Good morning from Dieline’s editor-in-chief, Bill McCool. Here’s your daily side serving of design news, short musings, brand stuff, and forgotten ephemera.
Perhaps one of NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s most ambitious goals is the introduction of municipal grocery stores. Stocked with everyday pantry items, fresh meat, produce, and seafood at a 30% discount, the stores are set to open in 2029 across all five boroughs. For the CPG nerds, this is awfully exciting, as you have folks like Gander and others essentially designing the packaging and brand world for an entirely new city-run private label. Gander, obviously, is known for helping bring brands like Graza, Stiller’s, and Magic Spoon to life, and they are just all-around swell people. Can’t wait to see what these guys come up with. Critics of Mamdani’s new program say that the municipal stores will unfairly disadvantage other grocers and bodegas. I would only remind you that 47.9 million people in the US are food insecure, and inflation and cuts to the SNAP program have created a wildly unsustainable environment for many consumers, and this could cut the average New Yorker’s grocery bill by $1,000 a year.
If you’re obsessed with AI, you probably drink your own pee. These are facts. I don’t make the rules.
It’s an absolute no-duh-brainer that training AI on copyrighted material should be illegal.
Love a racing bib-inspired brand identity. Nicely done, Hardcuore.
Gonna have to agree to disagree on this one: I see LeNose making the rounds, and it’s being talked up as a hand soap trading on accessible luxury cues, but I just see what I’ll call beach t-shirt-style copy for the Live, Laugh, Love set. It’s certainly accessible, but I would never call this luxe.
Genuinely incredible what we let Meta get away with.
We don’t need another squeezy olive oil, but I do love the drizzled double-Zs for the Derek&Eric-designed DRZZL.
No squealing, remember that it’s all in your head.
-Bill