Side Salad: What Us Millennials Might Call Trash Talk
June 23, 2026
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.
Easily one of my favorite projects from last year, and it’s a big ol’ bag of concrete, of all things. Killer work from Brands&People, and it very much cements them as a studio to watch.
Come to America, and we will woo you with our, uh...Waffle Houses (no disrespect to Waffle House, but I do find this very endearing and hilarious that World Cup tourists are having a moment with our many, many chains).
People are freaking out about cottage cheese shortages, but just imagine what would happen if the power grid went down.
Missed this, but Danone is suing Chobani over protein claims. Let them fight.
I don’t much care for the new Recess Pink Lemonade, because that can is anything BUT calm and is completely out of step with the brand world they created. Too busy!
This proud Papa got some Fishwife for Father’s Day. The dad hat was a nice touch.
A new ice cream shop opened down the street, and its signage was clearly made using AI. They are certainly not the only ones, and when I was traveling for work last month, I was genuinely surprised by all of the AI-generated menu items hanging out outside restaurants. Anywho, good piece from Derek Horn here about something that I think many of us are already starting to miss: design from non-designers.
Finally, a Formula 1-approved electrolyte drink.
Angels reliever Brent Suter studied environmental policy and science at Harvard, and he’s tired of playing under 76 gasoline signs. It’s great that he’s on board with EcoAthletes, but billionaires love other billionaires, and people aren’t just going to up and boycott the Dodgers when they have, maybe, the greatest player ever to play the game (who is not named Darren Daulton and did not write a book about ascension and other dimensions). Anywho, good for Suter.
Hercules and Love Affair still fuck. Have a Hercules and Love Affair summer; you can listen to their self-titled album literally right now, and there are no skips.
By the by, have you or anyone you know designed the packaging for gas station pills? You know exactly the kind of pills I’m talking about. If so, get at me and comment.
TTYL.
-Bill