BP&O

There’s so much to love about this identity – not least that it manages to make a noodle joint look like a perennially hip skate brand (yes, I am obviously talking about Supreme – all no-nonsense stocky black lettering on postbox red backgrounds). The identity in question is that for the delectably named Oodles – more on that moniker shortly – by Studio South (Old Elephant House, Outline, 246 Queen), which is based in Auckland, New Zealand.

Meanwhile, almost everything else in the bathroom has loosened up. Skincare became colourful and desirable, deodorant discovered personality, period care stopped pretending periods were something to whisper about and even toilet paper managed to get itself an Instagram account. Smart Life Co shows up with a sparkly smile. Out goes the icy palettes and microscopic type. In comes stripes, colour, and charm. Floss that actually looks fun. Toothbrushes you’d leave out on purpose.

Founded in 1933, Fairway Market is an independent regional supermarket chain with stores across New York. The grocery retailer sells food and household goods, and over the past eight decades or so has built its reputation on an unusually broad selection of hard-to-find products and a distinctly New York character.

I struggle to think of a subculture I detest quite as viscerally and deeply as steampunks: not only is it aesthetically quite hideous, I just don’t really get it – it’s the past! But the future! But very dusty and everyone’s a creep! Inexplicably wearing goggles! It all smacks of a man in the corner of your front room at 5am, who everyone else at the afterparty thinks someone else knows – a man with a pocket watch and a flat in Stoke Newington (despite no apparent job/income) and a slightly...

Michu Wonder Litter puts its tapioca, corn and guar litter in bold illustrated packs with a playful mascot. Across the category, we’re also seeing paper bags, built-in handles, resealable formats and recycled materials. All of this for something the cat is going to shit in. But that’s cat litter. Bought by people, used by cats, carried home by whoever drew the short straw and judged every single day by whether the house still smells like a house.

Orkest Phion – or Phion Symphony Orchestra in English – is a Dutch travelling symphony orchestra that was formed in 2019 through the merger of the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra and Het Gelders Orkest. Based in the eastern Netherlands, it operates across the provinces of Gelderland and Overijssel, performing in different cities and venues rather than from a single permanent concert hall. Alongside its regular programme in the Netherlands, the orchestra also travels internationally.

This is an identity that’s not very easy to instantly get your head around – arguably, at a glance, it’s downright confusing. Sometimes it comes on strong all antiquey – like the branding equivalent of once-beloved UK high-street also-ran Past Times – at others, it’s all Trewley Precious lash brand partnership, all hearts and dusky pink and half-arsed girly girly stuff.

Europe exports more goods than any other economy and manufactures under some of the world’s highest standards for product safety, environmental protection and traceability. Yet almost all of that value disappears into legislation, audits and supply chains before a product reaches the shelf. Recognising that gap, Copenhagen think tank 21st Europe worked with Dada Projects to develop Made in Europe, a certification concept unveiled at Web Summit in Lisbon.

Pretty much the one and only memorable brand name when it comes to bikes you can fold up and carry around, Brompton – as its thoroughly British name might suggest – was founded in England in 1975 by engineer Andrew Ritchie, who developed the first prototype in his West London flat.

Packaging has seen this kind of shift before. Digital printing removed plates, lengthy make-readies and many of the costs that made short runs difficult to justify. Brands could print what they needed, when they needed it instead of committing to large volumes months in advance. Versioning, regional editions, seasonal packs and shorter production runs became commercially realistic because changing the artwork no longer meant starting the print process from scratch.