Founders rarely ask for packaging - they ask for a world. Because once the coffee reaches a certain level (and most specialty brands already start there) the real competition shifts elsewhere. Not to better beans or another origin, but to a stronger emotional connection.

One of the disciplines that has influenced the way I think is design anthropology. Rather than asking "What do people want?", design anthropology asks a different question: "How do people actually live?"

Before someone reads your logo, understands your ingredients or compares your product to a competitor, they've already formed an opinion, but not because of branding - because of material.

On a planet with more than eight billion people, the future of a concept is often determined by one founder, one meeting, one opinion or one moment in time.

Markets are crowded. New products appear every day. Every founder is told that differentiation is the only way to be noticed. But after working with founders across wellness, coffee and beauty brands, I've started questioning whether that's actually true.