Ten Bets, Two Years On

At the start of 2024, I made ten predictions about where brand design was heading. Two years later, most still hold. One surprised me. And one, I think, was right — just early.

Two years is a long time in this industry. Long enough for AI to move from experiment to infrastructure, and for brands to rethink how they make, scale and judge creative work. So I went back and marked my own homework.

01 — Purpose Is King (Held up)

I bet brands would win by aligning with real values, not just products. That still feels true, but the bar is higher now. Audiences can spot purpose used as decoration. The brands that live it build trust. The ones performing it get called out.

02 — Icon Schmicon (Held up)

I bet identity would keep moving beyond the logo. If anything, I understated it. In a feed-first, AI-heavy world, recognition rarely comes from a mark alone. Color, type, photography, motion and behavior now carry more of the brand.

03 — Agile, Yet Anchored (Held up)

Flexible systems built around strong core principles have become the standard. The best brands have a clear center and elastic edges. They can move quickly, adapt to culture and still feel like themselves.

04 — Stories in Motion (Called it)

Motion is no longer a nice-to-have. In digital spaces, static identity now feels like the exception. Brands are expected to move, respond and behave — not just sit still and look good.

05 — Sonic Boom and Bloom (Right direction, wrong shape)

I bet sound branding would have its moment. It did, but not as a standalone trend. AI has pulled sound, motion and visuals into one connected sensory language. Sound became more important by becoming part of the whole system.

06 — Global Table, Local Flavor (Held up)

I bet global brands would invest more in local and bespoke expression. Still true. As AI makes polished sameness easier to produce, anything genuinely specific — local, crafted, cultural, human — becomes more valuable.

07 — Hybrid 360 Experiences (Held up)

The line between physical and digital brand experience has kept disappearing. We no longer celebrate “omnichannel” as an idea. We just expect it. A brand now has to move naturally between a room, a screen, an app, an event and a conversation.

08 — Eco-Innovative Packaging (Held up, slowly?)

Sustainable packaging is becoming a creative opportunity, not just a compliance task. The best brands are treating it as a full design brief — material, form, logistics, story and experience. Others are still catching up.

09 — All Things AI (Understated)

I knew AI would become part of the branding process. I did not expect it to move this fast or go this deep. It now touches research, ideation, prototyping, production and rollout. The question is no longer whether to use it, but how to protect judgment, authorship and authenticity while using it.

10 — Human 2.0 (Too early to tell)

I bet on a return to the visibly human: the imperfect, crafted and authored. I still believe in that bet. The industry is still in its “AI for everything” phase, but when the novelty wears off and everything starts to feel too smooth, the human hand will become premium again.

⸻

The technology moved faster than most of us expected. But the fundamentals did not go away.

Meaning still matters. Distinctiveness still matters. Taste still matters. The human hand still matters.

If anything, they matter more now; because they are harder to fake.