Advertising, App Design, Art Direction, Book Design, Branding

A cologne that smells like whiskey.

It was October 3rd, 2012. The team has been working feverishly on one project for 6 months: Vinted Bags & Goods: Essentials for Exploration. Just 10 hours before the first lifestyle brand on Kickstarter.com reached success, it got canceled. 

$74,725. The lawyer needed to know.

I ended the conversation on the sidewalk, reached through the metal fence and knocked on the frosted window to Ferroconcrete. “Hey, buddy.” Owen Gee opened the gate. “We are thinking about doing a startup, too.” He said. “We think it might have something to do with colognes. For men.” 

“Kickstarter?” I asked, with a smirk, recovering from the morning news.

“Possibly.” He explained the vague idea, a system for people to try before they buy, similar to Warby Parker. I sat on the armrest of the dark leather sofa placed in the center of this high ceiling loft in downtown, Los Angeles. Wall to wall, the Macs lined up on the wooden tables. The look was from an Apple Store, but no one dealt with all the wires on the floor.

“What's the name?”

“No idea. I was hoping you can get started with that.” He walked back to the kitchen and slightly raised his voice. “Hey, we heard what happened to Vinted.” He grabbed a pair of glass beakers, the ones you’d expect in a chemistry lab. “I can’t believe Killspencer did that,”

“Whiskey?” 

Selling the Invisible

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“Commodity”

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Viva la Revolución

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