Inese Silina

Private label footwear is an interesting discussion. I was surprised to hear REI getting out of making their own footwear. It looked good and I think offered a well-branded, unique approach offering some good value and performance (Vibram outsoles, etc.). There seemed to be an authentic story and reason to exist. Often private label is synonymous with cheap. Footwear in particular can be hard to execute well when it's at a very competitive price point, often with a large SKU offering and has the realities of tooling costs and technical development. Most commonly private label footwear is pawned off to a trading company to stick a logo on "knock-off" designs with open tooling produced at a questionable quality and performance standard. But I think private labels can compete. My first experience in footwear was with Power Footwear, possibly the largest global private label - a "house brand" of Bata Group. It showed me it is possible to craft real performance with value in mind and we did so with design as a strength. Original tooling, original technology, original design. Decathlon is also doing it really well. Some of the latest KIPRUN products I think can go head to head with Nike, Adidas, etc. Amazing design and cutting edge performance and sponsored top athletes. They have turned in-house resources and brands into a showcase for products that bring consumers into the stores. The whole point of private label in the first place. What do you think? Can private label footwear exist in today's retail landscape where a brand is more than product and needs to be supported by marketing, social, and the full experience? Do consumers want private labels? Do they know/care they aren't "real" brands? --- I’m the owner of The Directive Collective footwear design consultancy. We make great footwear, not just great sketches. #design #footwear #footweardesign

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IKEA sleepfluencers didn’t just create an ad; they turned everyday moments into brand experiences by transforming windows into ad spaces while people catch some Z’s. https://lnkd.in/gd46MAyw While Product-as-Marketing isn’t entirely new, there are powerful ways to elevate it. Take Trader Joe's highly coveted mini totes and coolers. These aren’t just promotional items; they’re essential, practical accessories that blend into the consumer's lifestyle. When a brand’s product becomes a must-have item, whether it’s for convenience, utility, or even style, it moves beyond being just a brand. It becomes a part of culture. This is where we need to go. Beyond logo-slapping (physical or digital) and into brand-enhancing. We’re not just selling; we’re embedding our brand into the day-to-day in ways that make life easier, or even a little cooler. So yeah, I’ll take a Ray-Ban sun visor for my car, please. ✌️😎 Luxottica #BrandStrategy #Ikea #OOHMarketing #OutOfHomeAdvertising #CreativeOOH #ExperientialMarketing #BrandAwareness

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Fantastic insights on how psychology drives sustainable fashion choices! Understanding cognitive biases and motivations is key to influencing consumer behavior. Your deep dive, with examples from brands like Vestiaire Collective and Stella McCartney, offers valuable guidance for making sustainability more competitive. Excited for the next part!

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Being a “hired gun” for other apparel brands is: ✅Rad ✅Exciting ✅Expansive ✅Imperative ✅Nothing new ✅A growth opportunity ✅Cross pollination at its finest. MORE important is making sure the Studio 669 frequency/vibration does not change. NO MATTER who I am (or you) working for/with.. stay true. 🎯Because There’s nothing worse than a design that’s equivalent to a slice of wet toast at the bottom of your sink. It’s lifeless---it’s worthless… you can’t discount it enough~~ It’s like *that Uncle that won’t leave the party long after it’s over. 📢PLEASE LEAVE! Substandard- 🎯Is a DISSERVICE to all your hard work building your brand. 🎯Is a DISSERVICE to the creative themselves that sold out along the way. ✅Organizations like BLIPSHIFT “get it”… and they VAPORIZE their inventory in the process. Their brand is NEXT LEVEL, making them very relevant in a scene where people pay for (and get) garbage design and quality. Playing the long game is just that. It’s understanding that old saying: 🎯"You NEVER have a second chance to make a first impression.” What a blast working with BLIPSHIFT, *sprinkling GO FAST into their mix. P.S. This video was a “1 and done”… it could be staged and scripted----but then authenticity flies out that silly window (-: I’m Scott Fisk and I look forward to chatting with you when you’re ready to pour high octane over your next event, brand or organization.

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Multimedia Man… As the senior design director at Anthem/SF, I was tasked with the challenge of improving the brand recognition and overall sales of Safeway's snack foods private brand, The Snack Artist. The original "TSA" system, which was comprised of salty snacks, chips, pretzels, peanuts, popcorn, and frozen appetizers, was built around the concept of a "quick sketch" artist who liked to create funny "one-liner" sketches involving his favorite snacks. As Safeway continued to rapidly add new products and categories to The Snack Artist brand, it soon became apparent that despite the success of the current design system, we needed a way to flex and delineate the product categories so they could better perform within their respective competitive shelf sets. So, we were faced with a challenge for a very successful brand that had outgrown its retail strategy and design system. How do we revitalize the design system and segment the categories for increased performance without losing the original essence of the TSA brand? The solution came about through an epiphany that the "artist” could work in other types of artistic media beyond simple gestural sketches. He could broaden his skill set to create artwork that fits each product category individually and uniquely. In every case, we took the competitive sets, shelf placement, and store environment into consideration in determining the type of art that would be appropriate for each category. This overall "loosening" of the TSA design system revitalized the entire brand and enabled the individual product lines to perform at a much more successful level within their respective competitive shelf sets. For more on The Snack Artist design as a whole, a case study can be viewed here: https://lnkd.in/g6hspPPg I’m currently available to help on design projects of any scale and phase, from initial creative concepting to revitalizing entire branding & packaging design systems. How can I help? 🧠✋🔥 P.S. The multitalented & fabulous illustrator (and human being) John Worthen did the illustration, product photography, compositing, and retouching work…all of it. #CPGdesigner #branddesigner #packagingdesigner #artdirector #designdirector #creativedirector #cpgindustry #gamesindustry #adaptivedesigner #freelancedesigner

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London in September

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Reposting here for more visibility, let’s get it

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Agreed! Reminds me of how David Butler (ex-VP Design, Coke) used the Lego analogy in his book Design to Grow to apply not just to brand systems (especially needed for global brands such as Coke!) but to everything a company does, to enable Scale and Agility. He also talks about how designers need to make it "easy to do the right thing," which is exactly what a modular system enables. A fascinating read if you haven't picked it up yet! https://lnkd.in/exaNJ_ts

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Nike ranks fourth on Depop and second on eBay with over 219,000 and 893,000 items, respectively. #Retail #TextileRetail #ApparelRetail #RetailNews #DailyNews #Nike #ApparelResources #ApparelIndustry #RetailIndustry #FashionBrand

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Nike X Parra Signage Touchpoint (concept). In 2021, Nike launched an incredible collaboration with the artist Parra and blended a beautiful colour heavy design with what would later become the Nike SB olympic skate shoe—The Dunk. This layout is my vision of what that blend could have been using a moving Swiss typographic style, in signage and advertisements in general. #typography #motiondesign

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CMF forecasting never stops. NeoCon is local for me, so it's always a great opportunity to wander the exhibits and spot what is hitting the market or coming soon. In some ways it validates the directional movement of color and application I have forecasted, but more importantly, it allows me to watch how other designers are viewing, interacting and talking about what they see. Here's a small snapshot of colors and combinations. Contact me if you want a more in-depth analysis. #colorfeedsthesoul #colorsells

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Mountain Dew just rolled out a shiny new logo, and they’re going full throttle with a nostalgic, outdoorsy vibe. They’ve swapped “Mtn Dew” for the full “Mountain Dew” name, brought back retro fonts, and tossed in some topography to remind us all they’re literally all about the mountains now. 🌄🍋 While we’re not exactly guzzling it ourselves (I mean, we’re more of a kombucha crowd), you’ve got to love a brand makeover that leans into its roots. But here’s my hot take: will this rebrand really resonate it's loyal fanbase, or gain new customers with their more health concious, sleek rebrand and rollout? Either way, it’s bold. It’s bright. It’s got storytelling potential written all over it. What do you think—hit or miss? (Psst… If your brand needs a visual glow-up, give us a shout! We specialize in makeovers that don’t just look good but turn heads. 💥)

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Specialty toy and gift stores: what kind of digital assets are most helpful for you? Here’s a little video I did for a lovely independent store that’s trying out my birthday cards. It’s my first attempt at creating this kind of content, and I’d appreciate your feedback so I can be the best biz partner I can bee 😊🐝 #birthdaycards #howcanihelp #digitalassets

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Maybe it’s marking the 17th anniversary of The Directive Collective in May. Maybe it’s realizing that I’ve now been in footwear design for 23 years, exactly half my lifetime. But be it part nostalgia or part maturity, I think I’ve finally found the answer to the question “Is this it?” Read all about it. https://lnkd.in/gCsReBVb --- I’m the owner of The Directive Collective footwear design consultancy. We make great footwear, not just great sketches. #design #footwear #footweardesign

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Sprucing up my portfolio for the first time in quite a while. I've added a bunch of new things, including some work I did at Petco and a The Beachbody Company logo and app concept that I created when I was leading UX and Product Design for them. If curious, this is how the logo concept was born: The heart is the hardest working muscle in the body. Fun fact: if you rotate a heart 90 degrees clockwise, it magically turns into the letter "B." Outline this "B" and, voila, a second "B" appears in the negative space, giving you "BB" for Beachbody. Finally, adding a circle around this design creates a sense of community and belonging. Bonus: it looks sweet as a mobile app icon. 👍 More here > https://cottonblend.com Did I mention I’m currently open to consulting and would also consider full-time opportunities as well? Let’s talk! #design #productdesign #ux #branding #creative #iOS

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