What's on our minds – and in the press.

 

McKinsey's "State of Marketing Europe 2026" report is clear: Branding is the No. 1 priority for CMOs, ahead of ROI, budget management, and even GenAI. In a volatile market, strong brands provide stability, trust, and cultural relevance. Right now is the best time to build new icons and raise brand values to the next level.

The latest issue of PAGE has landed, and it’s full of ideas shaping tomorrow’s design landscape. We’re excited to be part of this conversation – from brand strategy in times of change to typography in the age of AI.

“No noise, just meaning” – or “Joy as resistance”? In the new trend paper “Beyond Aesthetic: How to win in 2026,” brand and design agency Peter Schmidt Group examines how companies can successfully deal with conflicting packaging trends in 2026.

For the first time in 13 years, Domino’s Pizza has refreshed its look. In his design column for W&V, ECD Norbert Möller says the brand gets many things right. It is not trying to reinvent itself but focuses on what it already does well. The result does not look tasty – but bold and more lifestyle-driven. Read more at W&V Online (Membership required)

Highest recognition for the activation campaign The Revived: The project by Peter Schmidt Group and TEAMBBDO receives a Grand Prix at the Red Dot Award: Communication Design. The jury honours a piece that set new benchmarks in emotional storytelling using AI technology.

Last year at OMR we teamed up with E.ON and showed how fast a relaunch can come to life. Now we go further. Join our digital masterclass "Den Playmaker leben – E.ONs Design Rolout hautnah" on 18 November at 10:30 a.m.! Together with E.ON, hosted by our partner Frontify. Registration is open!

There are brands firmly anchored in a society’s cultural consciousness. They are simply part of us and our lives. But beware: that does not mean they can remain forever as they have always been. In “Markenartikel”, Lukas shows how to strengthen iconic brands for the future. Read the full article online.

How do you build a brand from scratch that sets the benchmark in its sector from day one? Kristin Janoschka and Eva Appold from AUMOVIO share insights. 2:30 p.m., Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Business Stage. More information and tickets here.

The brand and design agency Peter Schmidt Group has appointed Cristina Balbo as Director Consulting for its Milan office. The internationally experienced brand consultant will lead the team and drive business development. 

Design Week publishes a tribute to Peter Schmidt, written by Lukas Cottrell. It honours the work and character of one of Europe’s most influential designers and pioneer of holistic branding.

Who are the minds driving our industry forward and sparking fresh ideas? For the first time, PAGE is publishing the Top 50 of the creative industry. Among them: our CEO Lukas Cottrell.

For the fourth time, we are hosting our “Future Playgrounds” design festival. The roster of speakers has become more international, but the venue stays the same. On 18-19 September we will welcome top creatives like Friederike Hantel and Espadaysantacruz at Design Zentrum Hamburg. This year's theme: “Creative Mess”

The Peter Schmidt Group has won nine times at the Red Dot Award Communication Design 2025 – a record result for the agency. Alongside eight awards – including for the corporate designs of E.ON, Weleda, and Bechtle – the campaign “The Revived” received special recognition: The jury honored it with the coveted “Best of the Best” label.

Peter Schmidt, founder and namesake of Peter Schmidt Group, died in Hamburg on 24 July at the age of 87.

How custom fonts strengthen brands – plus a selection of typefaces we’ve developed for clients in recent years. Read more in the "Insights" section and get your copy of our PDF.

E.ON is Germany’s “Corporate Brand of the Year.” The German Brand Award presented its highest honor in this category to the Essen-based energy company and the brand relaunch realized together with Peter Schmidt Group, TEAMBBDO and Vivaldi.

In times of rapid change, structured processes and safe solutions lose their edge. What matters more is playful exploration: testing, failing, discovering the unexpected. Our ECD Sven Rieckmann will talk about this on August 28 at 7:30 PM at the Forward Festival Berlin. His topic: "The Superpower of Play."

A new product line from Delta Cafés, Portugal’s heritage coffee brand: 100% natural cereals, rich flavors, and a bold design. Read more at packagingoftheworld.com

The branding and design agency Peter Schmidt Group is opening a new office in Milan. Italian clients will benefit from an experienced local team with a strong creative mindset—while the agency looks forward to the inspirational power of the city's vibrant design scene.

From May 8 to 10, the DIVE'25 conference by the Deutscher Designtag will take place in Munich. Our Managing Partner Lukas Cotrell will speak on May 9. His topic: "From asset overkill to business driver: How AI not only increases efficiency but helps to expand business models." Here you can find the full line-up and the ticket shop.

From a license plate to a spirited drive along winding roads: Norbert is all in on the new look of mobile.de! But the real challenge is still ahead with the relaunch of the website and app. Why both become a true proof point? Read more in his latest design column for W&V. (Membership required)

Our work for Delta Cafés scored big at the Best!N Food Awards: We took home Gold in the category and also the Grand Prix ("Gran Premio") for the best packaging design of the whole competition! Read more (in Spanish) at IP MARK.

Designers' darling flopped on the shelf – so after just four years, Bahlsen is drawing the consequences and redesigning the packagings of its products. For W&V magazine, our ECD Sven Rieckmann took a closer look. His opinion: Maybe the relaunch will help Bahlsen win back the older target group – but in the long run, the move is risky.

What is known in the West as the “Yin and Yang” symbol is proudly displayed on Korean Air’s aircraft. With the brand relaunch, the symbol is now much more abstract. But does that really make the airline stronger? For W&V magazine, Norbert Möller took a closer look. Read the full article with your W&V Membership!

Deutsche Telekom has chosen the Peter Schmidt Group as its new partner for branding and design. The renowned brand and design agency came out on top in a competitive, multi-stage pitch process.

Bringing beauty and health into harmony with people and nature has always been at the heart of Weleda. The same consistency is reflected in the brand's logo, which has existed for over 100 years. We are proud to have been entrusted with revising it so that the brand’s values will continue to be tangible in the future.

This Wednesday and Thursday, experts in marketing and branding will meet at the W&V Summit in Munich. Join us for the keynote of Lukas Cottrell: "Mastering Multipolarity: When the Mainstream Loses Its Pull" (March 19th, 5:30 PM).

We are thrilled about receiving an iF DESIGN AWARD for The Revived, a project we realized with our partners at TEAMBBDO: The Revived gives a voice to the Ukrainian athletes who fell in the war. Also awarded: The corporate design relaunch for Mehler Systems.

Natalie Neumann and Jannika Sommer will be giving students from the Designschule München an exclusive look into the work and projects of our agency. Curious minds are more than welcome to join! See you at the get-together, starting at 3:15 p.m., February 27, V-Raum Roßmarkt.

Colors, faces, logos, statements – the campaigns of the parties for the Bundestag election can be reduced to just a few building blocks. But what about the fonts used on the posters? Do the associations they evoke match the messages they are meant to convey? For PAGE magazine, type designer Sven Fuchs took a closer look at the current campaigns.

The D&AD has announced the lineup of its juries for this year’s competition: For the Product Design category, the organization has appointed Laura Ullmann, Design Director at the branding and design agency Peter Schmidt Group.

On the shelf of supermarkets, everyone copies everyone else all the time. Even successful brands must therefore keep evolving if they want to stand out. The Peter Schmidt Group presents trends and best practices for food & beverage brands in their PDF “Brands on shelf: how to win in 2025.”

In keeping with its holistic approach, brand and design agency Peter Schmidt Group is bringing its teams even closer together, thereby enhancing integrated work. The creative development of projects will have a dedicated forum in the newly created Creative Board.

“The tools have changed – but our quest for curiosity and perfection has always remained the same.” Sven Rieckmann in the interview with Paul and Jan from “The Brand Review”, about fifty years of Peter Schmidt Group, melting heritage and innovation in our brand design and his path into the creative industry. Watch the video on YouTube.

The rebranding of Jaguar is facing criticism. Norbert Möller believes: Instead of jumping to conclusions, we should appreciate the brand's courage for a consistent fresh start – even if it requires a second look. Read the full article with your W&V Membership!

Typography is a key part of many corporate design projects at Peter Schmidt Group. Three of their custom fonts are now featured at Slanted Yearbook of Type #7: the typeface for E.ON, Knauf, and the new agency font. You can order the hardcover book with the most inspiring fonts of our time from now on.

EU AI Act, anti-deepfake laws, copyright law, GDPR, personal rights, UWG - designers and companies still lack the right overview of which laws and regulations can be violated if they use the output of generative AI. To provide them with guidance, Peter Schmidt Group and lawyer Britta Klingberg are offering their second PAGE webinar: “AI in Branding and Law” on 4 December 2024 from 1:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

What does the future of brand work look like? Creating masses of new images with AI image generators? “Nope,” says Felix May, head of our innovation unit PSG Imagine. “The AI image generator is just a kiddie playground around the corner. Brands with courage and curiosity about new technologies can build up immersive experience empires.” Check out the latest trends in his article.

The payment service Paypal has a new brand identity. At W&V Online Norbert Möller shares his opinion: "On the surface, the new look might seem nice, but at second glance, it comes across as replaceable." Read the full article with your W&V Membership!

How do you make a font family that's distinctive but suitable for everyday use, contemporary but not faddish? Ulrich Aldinger, creative director at Peter Schmidt Group, will discuss this topic with Bechtle and Monotype at the Brand Talks in Cologne at 4:15 p.m. on 7 November.

Why is now the time for brands to demonstrate proximity to customers through design – and what role can print media play? Executive creative director Sven Rieckmann will speak on the subject at the Professional Printing Innovation Days hosted by Konica Minolta on 29, and 30 October in Langenhagen.

The iconic Steiff brand has been putting a sparkle in the eyes of children all over the world for 120 years – and its new brand identity is making waves at the design competitions. Most recently it won silver in the “Wild Card” category of the 2024 The Best Agency awards.

Felix on PayPal's renewed brand identity: “It lacks the big idea, an unmistakable animation behavior, the use of sound. At least you don't see any of that in the case presentation. Instead, we get the whole set of standard mockups.” Read his full statement in the HORIZONT expert check.

Peter Schmidt Group projects won a total of five awards at this year's CDP (Corporate Design Preis), including major wins for the new Mehler Systems brand identity, which won in three different categories.

When it comes to design, which AI tools really have what it takes? And what rights do designers and customers have to the output? These questions will be addressed in the PAGE webinar “AI in branding and law” on 8 October 2024 from 2 pm to 6 pm, featuring Peter Schmidt Group and Britta Klingberg, a lawyer specialized in intellectual property law.

For HORIZONT's expert check series, Lukas took a look at the new brand identity of HUK-Coburg. His opinion: "Everything done right – but what is the strategic idea and where does the brand want to go?"

Bechtle is one of Europe's most successful IT businesses. A new corporate design developed by Peter Schmidt Group visually expresses the company's leading position and its digital expertise.

Company founder Doug Tompkins attracted the most creative minds to work for ESPRIT. He thought big, consistently and thus built a cult brand of the eighties. Now ESPRIT is insolvent and closing all its stores in Germany. In his column for W&V, Norbert Möller looks at design milestones and strategic mistakes. (Membership required)

Last year, Microsoft replaced its standard font Calibri with Aptos. Time for a review: the magazine “Absatzwirtschaft” asked three design agencies about the change – and type designer Sven Fuchs shared his thoughts. You can find them as quotes in the Absatzwirtschaft article – and in full length here.

“The Peter Schmidt Group is back with the third edition of its Design Festival Future Playgrounds, taking place on September 5th and 6th, 2024. After two successful events, this year’s festival promises to be even bigger, with more international speakers, interactive formats, and a larger venue: the Design Zentrum Hamburg.”

Which success factors are crucial for a brand change to succeed in the shortest possible time? E.ON and the Peter Schmidt Group will provide answers at the Design Business Days on September 11 and 12 in Hamburg.

Following two successful Future Playgrounds events, Peter Schmidt Group will hold a third design festival on 5-6 September 2024, with even more international speakers and interactive formats, at a new and larger venue. Tickets for the festival at Design Zentrum Hamburg are available now.

Ukraine provides haunting and emotional moments at the Olympic Games in Paris: It is using artificial intelligence to bring to life a digital Olympic team made up of six deceased Ukrainian athletes. Together with our colleagues from TEAMBBDO, we realize the campaign “The Revived”, which creates awareness and motivates people to donate.

“It conveys self-confidence, as well as the joy of exploration, agility and digitality. The typeface and the elephant, which tends towards illustration with engraving references, ensure that the technological approach does not come across as cold or artificial. Very finely done.”

“I'm in love with Finisterre. The cold-surf brand is absolutely credible at every touchpoint and inspires a lot of trust.” Read Felix' guest article and find out what makes the cold-surf brand a love brand. Online at the german trade magazine Absatzwirtschaft.

With a new strategic orientation and a newly created innovation unit, Peter Schmidt Group uses technological expertise to augment the power of creative ideas. The agency's new brand identity expresses both of these aspects. 

About 24 months from now, the European Green Claims Directive will force many brands to review their communication and prove their claims about sustainability. A new offer from Peter Schmidt Group provides clarity on the new guidelines and how to implement them into brand design.

Natural beauty and heritage are no longer supposed to play a role in Kitzbühel's brand identity. For W&V magazine, Norbert Möller analyzed the new look. His opinion: Without necessity, the town is destroying its strongest assets and becoming an interchangeable event location. Read the full article at W&V Online. (Membership required)

The use of Artificial Intelligence is not just a tool for cutting costs. It opens the door to a new dimension of communication and business growth! Read more in Lukas' guest article in issue 6/2024 of Markenartikel Magazin.

For Mehler Systems, Peter Schmidt Group developed a corporate design that is consistently derived from the performance of the company’s tactical equipment. The result impressed at the ADC awards 2024 and won a bronze nail.

EURO 2024 begins and Germany's football fans feel reunited with their national team. Certainly a result of successful matches over the past months - but the DFB has done a lot of things right following the World Cup in Qatar. What exactly? Read Norbert's article for W&V. (Membership required)

Our office in Lisbon is growing and growing. We are happy to welcome two new colleagues to our design team, Catarina Marques and Daniel Matias. Read more about both of them – in Portuguese – in the article at briefing.pt

When you look at our website, you will immediately notice: The Peter Schmidt Group has a completely new look! We talked with the editorial team of PAGE magazine what exactly has changed – and why. Read more in issue 01/2024. By the way: PAGE too has opted for a completely new editorial design – and we love it! Order your copy now!

For more than sixty years, the Lamborghini bull has been taking designers by the horns. The luxury brand now had the opportunity to iron out its flaws - but missed the chance. In W&V, Norbert explains why Lamborghini's new logo fails the TÜV test.

For HORIZONT's expert check series, Lukas took a look at the new brand identity of Media-Markt Saturn. His opinion: "A strong, target-oriented evolution that improves the positioning of the brand."

How can AI tools be integrated into the packaging design process? For the new "PAGE Impuls" series, Senior Designer Artur Petruc shows how Stable Diffusion can be used creatively and efficiently.

Three top creatives from Peter Schmidt Group will be judging the 2024 ADC competition. Heidrun Angerer and Sven Rieckmann will serve on panels judging design, while Ruediger Goetz will evaluate submissions in the brand-building category.

Which personalities will shape brand work in the future? The experts at the Frontify brand-building platform publish an annual list of “Brand Visionaries.” This year Kristin Janoschka, Executive Director Consulting at Peter Schmidt Group, made the list.

In the current five-year ranking by iF DESIGN Awards, Peter Schmidt Group has defended its position as one of the ten best agencies in the world, having been included in the Top 10 for branding and the Top 25 for Design and Architecture.

The sporting goods manufacturer and retailer Decathlon has 1,750 stores, 85 brands and finally a logo that connects everything. For W&V online, he analyzed the brand relaunch. His opinion: "A bit generic – but very suitable for a discount brand! It serves the codes of sports and leisure and feels natural." Read the article at W&V online (Membership required)

What’s the fastest way to revamp a brand? And what are the decisive factors for ensuring the change is successful? Together with Frontify and E.ON, we will provide the answers at the OMR Festival in Hamburg at 10:45 a.m. on 7 May.

What can designers do to break out of routines and create innovative visuals? “Try shit and die!” proclaims creative director Sven Rieckmann. That's the title he chose for his presentation at the Forward Festival in Hamburg, where he will demonstrate how he fans the flames of creativity.

At the W&V Summit in Munich, Managing Partner Lukas Cottrell addressed "The new multiverse of branding" and how companies should take advantage of the opportunities offered by artificial intelligence. His thesis: It is a mistake to only talk about productivity benefits – and to overlook the growth potential that lies in newly created brand experiences. Read the review at W&V online (Membership required).

In his book “Bildzeichen verstehen und gestalten” (Understanding and designing icons), Holger Ziemann presents theoretical approaches, practical considerations and exemplary solutions in icon design. Among the best practices are two projects by the Peter Schmidt Group: the work for Linde and Deutsche Bahn.

Peter Schmidt Group projects received a total of four awards at the iF DESIGN AWARD 2024: Steiff wins twice; the posters for the 2023 Triathlon World Championships and the packaging design for Portuguese coffee brand Delta Cafés have also been awarded.

After more than twenty years, it is time for a change at the German lemonade brand Fritz-Kola: The brand design and packaging are getting a visual update. Executive Creative Director Felix Damerius analyzed the move for the trade magazine HORIZONT.

The W&V Summit in Munich is the marketing conference for brands, media & tech - with lots of exciting presentations and talks. On stage on March 20: Lukas Cottrell, Managing Partner of the Peter Schmidt Group. His topic: "The new Multiverse of Branding"

In a study by the business magazine Capital and the statistics portal Statista, industry experts put Germany's companies to the test, selecting 465 of them as the country's most innovative businesses in 2023 – with Peter Schmidt Group leading the way.

On an online platform, the non-profit organisation C_SR brings together NGOs and their specific briefings with representatives of the creative industry and media. The Peter Schmidt Group not only developed the design for this initiative but is also a co-founder.

Bauer is a private dairy company that introduced a new design for "Der Große Bauer" in October 2023 and will expand its range to include a new plant-based line of products called "ZUM GLÜCK!" in 2024.