Having A Laugh

Brand and Humor

Yesterday I posted a photo of Andy Spade, one of my creative heroes. Glenn O’Brien called him “one of the great underknown geniuses of Western civilization.”

He is still operating his creative firm, Partners & Spade, but since the death of his wife Kate Spade, he decamped to LA and his work is much less visible.

Andy was responsible for the cheeky messaging of some of your favorite early aughts brands like Jack Spade, Warby Parker, J. Crew (in their Mickey Drexler boom times Liquor Store era), Sleepy Jones, and Harry’s among them. He made films with the Safdie brothers, published art books as well as books of iPhone photos, and operated a retail store in the front of his agency.

He is creative in the truest sense, and someone whose left-of-center thinking about brand, creativity, and communication has been massively influential to me. (Not to mention his rumpled prep look, about which much has been written.)

After the post, I went down an Andy Spade-sized rabbit hole and started thinking about brands with a sense of humor - people making serious work without taking themselves too seriously:

I loved the early days of Band of Outsiders, when Scott Sternberg would photograph new collections on his famous friends using a Polaroid.

Like Andy, Scott was a brand savant, even if his projects didn’t survive, his ideas have. I loved his lo-fi way of doing things - like his announcement for the project that followed Band of Outsiders, Entireworld.

BODE has a sense of humor. I love a luxury brand that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Beyond the clothes, I appreciate that they take the piss out of fashion from time to time. Their Beer is Food t-shirt is a great example.

That t-shirt reminds me of a great sweater I once saw from another luxury brand that appreciated levity, cashmere pros Elder Statesman:

Jonathan Anderson, who had a lot of fun at Loewe and seems to be taking his humor (and skills) to Dior, a name not necessarily associated with a bucket of laughs. This one put a smile on my face:

Simon Porte Jacquemus also seems to have a lot of fun with his work:

These reminded me of the recent campaign masterminded by Wes Anderson for Montblanc. Good stuff: