Thank you.

It has been an honor and a privilege to work at Colgate-Palmolive for seven and a half amazing years. As I leave I want to thank my partners, collaborators and teammates. I joined as an outsider – an external ‘design agency’ hire, and leave as the first SVP of Design for Colgate-Palmolive, feeling fully embraced and integrated. I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity. 

In The Beginning…

Rewinding to October 2016, my reasons for joining Colgate-Palmolive were two – to provide stability for my new family and to explore how much impact great design could create for as many people as possible. Colgate has absolutely delivered on both – in spades.

Above: Colgate-Palmolive Design 2022 Showreel

As I reflect on our journey, our Design vision was to drive the cultural transformation of Colgate-Palmolive into a Design Integrated company – where brand experience, breakthrough innovation and a design-mindset, create both short term and long term momentum by breaking down silos and readying our organization for the next 100 years of growth, opportunity and change. How exciting is that!!?

Thank you to our amazing Design team around the world. When I started (thank you Yves Briantais for believing in me) we were a packaging (graphics) service. As I look at the team now, we have elevated the impact and influence of Design around the world, from our New York Headquarters to our Regional and local teams. We’ve created Design leadership by promoting and hiring great leaders and we’ve doubled the size of the Design team – filling it with excellent, diverse talent. To my design team — you are the force driving this amazing progress. 

In addition to great Packaging Design – we’ve expanded the definition and expectation of design by adding capabilities like Brand Strategy and Experience, Design and User Research, Content Design, Retail Design and Digital (UX/UI) Product Design and of course – Industrial Design. We have built an inhouse Design Operations team and capability to elevate the efficiency and effectiveness of the overall global team by instituting ‘Design Excellence' at scale through processes, tools and measurement. We’ve outlawed the word ‘vendor’, and instituted the idea of partnership and collaboration. Big thanks to our entire Design Operations team for this and much more. Design is now a strategic partner and driver of growth.  

Above: Colgate-Palmolive Design 2021 Showreel

We’ve introduced team rituals, learning forums, events, annual highlight reels, we’ve designed and produced year-in-review design books, websites, blogs, communities and community. We’ve experimented with AR (Softsoap 2023 Winter Seasonals), VR (Colgate Connect @ CES 2020) and we’ve experimented with Generative AI in our creative process – both upstream in breakthrough innovation, and downstream our traditional Industrial Design (bottle-making) process (with amazing results I might add). We’ve built repeatable people-centric feedback loops into our design process so we learn what people really want and need – not just what we want them to want. Now we’re exploring using machine learning to automate parts of our adaptive design development process. The opportunities are endless.   

Favorite Projects (& Awards)

Above: Colgate-Palmolive #Safehands soap

I’m thrilled to have been part of the #Safehands team, designing #SafeHands identity and packaging as part of our response and contribution to the Covid-19 pandemic. We ended up donating (in partnership with WHO) 26.5 million bars of bright red packaged bar soap with ‘proper’ hand washing instructions on the back as icons, (thanks Sam Cutler ex-Designbridge, for collaborating on this) so everyone, no matter what language they spoke, could understand how to correctly wash their hands…and save lives in the process. When I think about Design making material positive impact at global scale, this is what comes to mind. 

Above: Hill’s Science Diet 2019 relaunch

Hill’s Science Diet relaunch is a highpoint for demonstrating business value by design, netting over 100MM in new top line revenue from a packaging design change (no formula, channel, or pricing change.) When we relaunched the Science Diet packaging in 2019, Hill’s was a 2.2BB business. Five years later, Hill’s is on pace to be a 4.5BB business. There are many reasons for the growth of course, but great packaging design (adding emotion to our already excellent science story) is undeniably a part of the growth.

Above: The Colgate toothpaste packaging system – optimized for shelf standout (distinctiveness) and optimism

And of course there is oral care brand Colgate…our flagship brand with higher household penetration than any other brand on the planet. In 2017, we relaunched the global toothpaste packaging system (led by Kristina Karaiskos in partnership with PI Global, ECD Paul Cowley), across all sizes, all sub-brands and variants, and all markets. In 2019 we reimagined the Colgate toothbrush system (led by Jada Britto, partner agency Sterling) which is perhaps our most complex design system to date (if you need convincing, visit the toothbrush aisle of a supermarket or drugstore and then tell me I'm wrong!)

Above: Colgate Brand Experience System, 2020

In 2020 we transformed the entire Colgate brand equity (brand strategy, brand identity, brand voice, digital systems, toolkits, training and implementation), impacting all touch points in all markets.

Above: Colgate Renew, 2021 (Credit: Daniel Donnet, Maria José Salcedo)

Above: Colgate Optic White O2 (Led by Tiffany Ou-Yang, agency partner Designbridge Singapore)

Above: The Sound of Colgate (in partnership with MassiveMusic)

Thanks to partners at Redfuse WPP (special mention Carl Hartmann and Fred Saldanha) and Designbridge who also collaborated on our Colgate Sonic Identity – the Sound of Optimism with partners Massive Music.

Above: hum by Colgate, 2020

2020 also saw the launch of hum by Colgate (identity Pearlfisher, digital platform led internally by Aviva Buivid), an affordable, beautifully designed electric toothbrush built on our Colgate Connect platform allowing people to know when, how long and how well they are brushing via our connected iPhone app.

Above: CO by Colgate, the award winning design was purpose-built for Ulta beauty channels, (led by Kayla Risch, Agency UnitedDSN)

Above: Award-winning Recycle Me, 2021.

Recycle Me, became an award-winning brand campaign in a package (led by Gerard Rizzo and Maria Rega, agency partner DesignBridge), celebrating our world-leading recyclable tube technology (launched a year earlier).

And the transformational relaunches continue with exciting news coming soon across our biggest (sub)brands. 

Notable mentions…

Above: Irish Spring Relaunch, 2021. This brand has insane amounts of nostalgic good will and that fragrance!  

Hello, a brand that we acquired in 2020, brought with it the brilliant founder Craig Dubitsky, to help carry the design vision. Thank you for your friendship and mentorship Craig. 

Above: The rebrand of Elmex, one of our European oral care brands (thank you agency partner Blue Marlin).

Above: The relaunch of US dish brand, Palmolive, 2020 (Led by Michelle Palko-Smith)

Above: Murphy Oil Soap relaunch. A contemporary brand design system that honors Murphy’s heritage while breathing new life and attracting new users.

Above: 2019 Redesign of Tom’s of Maine

I've learned about having empathy for different cultures, and their respective idiosyncrasies. In particular, I appreciate my LatAM Head of Design Daniel Donnet for reminding me that 'Latin America is different Jared!'

Thank you Pat Verduin, without your support none of this would have been possible – you truly are the leader who creates other leaders. You are a legend! Thank you for taking me under your remarkable wing. 

Thank you to our marketing partners, technology and science partners, finance partners, copyright lawyers, HR partners, packaging engineers, data scientists, supply chain masters, world class vets, storytellers and agency partners – and of course to our adaptive design and design execution partners, Aquent, SGS and SGK.  

I enjoyed the Design Leadership council (for enterprise Design executives) set up by John Gleason in 2017, and to my peers on the council who helped me grow and connect dots. Your support was above and beyond and I’ll be forever grateful. 

I’ve loved speaking internally and externally – from American Packaging to NYC Circular Design (with Greg Corra), to the recent Generative AI and Creativity series in London. Sharing knowledge and helping people learn is a great feeling.

Above: Assorted internal and external speaking events

Above: Colgate-Palmolive Design 2020 Showreel

Colgate-Palmolive is a 217 year-old company and with longevity comes the responsibility of stewarding this special company through the uncertainty of today, and readying it for the unknown challenges of tomorrow. I believe a design-mindset, and the agility and adaptability that comes with being design-obsessed, is a great way to do that. 

At the end of the day, I’m a dreamer…

I dream about the full potential of a design integrated company where we are one connected team, where there is zero waste and each of us is included and valued equally. Where data-driven decisions and digital scale are the perfect complement to a creative culture. Where design-led capabilities like storytelling, user research and prototyping are commonplace. Where we obsess about the needs, wants and desires of all people and where we prioritize our home, the Earth, before she deprioritizes us. Such is the power of the design mindset to inspire, influence and drive us forward. 

I know Design is a change agent for social good and I’m  proud to have worked with brands such as Colgate, used in more homes than any other brand, to create maximum positive impact.

Thank you Colgate-Palmolive —