I MARVEL. So will you.

I'm a packaging junkie. You are too right? You should be. Lovely Package is the first site I visit every day. I spend a huge amount of time each week thinking about, writing about, teaching about and pouring over brands, their products, their identities, and how those brands are taken to market. Packaging is fun and can be the difference between average and outstanding for a brand. Not every brand can move the market and cause a stir. Many will not. Honestly, most will not. But the lucky few will get the double-take and they will move the needle just enough to change things.

Like this....

HOXTON STREET MONSTER SUPPLIES

Fantastic right? Keep going.

It gets better. Here, in this shop that Roald Dahl would possibly wet himself to see, one can purchase things like Human Snot, Organ Marmalade, Fresh Nail Clippings, and Pickled Eyeballs.

This is the store all little boys dream of. Forget toys and candy. This is the stuff of their fairy tales. And, when they are done shopping, they can write and create and dream up those fairy tales by wandering down a secret passage in to the Ministry of Stories.

I want to go. I want to write and create with them. I want to hear their stories.

I work at an agency. I teach a branding course at a major university. And, I do a shit ton of freelance work for big brands all the time. And, I often wonder why some of these big brands don't pull the plug on half the shit they put out there and do something amazing with their resources. There is so much money spent on stupid campaigns all the time. The kind that don't net returns, improve market share, increase awareness, or anything of real value. So much that doesn't contribute to good things. But this one does. It's a keeper.

I love that one of our own, an agency, built this. This is genius. And, I marvel at their creativity, passion, and the fun happy smiles and the STORIES that they will help create.

It is so f-ing badass... I'm taking my kids to London. You coming?

To get the full details on Hoxton Street Monster Supplies visit the company behind the magic. We Made This Ltd. 

My Shoes. My Brand. My Fears.

"It's not the brand of the shoes that matters. It's how you wear them, right?"
This is what my 10 year old said to me this morning. I debated between these two before finally leaving the house with the pretty suede ones on hoping that I'd avoid the bit of expected rain.

What I didn't say, because it proves that I am a shallow shoe whore, is that it is sometimes about the brand of the shoe. But, just as that thought crossed my mind she said, "It's like a part of your own personal brand, huh?" Oh em gosh... She listens to me and she gets it! Eeeeeeeeee!!!!  She understands that we put our own brands out there every day. The messages we send, the way we work with others, the way we carry ourselves, the way we cover ourselves, and a multitude of other things that people see, remember, and form opinions from.

She's a smart kid. She gets what 95% of the clients I work with don't get. Most of them believe brands and logos are one in the same. Some of them have resumes that include marketing job after marketing job after marketing job. And, still, my 10 year old is smarter. Today I realized that she hears me. She understands what I tell companies to do every day. She listens. It made me a tiny bit misty.

I have worried endlessly about these 3 little ones. What if they don't hear me when I tell them that fairy tales are real, best friends are hard to find and easy to love and impossible to let go, love is real, and kissing (especially French) is pretty much the second best thing EVER. (If you have to ask what the first best thing ever is... we might have to have a talk.) And, that they can be whatever they want because they're brilliant, clever, creative, beautiful, and totally completely awesome people. I want them to fear nothing and to try everything.

Maybe they all hear me. The fact that the oldest could even put the idea of a brand in to words gives me hope. She may have been listening to what I say to clients or co-workers on the phone and not necessarily to what I say to her. It's cool. I'll take the baby steps. As long as they are in fantastic shoes.