As we approach Pride Month, companies on the long and still-growing list of marketers celebrating LGBTQ+ Pride each June have been releasing their plans for this year. As always, these include a variety of typically rainbow-hued lifestyle collections for adults, with a focus on accessories, beauty, footwear, and especially apparel. One new wrinkle that has […]
Archive | Design and content themes
Color Schemes
A number of museums have recently worked with licensees or collaborators on products that feature a work of art’s color palette as the core design element. This is in contrast to incorporating a full representation of the original work or a pattern or element inspired by it, which is the traditional route taken by most […]
Anime Goes Luxe
By Karen Raugust on April 15, 2021 in Character/Entertainment, Design and content themes, Fashion, International, Licensing
Anime and kawaii properties have become perennially popular on licensed products worldwide. For the past year, they have had a particularly high profile in the global fashion industry, with a large number of collaborations involving labels ranging from streetwear and sportswear to, most notably, luxury brands: Undercover, the label of designer Jun Takahashi, created a […]
Collaborations Honor Black History
By Karen Raugust on February 18, 2021 in Art, Demographic groups, Design and content themes, Fashion, Licensing
Black History Month in February of each year has not traditionally maintained as high a profile within the consumer product and collaboration space as Hispanic Heritage Month, which takes place in September and October and has increasingly been seen as a time for licensors and their partners to create themed collections. IP owners and brands […]
Welcome to the Year of the Ox
By Karen Raugust on February 11, 2021 in Design and content themes, Holiday, International, Licensing
Tomorrow (February 12) marks the start of the Lunar New Year. As brands increasingly mark this occasion with collections of products—especially in China and other parts of Asia, but in other regions as well—some look to the year’s Chinese zodiac symbol for inspiration. This creates opportunities for licensed properties that happen to be associated with […]
Opening Moves
By Karen Raugust on November 5, 2020 in Design and content themes, Interactive gaming, Licensing, Sports
Interest in chess has been on the rise for the past five years, but it has really been experiencing a pop-culture moment this year, especially since the pandemic began. Some of the indications: Chess as esport. All told, viewers on Twitch, the video game-centric streaming service, have watched more than 43 million hours of chess […]
Getting Out the Vote
By Karen Raugust on October 19, 2020 in Design and content themes, Licensing, Politics/social movements
Every four years as the U.S. Presidential election comes around, licensors, licensees, and retailers create products and promotional initiatives highlighting themes tied to voting. Historically, these have been mostly focused on merchandise featuring vote-related graphics, primarily as a way to offer some fresh and timely designs. This year, however, marketers (many with ties to the […]
Merchandise To Support Mental Health
The consumer products community’s embrace of mental health as a theme for licensed products and promotions, which we last covered in February, continues through the pandemic. This is not surprising given COVID-fueled stresses such as working and learning at home, experiencing financial suffering, and dealing with a lack of in-person connection, along with the feeling […]
Taking the Tiger by the Tail
Early in the pandemic, the Netflix documentary series The Tiger King became an immediate viral hit, spurring demand for plush, t-shirts, and other products with tiger themes—all unrelated to the show itself—on both traditional e-commerce and print-on-demand sites. The phenomenon led some in the licensing and consumer products business to predict that tigers would become […]
Hail to the Chefs
Cooking as a theme for animation is nothing new, but the phenomenon seems to be on the rise this year. New animated productions are increasingly featuring fictional chefs; established animated chefs are being taken in new directions; and classic animated characters of all kinds are being turned into guides to cooking and baking in spin-off […]