Blog: Ged Carroll | renaissance chambara

  • Coffee shop problem

    One of my friends who I first met when we were working on global brands at Unilever, took a change in career running their own chocolatier and coffee shop at a lovely market town outside London. Coffee shops for years have had a nice line in selling branded insulated cups. The rationale is that these…

  • Mobilizing for monuments & more

    Mobilizing for monuments Mobilizing for Monuments is an interesting brand collaboration. Flickr was a natural partner for the the environmental charities due to it being the destination community for serious photographers. Rivian also makes sense, given that they make electric all-wheel drive vehicles – which presumably have a lower carbon footprint. The Mobilizing for Monuments…

  • Shutting down

    Shutting down is a conscious choice. You might see it described as digital detox or a digital break. I, like a number of people that I know have a ‘dumb’ phone to complement my smartphone. This is different from the pre-broadband era of the internet where going online was an active decision punctuated by the…

  • Dove 20 years of real beauty

    I was privileged to freelance at Ogilvy on Dove a number of years ago and got to understand the brand a little better during that time. My work on Dove was focused on product advertising for Dove soap in Brazil, the US, Vietnam and the Philippines rather than adding to the master brand canon around…

  • Omakase and luxury futures

    Omakase and luxury seem made for each other. Think about the core elements of omakase: As a trend omakase has expanded geographically with Japanese cuisine. But it has also expanded in terms of categories covered. Koreans have taken omakase and pushed it into other areas: So how can omakase and luxury come together in the…

  • April 2024 newsletter – no. 9

    April 2024 newsletter introduction Welcome to my April 2024 newsletter which marks my 9th issue. We managed to make it through the winter and the clocks moved forward allowing for lighter evenings in the northern hemisphere. The number nine is full of symbolism in a good way. In Chinese culture it sounds similar to long-lasting.…

  • Very Ralph and other things

    Very Ralph Very Ralph is a documentary that celebrates the career of Ralph Lauren. What’s interesting is Lauren’s lack of expertise in fashion and design. Instead Very Ralph captures Lauren’s childhood ability as a stylist and art director to eventually create a Ralph Lauren world. Very Ralph became a descriptor of a style and a…

  • Chinese Antitrust Exceptionalism

    Chinese Antitrust Exceptionalism by Angela Zhang sounds exceptionally dry to the uninitiated. Zhang is a senior legal academic who works at the University of Hong Kong, which until recently got a front row seat to China disputes with both the European Union and the United States. Given the recent changes in Hong Kong where she…

  • Boutique e-tailers

    The luxury sector is undergoing a transformation, and nowhere is that more apparent than in the world of boutique e-tailers. I am of a generation that grew up with boutiques, carefully curated fashion looks from multiple brands. Exclusive As a child, my Mam would get me jumpers as I grew up from different small stores…