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Yellowjackets is back with more chaos, more wildernessand a main title that is grungier than ever.Ever since the first season premiered in 2021, the shows opening credits have been one of the most frenetic on television. Blink and youll miss something. Set against the grungy song No Return by Craig Wedren and Anna Waronker, the title is meant to feel like an assault on the senses. It is 90 seconds long, and the longest frame lasts about a second.This makes for a tense intro, in which our brains are bombarded with flickering images faster than we can process them. And thats precisely the point. We want this to be glitched so much that if someone takes a still, they cant really figure it out, says Mason Nicoll, executive creative director of creative studio Digital Kitchen.Digital Kitchen, which has designed main titles for True Blood, Narcos, and Dexter, first dreamed up the concept for the Yellowjackets main title in 2021, when season one premiered. The show is set in the 90s, and the team drew inspiration from 90s skater videos, and drew from the jittery, low-fi aesthetic of the 1999 film The Blair Witch Project. The result was borderline chaotic, but the distressed look provided an additional benefit: it helped disguise key shots by distorting them beyond recognition.[Image: courtesy Digital Kitchen]The team has replicated this approach ever since. But with each season, they swap old frames for new ones that hint at whats to come. Season one teased the shows mysterious symbol, season two introduced eerie snowy landscapes and blood-soaked imagery. Season three now features dark caves, an upside-down image of a bleeding Jesus, and a lot of screaming faces. Its also glitchier than ever. We went to town, says Nicoll, noting that the first cut was about 30% more hectic than the final version.Does this hint at even more madness to come? It seems like it, he says. It does feel like every season just escalates and gets crazier.Season 3 title sequence: No context, just vibes The truth is, Nicoll doesnt know what will happen this season. Not exactly. Sometimes, main title designers get a full synopsis to help them sprinkle in clues. Other times, they only see the pilot and work with the showrunners to create the right tone. With Yellowjackets, Nicoll says he knew the most in season oneand the least in season three. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Digital Kitchen (@digitalkitchen)This year, the showrunners sent the team a whopping 70 shots to work with, but Nicoll explains the shots were all out of context, so his team had to piece the story together and interpret it themselves. It goes without saying they have more insight than the average viewer, but when the shots arrive at random, some mystery remains inevitable.[Image: courtesy Digital Kitchen]Sometimes, the team gave away too much without even realizing it. Thats what happened when the team initially included a new shot of the Antler Queen from season three in the title sequence. If you remember, the identity of the Antler Queen was shrouded in mystery for the first two seasons. At first, we thought it was Lottie. Thenspoilers aheadwe learned it was actually Natalie.So, when Digital Kitchen added this new shot of the Antler Queen, the showrunners reaction, as Nicoll remembers it, was something along the lines of: hell no! The team quickly reworked the shot, glitching it so much that viewers could no longer tell who was under the antlers. The obscured frame now appears around the one-minute markand we are left to wonder: has the wilderness chosen a new Antler Queen?A Blair Witch Project fever dreamAbout half of the shots in the main title come from the show, but the intro wouldnt be the disquieting fever dream it is today without the other half. From the very beginning, Digital Kitchen leaned into The Blair Witch Projects found footage aesthetic, making it seem like the images were filmed by the high school girls themselves.[Image: courtesy Digital Kitchen]To make this footage appear authentic, the team hired lookalike actors in L.A. and shot additional scenes with an old DV camcorder from the 90s. In one scene, art director Rachel Brickel filmed the actors running into a parking lot while she was crouched inside a shopping cart that Nicoll was pushing. I remember thinking I see a speed bump in front of us, and Im like oh man this is going to hurt,' she recalls with a laugh. It did hurt, but she got the shot.[Image: courtesy Digital Kitchen]To achieve the look of a worn-out VHS tape with a corrupted signal, Brickels team played the footage through a really old tube TV from the 90s and ran it through special equipment to further remix and distort the picture. Then, they took that altered footage and glitched it even more on the computer. We wanted to show the beauty of glitches, she says.[Image: courtesy Digital Kitchen]The resulting aesthetic of the Yellowjackets season 3 title sequence may not be ideal for someone prone to migraines. I, for one, cant watch it more than twice in a row without needing to rest my eyes. But for the average viewer who isnt poring over every single frame, the intro isnt meant to be fully absorbed in one sitting. Its designed to reveal itself as the season unfoldsand to keep you away from that dreaded skip button.
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E-Commerce
Branded is a weekly column devoted to the intersection of marketing, business, design, and culture. Not so long ago, Jeff Bezos seemed on the cusp of a triumphant second act. Handing off the CEO reins to his Amazon empire, he shifted attention to his rocket company, Blue Origin, with a mission to help humanity colonize the solar system; a couple of years ago, he even personally rode one its rockets into space. Meanwhile, he was treated as a hero for buying an ailing Washington Post, and under his ownership, the reenergized paper greeted the first Trump presidency with a dire but defiant new slogan: Democracy Dies in Darkness. Even in the rarified realm of tech centibillionaires, Bezos seemed pretty alpha. These days . . . not so much. In the past couple of weeks alone, Blue Origin announced it would lay off 10% of its workforce, and the Post attracted attention for declining to publish an ad critical of the second Trump presidency and the murky role of fellow (or rival) mega-billionaire Elon Musk. Whether Bezos had any direct role in the latter decision (the Post isnt talking), it adds to a series of incidents that suggest an effort to stay on the administrations good side. In other words, Bezoss personal brand seems to have faded from hard-charging, fearless visionary to just another rich guy trying to stay relevant. To be sure, Jeff Bezos isnt exactly in danger of losing his mega yacht. Amazon is still thrivingits share price hit a record high earlier this month, and its revenue just surpassed Walmart’salbeit under its new CEO. But consider the contrast to Musk, whose portfolio also includes a rocket company (SpaceX) and a media platform (the former Twitter). Even before the new Trump administration took office with Musk practically riding shotgun, SpaceX had established itself as a fixture in Americas space program, and notched achievements like a space walk and the furthest-out orbital flight in 50 years. The Bezos brand, meanwhile, has bogged down. Blue Orbit’s layoffs of an estimated 1,000 employeesthe company pointed to a workforce that had become bloated during a period of fast growthfollowed a successful launch of its 320-foot New Glenn reusable rocket. But that launch was about five years later than originally planned, and the company is widely seen as lagging behind SpaceX (even though it is actually a couple of years older). It will surely remain in the hunt for NASA and Department of Defense contracts, but not in the lead. Were obviously huge fans, Blue Origins CEO has said of the new Trump regimes seemingly space-friendly agenda. Lots of tech leaders seem to be jockeying to be perceived as, if not already huge fans, then at least optimistic and noncritical players in whatever the Trump agenda turns out to be. But few have attracted more critical blowback for this apparent attitude shift than Jeff Bezos. Again, Musk is the most glaring contrast, having become a de facto-power player within the administration, a role he both amplifies and leverages with his X social media network. Bezos was just one tech titanalongside Metas Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, among othersattending Trumps inauguration, donating to his inaugural fund, and joining the crowd of chief executives seeking to curry favor with, or at least escape the spite of, the president. But while many have been accused of shamelessly displaying fealty, Bezos has taken the most lumps. This traces back to his ownership of the Post and the surprising decision that the paper would not make a presidential endorsement, just as it was poised to endorse Kamala Harrisand shortly before Blue Origins CEO was to have a meeting with Trump. Bezos denied any quid pro quo, but critics saw the incident as kowtowing. Subsequent episodesa cartoonist quitting the Post when one of her anti-Trump pieces was rejected, and now the papers decision to turn away ads from the nonpartisan advocacy group Common Cause’s calling for Musks ouster from his ill-defined government rolehave only added to a sense of caution and vulnerability that feels like the opposite of vintage Bezos. As the Post itself has reported, it’s not just Blue Origin that will need smooth government relations. Amazon (where Bezos remains executive chairman) has major federal contracts for its cloud division, with billions more in Pentagon contracts up for grabs in the years ahead. And in the past, Trump hasnt been shy about blaming Jeff Bozo for Post coverage he didnt like, and other perceived slights. The main criticism of Peak Bezos was that he could be severely demanding and hypercompetitive. Given the presidents penchant for retribution, maybe the most competitive move Bezos still has is not antagonizing him. And for the moment, at least, that seems to be working. Trump certainly hasnt had anything negative to say about Jeff Bezos lately. Maybe with this version of Bezos, he neednt bother.
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E-Commerce
After years of working in PR and branding for luxury beauty, Jaimee Lupton decided to break away and disrupt the space by making beauty products that are accessible. With her business partner and real-life partner Nick Mowbray, she launched Monday haircare in 2020. Lupton saw a gap in the market for a brand that was targeted toward a younger demographic. There were few haircare brands that addressed the needs of younger customers, and even fewer who knew how to speak to those customers through their branding, messaging, and packaging. Lupton knew the power of a personalized message, and she created Monday with that in mind. The haircare company has received its fair share of accolades since it launched. Beauty outlet Glossy named Monday Haircare Brand of the Year for 2024, and the company has 21 other major beauty awards to its name, including from Allure, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, and InStyle. Its currently the number-one haircare brand globally on TikTok, according to statistics from the platform measured by the most liked and most followed haircare brands. The brand is on track to reach half-a-billion dollars of retail salesno easy feat for five years of business. The success of Monday then set her up to self-fund other brands. It also put her on the radar of retailers, which began to ask Lupton to work with them to create new bespoke brands. She has since done so with retail partners including Target, Walmart, and Ulta. In the span of five years, Lupton founded five other beauty brands, with more currently in development, maker her a kind of big box Gen Z beauty whisperer in the process. [Photo: Monday] Lupton’s bespoke portfolio of accessible brands Luptons most recent brand launch is Daise, a range of playful, mood-matching fragrance and bodycare, which launched February 1 at Target. Its a clear play for younger, emerging markets, Lupton says, referring to the specific spending potential of Gen Z. They’re in control of $450 billion of spending power, and that’s set to increase by 48% before 2030, so they’re a huge demographic that we need to be able to target, says Lupton, referring to a 2021 World Economic Forum statistic cited by Snapchat and November 2022 Gen Z report by Afterpay. She also notes, referring to a report by consumer insights platform aytm, that Gen-Alpha is now the fastest emerging group of beauty consumer. Daise is a way to tap into that purchasing power early, too. [Photo: Daise] It seems to be working. The brand had $1 million in retail sales in just one week, according to Daise sale statistics, and is forecasting over $50 million in retail sales in the first year. The company hit $400,000 of sales in the first four days of launch in Ulta. On February 1, Daise launched at Target. Lupton says that the number of sales are looking more impressive every day as the brand builds. Lupton described Daises creation as a way to build a fun self-care brand where beauty could meet play, and isnt taken too seriously. This manifests in the fragrances many form factors, like spritz, mists, and foams, all with youthful appeal. The visual brand is all very Gen Z-oriented, utilizing many of the visual tools of brands targeting similar demographics. It includes bright, sunny colors, like yellow and light purple, with a sans serif all caps type, and bold gradients with combinations such as pink and orange or blue and green that seem to speak to a younger generation. Its form factors also stand out on the shelf. The body foam, which comes in a uniquely styled body whip, is one example. Daise is one of the first brands to do this at Target and Ulta, creating a product range that is unique to consumers, especially for younger consumers. (Suncare brand Vacation is perhaps most known for popularizing this novel form factor, with its whipped sunscreen that comes in a spray can.) The body mist, bath bombs, and lip balm come in the shape of a flower, with designs including sprinkles or daisies. [Photo: Being] Prior to Daise, Lupton launched Being Haircare in July of 2024 with Walmart, after the mega-retailer asked Lupton to create a haircare brand that was in one aisle and on one shelf, and that could target everyone across demographics and for every hair type. The brand has vivid, color-on-color packaging that carries through to its website, type, photography, and styling. Being was the number-one brand for the retailer in the haircare space in the first three months of its launch. Similarly to Daise, Lupton harnessed Instagram and TikTok marketing as they launched in store aisle endcaps. It’s all around being you, says Lupton. And it’s not a segregation of brands. Were a unisex brand, and the products are shopping arranged for each hair type, noting it will expand into masks and treatments. [Photo: Being] Lupton has a few other brands in her portfolio. Theres Châlon, which according to its website, she made with a leading Parisian perfumer to create scents that convey elegance and tradition but fit into modern life. Then theres Osna Naturals, which is described on its website as a skin- and haircare range crafted with care to nourish both body and mind. Both ranges are free from sulfates, phthalates, and parabens, and are certified cruelty-free, dermatologically tested, and suitable for all skin types. While the brands may target different sectors, the mission across her portfolio of brands stays the same: providing accessible beauty for everyone. Digital-first with a major retail footprint Luptons North Star is to be a modern day LOreal: creating accessible brands that modern consumers want. To do so, Lupton has taken a two-prong approach: the brands have an in-house digital team, but they are also partnering with big retailers. With this strategy, she taps into a beauty business model that has proven success: launching a digital-first brand with a brick-and-mortar retail footprint. I would say we’re 90% digital in terms of our marketing spend, and we create really unique ways in which we speak to [consumers] on digital platforms, Lupton says, citing the brands creator studios, influencers its consumers naturally migrate toward, and UGC content which together creates a multiplatform digital brand destination. Though Lupton markets her brands as a direct-to-consumer, the digital-first marketing approach is complimented by physical presence in stores like Target, which she views as tween destinations. She explained that the goal is to make the products accessible in terms of price point and purchasabilitybeing able to go to a store and grab a product off the shelf. Retail partners are a big part of how far they have been able to go. Lupton plans on continuing to grow her brands and expand her portfolio into a bigger range, including treatments and styling. There is a lot in the pipeline for Lupton. She has about 22 brands in development, and intends to roll out all of them in the next three years.
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E-Commerce
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has updated its website, and in theory, it’s a model of government transparency. The site lists savings the department claims to have made from cuts, along with bar charts and tables that purport to show the department’s work and the size and scope of the federal government. But there’s a big problem: You can’t trust the numbers. The website’s homepage is a feed of DOGE’s X posts, and there are pages that claim to show savings, list government spending, and number the size of the executive branch workforce, its total wages, and federal regulations. When the site was updated this week with new data, DOGE initially showed what it claimed was more than $16 billion saved from spending cuts. But the biggest line item in the department’s so-called wall of receipts incorrectly stated an $8 million contract canceled for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was for $8 billion. That error alone cuts the savings DOGE claims to have achieved roughly in half. Screenshots of various infographics on the doge.gov site, taken February 20, 2025 [Images: Doge.gov] Elon Musk, who President Donald Trump tapped to lead DOGE’s efforts, attempted to inoculate himself from errors while speaking last week in the Oval Office, acknowledging, “We will make mistakes, but we’ll act quickly to correct any mistakes.” Still, the site doesn’t make it easy to fact-check DOGE’s work. Though its “wall of receipts” co-opts the design of a spreadsheet and includes links to Federal Procurement Data System receipts, it isn’t sortable by column, and it front-loads cuts that are red meat to Trump’s base, like media subscriptions for Politico Pro and Bloomberg Terminal that government officials used to stay informed about their jobs. An NPR review of the more than 1,100 contracts DOGE initially listed found just $2 billion in savings from contracts that it could confirm were canceled, a number that grew to $6.5 billion in savings when accounting for contracts that hadn’t yet been canceled as of Wednesday but that DOGE included in its total nonetheless. NPR and current and former federal contracting officers it spoke to found other examples where DOGE data may be inaccurate, like line items that claim to be for a contract’s maximum-though-not-necessarily-actual value or that don’t take into account contracts that have been partially spent already. In the grand multitrillion scheme of government spending, $2 billion is actually quite minuscule. In fact, SpaceX, just one of Musks businesses, has contracts with the Defense Department worth roughly $22 billion. The DOGE website’s data visualization includes bar charts with a hover effect, so bars change colors when users move their mouse over data like federal employee salary or years of tenure, and tables for spending list columns like “agency,” “description,” and “value.” Visually, the effect is one of authority and accuracy. Beyond the flash, however, is a site that claims to show citizens what DOGE is doing but does more to obscure the facts and overwhelm with details than it does to inform. It’s a shrewd political play that creates the perception of methodology and empirical fact, but is really just data visualization as propaganda.
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E-Commerce
The day after the Super Bowl, ZapperBox quietly raised the price on Amazon of its over-the-air DVR. ZapperBox offers one of the best means of recording local channels from an antenna, and had been charging $275 for its flagship model. While the price hasn’t changed on ZapperBox’s website, it now costs $300 on Amazon. Gopal Miglani, ZapperBox’s founder and president, says he’s compensating for President Donald Trump’s 10% tariff on goods from China, which took effect on February 10. “We already moved manufacturing to Taiwan for the next lot and it costs much more there,” Miglani tells Fast Company via email. “Even if the 10% tariff is rescinded, we cannot go back to China. All these changes [are] very expensive.” For big tech companies like Apple and Amazon, the current tariffs may not move the needle much. Experts say those companies have lots of levers they can pull to avoid raising prices, at least if the tariffs don’t increase from here. The larger impact will be on smaller companies like ZapperBox, which will have to make tougher decisions about which costs to absorb and which ones to pass on. Its too risky Matt Ronge, the cofounder and CEO of AstroPad, is also contemplating price hikes. AstroPad makes a range of gadgets for creative workers, including a wireless dongle that turns spare iPads or Macs into secondary computer displays and a combination Apple Pencil tip and iPad screen cover that feel more like writing on paper. While AstroPad is also looking into moving some manufacturing to other countries such as Vietnam, it consistently sees higher quality and lower prices from China, where all of its products are currently manufactured. The factories and supply chains for U.S. production aren’t yet mature enough, Ronge says. “We are really trying not to raise prices if we can help it,” Ronge says via email. “First we are looking for changes we can make that wont affect product quality, like changing packaging. Only if we cant make that work will we look at raising prices.” The bigger impact, Ronge says, will be on AstroPad’s future product plans. He’s operating on the assumption that tariff wars will only continue to escalate, which means the company must be choosier about what it brings to market. Ronge believes other small device makers will face similar dilemmas. “Sadly some more experimental and innovative consumer electronics products wont make it to market in this environment. Its too risky,” he says. Levers to pull For larger tech companies, the outlook is murkier. While price hikes are possible, device makers may have an easier time shifting production outside of China or absorbing the costs instead of passing them on, especially if most of their money is made after the sale. Executives from Roku, for instance, said on an earnings call this week that tariffs wouldn’t have any material impact on its business. Last year, only 14% of its revenues came from device sales, with the rest coming from “platform” activities, such as ads and subscriptions. “From a device perspective any impact on our gross margin related to tariffs, we believe, would be immaterial, and we don’t expect any impact on the platform revenue side of the business,” Roku CFO Dan Jedda said. Ted Malone, a former senior product manager on Amazon’s Fire TV business and former vice president of TiVo’s consumer business, says larger companies may have other levers to pull as well. Amazon, for instance, could put more promotional emphasis on higher-end 4K streaming players instead of HD models with slimmer profit margins. “They can shift demand simply by shifting their promotions for what goes on sale for Prime Day, or whatever,” he says. Device makers may also have stocked up inventory in anticipation of new tariffs under the Trump administration, which may explain why prices haven’t immediately increased. Cori Masters, a senior research analyst at Gartner, refers to this as “inventory buffering,” and says it’s one strategy companies can use to at least delay price hikes. “Based on inventory buffering, they could choose to wait to pass through pricing until they’ve completed that inventory,” Masters says. In the meantime, device makers have already been finding ways to move more production out of China in response to previous tariffs. Trump had imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum (among other things) from outside the U.S. in 2018, and the Biden administration increased them for China last year. A Gartner survey last year found that 80% of companies had executed a “China-Plus-One” strategy that emphasizes more diverse supply chains. “They’re already making movements to diversify into a more regionalized or near-shoring type of strategy,” Masters says. Malone notes that such diversification won’t be easy for everyone. “For smaller manufacturers who don’t have that luxury to have six lines in Shenzhen, and three lines in Mexico, and four lines in Cork, Ireland, for people that don’t have the ability to distribute manufacturing like that, I think it’s a much bigger challenge.” Even device makers that primarily look beyond China may have trouble avoiding tariffs entirely. Nirav Patel, the founder and CEO of sustainable laptop maker Framework, says via email that while its laptops and mainboards are made in Taiwan, it relies on mainland China to produce the modules that users can install to expand functionality. “[W]e are taking this into account for future module pricing for U.S. customers in the Framework Marketplace as we also continue to diversify our supply base,” he says. More dire scenarios Even with work-arounds, some amount of price hiking seems inevitable, even for larger companies. CTA, a tech industry trade group, points out that 80% of smartphones come from China, and the average retail price is $1,000 for U.S. consumers. Even if consumers don’t pay extra up front, the group suggests that consumers may eventually absorb the costs through higher service fees from wireless carriers, who subsidize phones in exchange for long-term commitments. CTA has pointed to gloomier outcomes as well, on the assumption that 10% tariffs are just the start. Using hypothetical 60% to 100% tariffs on goods from China and 10% to 20% tariffs on goods from elsewhere, a CTA study estimates price hikes of 26% to 37% for phones, 46% to 68% for laptops and tablets, and 40% to 58% for game consoles. Part of what makes the actual impact of tariffswhen they̱ll result in higher prices, and by how muchis that no one knows what those tariffs will actually be a few weeks or a few months from now. “Trump had threatened up to 60% tariffs on China,” ZapperBox’s Gopal Miglani says. “And this kind of whiplash is untenable.”
Category:
E-Commerce
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