FOUNDER/CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER
DOMO DOMO MARKETING, CINCINNATI OH
Deb Adams is a visionary entrepreneur, creative catalyst, and environmental activist. As the Founder and Chief Creative Officer of domo domo, a mindful consumer packaging and brand design firm, Deb sets the tone and direction of domo domo’s creative team, crafting brand strategy into impactful visual expressions that disrupt categories, create meaningful connections and increase brand value.
Deb’s journey as a pioneering entrepreneur began when she created a new agency business model focusing on leveraging design as a powerful tool to empower people and brands to positively impact our world. For the last two decades, she has led a diverse team of creative industry experts in branding, innovation, packaging design and sustainable packaging, infusing domo domo’s unique feminine perspective and commitment to social and environmental issues into every project. With a portfolio spanning Consumer Packaged Goods, Pharma, and B2B sectors, domo domo collaborates with brands including Purina, Playtex, Alcon and Edgewell Personal Care, among others, in various categories, including health and wellness, beauty care, baby, pet, food, home and private label brands.
Deb’s passion for design extends beyond branding and packaging—intersecting with sustainability. Recognizing the urgent need to address the plastic pollution crisis, she and her team have been on a mission for years to help the CPG sector eliminate 100% of plastic from consumer packaging by 2030, including the creation of a Sustainable Packaging Resource guide to provide information and inspiration to help accelerate this necessary packaging transformation.
Deb’s commitment to making the world a better place led her to establish legaSeas International, a cause organization that uses branding, design, and communication to advance global environmental movements and treaties. Her involvement in protecting whales and dolphins manifested at the International Whaling Commission, where she advocates for eco-tourism as a sustainable and non-lethal alternative to hunting and killing these majestic creatures. Currently, as Vice Chair on the Board of Directors of Oceanic Preservation Society, Deb continues her efforts to save the planet and protect its biodiversity.
In design circles, Deb has been named a GraphicDesignUSA ‘Person To Watch’ and recognized for Graphic Design USA’s ‘Fifty Years of People to Watch’; she was also acknowledged with an Edison Award for her design innovation work on Schick’s Intuition razor. Deb was recently named to the advisory board of It’s Not Just Dinner (INJD), a non-profit focused on mentorship, education, diversity, inclusion, and community for diverse suppliers and corporate diversity professionals, further amplifying her commitment to uplifting others along their journey.
As we pivot into a post-pandemic era marked by societal challenge and change, are you optimistic about the future of Graphic Design to support and shape commerce, culture and causes? Are you optimistic about the future of your own firm?
Graphic Design will continue to drive commerce, convey cultural moods, and create visuals that attract tribes of people who identify with a brand or cause. The power of design as change agent will never change. What is changing is our industry. The .ai disruption is challenging the ways in which design is generated, valued, and protected. However, Ai will never replace human design thinking. An experienced “design eye” combined with an instinct for great creative is still a uniquely human capability.
I am optimistic about the future of my firm – as an adaptive agency for over two decades, we have been through disruptive times before (think Mac and Adobe revolution), so this is not unfamiliar territory. These times do require creative firms to embrace .ai as a tool that can help us all be more efficient. What is also incredibly exciting to me is that the graphic design industry has an opportunity to be real change agents in the realm of sustainability. There is a need for innovative thinking that demonstrates that sustainable design drives business, brand loyalty and sets a positive tone for change– to consumers, cultures, and corporations.
We are seeing an increased focus on Package Design to advance the brand, tell the story, amplify the experience, forge an emotional connection with consumers at the moment of truth. Do you agree and, if so, what advantages does packaging have over other graphic communications?
We live in a visually fragmented world where consistency in brand messaging and execution across a myriad of mediums is challenging. Powerful brands are built on consistency and packaging is a critical consistent branding element. The challenge – ensuring the design is simple, impactful, differentiated and articulates brand attributes that are easy to interpret at the moment of truth, whether that is a thumbnail digital image for virtual shopping or live in-store/at shelf.
Notable trends we see include more simplified visual approaches, use of more tone-on-tone color palettes, color blocking, energized color palettes, simplified imagery, and use of illustrations to tell the brand story on pack. The other obvious trend is the evolution to sustainable packaging (smaller, different materials, less waste) – and the design and print production limitations that may be associated with replacing plastic in packaging with FSC certified board stocks, Type3 molded fiber and plant based flexible films. Gone are the days of metalized inks, metalized foil stamping, foil laminated board stock – all of which will need to be replaced with more eco-friendly options. The challenge for packaging designers is to continually remain informed on the latest sustainable materials, production opportunities/challenges and create packaging that maintains an on-brand presentation.
