Welcome to Trajectory.
Stories, ideas and inspiration from a design studio in motion — featuring brand thinking, campaign breakdowns, client work and the occasional personal detour.
Tiny Giants: #3 – Brightland and the Branding of Modern Purity
Where clarity, craftsmanship, and cult aesthetics make olive oil feel like liquid gold.
Tiny Giants #2: Cadence and the Rise of Container-as-Brand
What if your shampoo came in a magnetic hexagon that clicks into your skincare like LEGO? Cadence doesn’t sell beauty products. It sells containers — and somehow made that cool.
Tiny Giants #1: Vacation® Sunscreen and the Art of the Branded Daydream
What if sunscreen wasn’t about SPF… but about escaping into a retro fantasy? Vacation® isn’t selling sun protection — it’s selling summer nostalgia, bottled with precision design and irony-laced charm.
Tiny Giants: The Rise of Micro Brands and Why You Should Care
They don’t look like legacy brands. They don’t act like legacy brands. But they’re quietly building cult followings, rewriting design rules — and stealing market share right out from under the big guy.
Designing the Multiverse: When Spotify Spun Wax
What if your playlists came pressed on vinyl, mailed in a box set, and spun on a teak hi-fi console?
Orbit30: Dave 1, Desgrippes Gobé 0
In 1999, I was a mid-twenties designer at Cleo when I got the chance to take on work usually reserved for a high-priced New York brand agency. With some bold pitches, a lot of goodwill, and a turtle graphic, I not only won the project—I beat Desgrippes Gobé at their own game.
DesignNova: I ♥ NY
Few logos can claim to define not just a brand, but a city itself. The “I ♥ NY” design did just that — transforming New York’s image from gritty to iconic with one symbol.
Rapid Reaction: Cracker Barrel’s Logo Facelift—Not Woke, Just Wise
Cracker Barrel’s latest logo redesign—ditching the beloved Uncle Herschel in favor of a sleek, text-only barrel form—isn’t a cultural capitulation. It’s classic creative logic: clarity, scalability, and strategic equity retention. Here’s why the outrage says more about cultural discourse than design.
Designing the Multiverse: IKEA by Wes Anderson
What if Sweden’s flat-pack furniture empire was directed by the king of cinematic symmetry?
Hand‑Drawn = High‑Tech: Why Imperfection Is the Ultimate Design Signal
In a world of AI‑polished perfection, human-made marks are the new flex. A look at why sketchy, scribbly, hand-drawn design isn’t just charming — it’s strategic.