Jozi, meet The Good Luck Club, brought to you by Wolves. No, not actual furry Wolves, the lovely Angie and Shane of Wolves. It’s next door, 3 Corlett Drive, Illovo, and serves up a range of Asian inspired dishes including spring rolls, dim sum and a range of gorgeous curries. I had the Spiced Coconut Prawn with jasmine rice, delicious! Angie’s home-made chocolate panna cotta isn’t cuck either.

Here to check out their menu and to make a reservation.

Meow.

brandslut xoxo

Vodacom is now red. Unless you’ve been living  under a rock for the past week you should know that – it’s difficult to miss. It was only a matter of time before  the rest jumped on the brand-wagon. Here are two retaliations doing the rounds on the interwebs…

I see what they did there.

What do you think?

brandslut xoxo

I can always count on The Luxury Meerkat to sniff out all things smutty and Canadian.  Enter I Love My Muff. I Love My Muff is a range of premium feminine care products that allows women to step up their muff maintenance. Developed by a woman, for women, the range promises to be mild, biodegradable, non-toxic, cleansing, moisturising and luxurious.

The message is bold and confident and the brand isn’t afraid to tell it how it is, and I like that. But I can’t help but wonder, is this really necessary? What happened to good ol’ fashioned Dove soap? Or Aqueous Cream? After all, the muff is a self-cleaning animal, really. It can’t be good to strip our bodies of natural oils and perfumes, masking them with temporary softness and vanilla, grapefruit and ylang ylang. Maybe I’m a dinosaur, but this sounds like thrush in a bottle to me.

Meow.

brandslut xoxo

I’m a fan of all things good and green, that’s why I love what Liwa Advertising did when they moved offices recently.

“The agency came up with a unique way to use its existing stationery and make a statement at the same time. A ‘recycle’ seal was created with the new telephone and fax numbers plus a subtle environmental message.” Via.

Clever Liwa.

brandslut xoxo

The Siren Takes Centre Stage

I have a very special place in my heart for this brand. In a former life in London, Starbucks saved me, and I don’t mean in a ‘morning coffee’ kinda way. Two days into London I knocked on the door of a minuscule recruitment agency in Putney and left an hour later with a temporary job at Sbux, as she’s affectionately known amongst those within circle of trust. Job: tick.

I’d read Pour Your Heart Into It by CEO Howard Schultz as a student and was intrigued by the inner workings of the coffee beast. I wanted to know if Howie practiced what he preached and if he really did put his partners (that’s Starbucks for staff) before the customer. My months at Starbucks HQ rank amongst the best of my career, not because I got paid a ridiculous amount or sipped on Frappuccinos all day, but because partners really are treated like family and coffee truly runs through the veins of the organisation. Twice daily the entire company would gather into teams for espresso tastings, paired with delicious and sometimes exotic foods. Ironically the only blend I could ever identify blind was the Kenyan roast. I blamed my inability to identify anything else on my roots.

I was surprised to hear last week that the logo and its iconic siren would be undergoing some major nip/tuck,  commemorating 40 years as the leading purveyor of coffee. Here’s what Schultz had to say about dropping the words ‘Starbucks’ and ‘Coffee’ and the evolution of the Starbucks logo, courtesy of www.starbucks.com:

Schultz adds, “As we look forward to Starbucks next chapter, we see a world in which we are a vital part of over 16,000 neighborhoods around the world, in more than 50 countries, forming connections with millions of customers every day in our stores, in grocery aisles, at home and at work. Starbucks will continue to offer the highest-quality coffee, but we will offer other products as well – and while the integrity, quality and consistency of these products must remain true to who we are, our new brand identity will give us the freedom and flexibility to explore innovations and new channels of distribution that will keep us in step with our current customers and build strong connections with new customers.”

Senior Creative Manager at Starbucks, Mike P. had this to say, “From the start, we wanted to recognize and honor the important equities of the iconic Starbucks logo. So we broke down the four main parts of the mark – color, shape, typeface and the Siren. After hundreds of explorations, we found the answer in simplicity. Removing the words from the mark, bringing in the green, and taking the Siren out of her ring. For forty years she’s represented coffee, and now she is the star.

The details came next. The 20-year old logo was built in the early days of AutoTrace and it showed – points everywhere. We improved composition, brought in more sophisticated stroke width and spacing and a smoother line flow. When it came to her – the Siren – we enhanced her form in subtle ways, smoothing her hair, refining her facial features, weighting the scales on her tail to bring the focus to her face. We enlisted the branding firm of Lippincott to help with these refinements, and give us a better global perspective on the entire identity system.”

My initial knee-jerk reaction was a negative one, but the more I see and the more I digest, the more the new siren and logo-sans-words appeals. I’m actually surprised that Starbucks has only had 4 iterations of its logo in the 40 years it’s been operating. As long as Starbucks maintains its core values, I can handle a little nip/tuck every 10 years.

What do you think? Leave a comment and let me know, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

brandslut xoxo