By Emily Vernon, brand experience lead and consultant for Reckitt

FMCG brand design is not renowned for its humor. It’s good, solid, all “benefits and functionality,” and predominantly created for shelf standout.

But in the current global environment of uncertainty and frantic pace of daily life, consumers increasingly appreciate a brand that can bring a bit of joy or turn an everyday task into an uplifting moment. Good design doesn’t have to be clean, tidy, and functional. Sometimes brands can afford to be a bit more messy, more ridiculous—more kitsch, perhaps?