bags and accessories that add a squiggle of summer to functional, everyday pieces.
HSBC China Introduces Digital Yuan Services for Corporate Clients
HSBC Bank (China) Ltd. announced on Friday the launch of digital yuan (e-CNY) services for corporate clients, becoming one of the first international banks to provide these services to both corporate and retail customers. The e-CNY, or digital yuan, is China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) issued by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC). Following […]
Google's new image generation tool shows how perceptions of AI in creative work are evolving
While this year’s Google I/O conference featured all the pomp and circumstance that surrounded the company’s annual product announcements, a short drive away at a different, quieter venue, the company shared clues as to where its AI strategy is headed. The event announced an experimental creative project from Google Creative Labs, called Infinite Wonderland, as well as a new tool called StyleDrop.
Google's new image generation tool shows how perceptions of AI in creative work are evolving
Google's new image generation tool shows how perceptions of AI in creative work are evolving While this year’s Google I/O conference featured all the pomp and circumstance that surrounded the company’s annual product announcements, a short drive away at a different, quieter venue, the company shared clues as to where its AI strategy is headed. The event announced an experimental creative …
John Maeda is on a mission to demystify AI
Generative AI, with its rapidly evolving ability to seemingly do just about anything, has taken on a kind of anthropomorphic, mystic quality among casual users. It has conversations. It generates images, copy, designs, and code. It hallucinates. It declares love. On the surface, programs like ChatGPT can give the sense of a human-like, Her-level leading role.
The ultimate gift guide for graphic design nerds
The ultimate gift guide for graphic design nerds By Lilly Smith November 22, 2023 Like any creative person, graphic designers have a pretty strong sense of what they like and don’t like, and that can make your job as a gift-giver pretty dang difficult.
Why Gen Z’s biggest podcasters are working from bed
Linda Evangalista, the iconic ’90s supermodel, once famously said she wouldn’t get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day. (Props to her.) Now, a new generation of young media personalities are finding they don’t have to leave the bed at all to make bank. In fact, for some, the bed has become the broadcast set of choice—and a strategy to connect with audiences in a whole new way. Social media has given people access to the most intimate spaces of friends and strangers alike.
From Emma to Alix, Gen Z's biggest podcasters are working from bed
By Lilly Smith7 minute Read Linda Evangalista, the iconic ’90s supermodel, once famously said she wouldn’t get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day. (Props to her.) Now, a new generation of young media personalities are finding they don’t have to leave the bed at all to make bank. In fact, for some, the bed has become the broadcast set of choice—and a strategy to connect with audiences in a whole new way.
The ultimate gift guide for graphic design nerds
Like any creative person, graphic designers have a pretty strong sense of what they like and don’t like, and that can make your job as a gift-giver pretty dang difficult. Lucky for you, we’ve talked to a lot of graphic designers over the years, and we’ve used that intel to create a shortlist of gifts to help the graphic designer in your life get organized, get creative, and get inspired (and it will help you get gifting).
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