FOUNDER AND CCO, TAVERN, BROOKLYN NY

Mike Perry is founder and chief creative officer at Tavern, a Brooklyn-based global creative agency crafting timeless brands across food, beverage, hospitality, and beyond.

With 15+ years at the forefront of brand building, Mike’s earned a reputation as a certified creative powerhouse. His career spans leading roles at top global studios like Quaker City Mercantile, Stranger & Stranger, Design Bridge, and JKR, and media giants like NBC Sports and TikTok. He’s the creative mind behind some of the industry’s most recognizable rebrands for clients such as Budweiser, Burger King, and Diageo.

Driven by Tavern’s Modern Heritage philosophy, Mike blends legacy and innovation to create dynamic brands that flex to the lightning-fast pace of culture. In a world of trend-chasing, Tavern focuses on what lasts: commercially powerful, future-ready brands and ambitious experiences that resonate at every touchpoint. Recent collaborations include Sizzler, Burt’s Bees, Old Overholt Whiskey, and New York City FC.

As part of the Board of Directors at AIGA New York, Mike champions accessibility, relevance, and opportunity for the next generation of creative leaders.

What principles guide your design decisions?

Tavern’s design philosophy, Modern Heritage, guides every decision we make. Too many brands chase short-lived trends or lean on surface-level nostalgia, giving a quick hit of familiarity but little lasting relevance. Our approach is different. We focus on uncovering a brand’s true history, the symbols, stories, and values that made it matter in the first place, and reimagining them for today’s audiences. That’s the real power of brand heritage: it creates a balance of familiarity and relevance that builds long-term equity, not fleeting impressions. To achieve that, we ask deeper questions. Who has this brand always been? What has it always stood for? Which stories still resonate? When applied with intention, this approach works across categories, from spirits to sports.

What trend do you think the industry is overvaluing – and one it’s overlooking?

Overvalued: nostalgia. It’s not a brand strategy, it’s novelty. From Budweiser to Kellogg’s, brands keep reviving decades-old designs to conjure warm memories of simpler times. It might drive clicks, but as a copy-and-paste tactic it rarely builds a meaningful connection between what a brand has stood for historically and what it represents today. The goal shouldn’t be to recreate the past, but to make it feel current. That’s the key distinction: nostalgia copies, Modern Heritage builds.

Overlooked: world-building. It’s one of the most powerful ways to cultivate lasting brand communities. People don’t want to be sold to, they want to be part of something. The strongest brands build immersive worlds through layered storytelling that invite people to explore and discover. Vacation sunscreen does this particularly well, and more brands should take note. When you create a universe of engaging, evolving elements, you’re not just selling a product, you’re building a lifestyle people want to return to.