The mood
Back from New Year and mentally over the pandemic, this felt like the start of 2023. Our own internal launch meeting, working with clients to plan the year ahead, and a pervasive sense of new opportunities. But all this newness came with a sense of trepidation: 'uncertainty' as the keyword of global economic outlooks and consultancy speak; and in China the pause before The Two Sessions shed light on investment execution. While it felt like there were ideas everywhere - from unusual brand partnerships to new brand identities - but underlining these forays were hints of recalcitrance, of a hanging on to the past to offset unknown futures. Take iconic British luxury Burberry's logo rebrand eschewing its four year experiment with Post-Brexit borderless identity for a playful reorientation with its past, Tiffany x Nike partnering up as the saying goes for "something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue"; or both LOEWE and MSCHF playing with nostalgic themes of anime dreams with their 'Howl's Moving Castle' and 'Astro Boy'. Fitting with the old and new trends, we made some decent Basque Cheesecakes for ourselves.
The work
We had an ongoing theme this month; helping a client synthesize their research to identify growth and innovation opportunities, authoring and presenting training for a client's internal event, and wrapping up a series of trends pieces for local and global clients.