Latest posts

Art Director Lili Emtiaz breaks down our team's thought process to build up the new SketchUp branding and motion identity system.

Reframing authenticity to build the SketchUp brand

Our Chief Creative Officer Alex Moulton sits down with Claire Blythe on My Life In Design to discuss his professional journey and winding career path to arrive at Trollbäck+Company.

"Design is the practice of answering a lot of the questions that art can ask, and business is really that practice of delivering the answers to those questions."

My Life In Design Podcast: CCO Alex Moulton

Chief Creative Officer Alex Moulton offers five key branding strategies for subscription success.

Imagine a revenue stream that keeps flowing month after month, building deeper connections with your customers. Sounds tempting, right? But transitioning to a subscription model isn’t as simple as flipping a switch. It requires building brand trust and loyalty beyond just your product. Read the full article on Business Reporter. 

From free to fee: how to build a brand worth subscribing to

An Ode to Dreams

In this week’s Staff Spotlight: Boris Schneerson. Junior Designer, lover of Sade, and overall cool person.

Staff Spotlight: Boris Schneerson

Debbie Millman has an ongoing project at PRINT titled “What Matters.” This is an effort to understand the interior life of artists, designers, and creative thinkers. This facet of the project is a request of each invited respondent to answer ten identical questions and submit a nonprofessional photograph.

PRINT Magazine: What Matters to Rosie Garschina

Cars regularly get 18-point safety checks; isn’t it time brands did, too?

Brands are like cars - there’s a lot under the hood, and they need regular maintenance to run smoothly. Director of Creative Strategy Mika Saulitis offers an 18-point brand diagnostic to keep your brand in good shape. 

Building and maintaining a brand is complex; it’s a living, breathing entity with visual, verbal, behavioral, and sonic elements that shift and evolve regularly. But there are some simple steps that brands can take to ensure their “check engine” light doesn’t go off.

Let's make annual brand diagnostics a thing

MOGRTs are indispensable tools for motion graphics teams...but what are they, and what goes into building them? Junior Designer + Animator Tyler Rispoli breaks it down. 

All About MOGRTs

As TV entertainment channels have shifted from being desirable to essential, the sector’s branding has gone mainstream too, losing its cultural edge in the process. Director of Creative Strategy Mika Saulitis, this week in Creative Review. 

"Branding in the entertainment and media space feels noticeably more practical and utilitarian, with an underlying promise of ‘something for everyone’ permeating SVOD (Subscription Video on Demand) and AVOD (Advertising-based Video on Demand) services alike."

Have streaming channels given up on aspirational branding?

From consistency and professionalism to personality and perseverance, CCO Alex Moulton examines some of the cornerstones of successful YouTube channels to determine how brands can elevate their online presence.

You’d be surprised by how many established brands still lack a coherent set of brand guidelines for their social channels.

Prolific YouTubers have a team behind them working to coordinate a regular stream of content.

Love him or loathe him, Mr. Beast has created a huge brand personality fronted by an individual. 

Since watch time is the most important ranking factor on YouTube, the creator’s goal is to increase audience retention to improve rankings.

Building a successful YouTube channel takes time and dedication.

Shots: Five lessons for brands from YouTube creators

Branding: the slightly nerdier cousin of marketing. Or is it? Director of Creative Strategy Mika Saulitis weighs in. 

Today, the industry is having a cultural moment. Think about all of the discussions around not just brands, but the creative and strategic process of branding.

Social media is the great equalizer, opening up what has been a closed-off industry and introducing a new generation to the wonderful (and slightly geeky) world of branding in a way that wasn’t available before. 

Not to jinx it, but is branding…cool?

Semi-serifs and beyond: ECD Rosie Garschina weighs in on type trends to come in 2024. Read the full article on Creative Boom.

Type trends for 2024 every designer needs to know about

Vibes: the ultimate design secret sauce. Creative Director Erin Kilkenny on designing brands with emotion and intuition.

"Creativity requires openness, fearlessness, and risk taking."

In Defense of Vibes

Can producing scratch your creative itch? Senior Producer Natalie Studdert on how expanding the definition of creativity unlocks its potential.

Producing: The Dynamic Intersection of Beauty and Logic

Chief Creative Officer Alex Moulton offers a guide detailing how to direct musicians for sonic branding and ads

Navigating the Melodic Maze:  How to direct musicians for sonic branding and advertising

The future is in motion. CCO Alex Moulton writes for Adweek on how a robust motion identity can help brands stay relevant in today's video-driven landscape. Read the full article 

Alex Moulton on Adweek: Take a Page from the Motion Identity Playbook

We’re honored to announce Rosie Garschina has been picked to judge the 2023 @ClioAwards, repping Trollbäck on the design jury to evaluate this year's outstanding work in the field. See 

ECD Rosie Garschina to join 2023 Clio Entertainment Jury

Part traffic controller, part diplomat, part therapist, and part fortune teller. Read more about Senior Producer Lindsey Andon's perspectives on the nuanced role of Producer, and the challenges of explaining it to her parents.

Explaining What I Do to My Parents

Will AI steal all the fun jobs?...And other burning questions. Art Director Lili Emtiaz talks with Creative Technologist David Conklin about the potential pitfalls, hopes and fears surrounding the burgeoning tech category.

AI vs. Creative Industry: Will Robots Steal All the Fun Jobs?

Design moments inside and outside the city. For this week's #NineFrames Designer+Animator Kasella Acain shares inspiration from her trip to Copenhagen and Amsterdam.

Nine Frames: Kasella Acain 

Summer Fridays are back. From Choco Taco to Strawberry Shortcake, Riis Park to the Jersey Shore, here are the team's top picks for how to do summer right in (mostly) NYC. 

Hello Summer Fridays!

Junior Designer + Animator Krysta Coates gives new meaning to remote work. Read about her journey building out a custom van, working on the road, and living life to the fullest.

My Adventures Working Remotely (Literally)

Audiences can sniff out brand BS. Director of Creative Strategy Mika Saulitis on why today’s most compelling companies are celebrating the everyday, not just the extraordinary.

Attainable Is the New Aspirational

The marketing industry will spend 20 billion this year alone on AI, causing seismic shifts in creative work that are not yet fully realized. In the recent edition of Makers Magazine, Alex Moulton joins other creative leads in a discussion about the benefits and limitations of these tools, and the practical and ethical implications we face by using them.

"We have professional, ethical, and legal responsibilities to own the work that we sell to clients, which in turn they use to represent their brands. Most AI-generated content breaks every ethical practice on multiple levels." 

Makers Magazine: Feature on Generative AI

How do you build a brand to last? It's about evolution, not revolution. This week in Fast Company, CCO Alex Moulton on why the era of the big rebrand needs to end. 

Fast Company: How do you build a brand to last? It's about evolution, not revolution.

Engaging and empowering your internal teams are the first steps in any lasting strategy. This week in Branders Magazine, CCO Alex Moulton discusses a brand’s most powerful asset.

"The foundation of inside-out brand communications is to provide a platform for employees to become day-in, day-out builders of the brand."

Branders Magazine: Your Team is Your Most Powerful Brand Asset – Set Them Up For Success

Naming a brand should be stimulating, inspiring, and meaningful. It also requires a litany of practical tasks you may not have thought of. Writer/Strategist Jo Beck shares her insights on how it’s done at our studio. 

Hello My Name Is...: A Practical Guide to Naming

Creative Director Josh Lynne shares what he’s learned about listening and how designing with empathy achieves different, more considered results.

Through empathetic listening, you’ll find connective themes that will help create project alignment.

Beyond the RFP

This week, CCO Alex Moulton joined the On Brand Podcast with Nick Westergaard to talk about the power of curiosity, why words matter, and immersing himself in the challenges and aspirations of everyone he works with.

On Brand: Designing Sustainable Brands with Alex Moulton

Cooking without recipes isn't just a process, it's a mindset. Designer + Animator Kasella Acain writes about experimentation in the kitchen and in design.

“Cooking is just as creative and imaginative an activity as drawing, or wood carving, or music. And cooking draws upon your every talent—science, mathematics, energy, history, experience—and the more experience you have, the less likely are your experiments to end in drivel and disaster. The more you know, the more you can create.” 

Cooking + Creativity

This week on the Signal to Noise podcast, Chief Creative Officer Alex Moulton on the spirit of partnership, how to be a good listener, and making work that lasts. 

Signal to Noise: Alex Moulton on Designing for Longevity

Before transitioning into animation and design, Jr. Animator and Designer Tyler Rispoli started as a film student at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Here are 5 technical aspects of filmmaking that deeply inform his intentional approach to animation.

“Film school provided a strong foundation of motion techniques that aided my progression in design and animation.” 




Thinking like a Filmmaker in Animation 

This week on Creative Review, our recent work for Sesame Workshop, and how a new look can foster real change. 

Creative Review: Sesame Workshop on How Design is Helping Its Mission

This week in PRINT Magazine, coverage of our recent work creating a flexible and vibrant brand expression system for Sesame Workshop. 

PRINT Magazine: Sesame Workshop Gets a Redesign Even Oscar the Grouch Would Approve Of

What do you remember about a brand? Director of Creative Strategy Mika Saulitis offers best practices in writing your brand positioning, and why less is often more. 

Building a Brand Positioning to Remember

“Find the Metaverse that wants you.” Creative Director Erin Kilkenny and Art Director Lili Emtiaz talk Animal Crossing, subreddits, and world-building for brands.

“You’re Gonna Love the Metaverse”

Vote for your favorite Trollbäck surfboard design in our collab with Kings Surfboard Glassing

"Surfboard building on the East Coast is 50 years behind the West Coast, so it’s a perfect time to experiment. We want to reach into the communities that have not had access to surfing and then one day there is that little girl out in the Rockaways who wants to be a shaper."

"With this collaboration, we hope to bring awareness to the thriving and unique East Coast surf scene, create new possibilities, and amplify the presence of some of the key people in the NYC surf community."

We're making a surfboard and we need your vote

“One of the things I love most about traveling is being immersed in new color schemes. I love associating colors with places.” For this week’s #NineFrames,  Writer/Strategist Jo Beck shares pictures from the Pacific island of Palau.

Nine Frames: Jo Beck

Design Week: Sesame Street and Sesame Workshop identities create “longest street in the world.”

The key to effective branding is a unified system of writing and design that tell the story of a brand. Senior Designer Steven Wimberley writes about how these skills support each other, and how understanding basic design principles can improve ones writing about design. 

"Visual storytelling utilizes both language and art to pass on the essence of who we are."

How to Write about Design: a Primer

Surfing and creative work have more in common than you think. This week, Executive Creative Director Elliott Chaffer talks to Creative Boom about how both require duck-diving fears and freedom of expression.

Creative Boom: Can Sports Enrich your Art? These Creatives Say "Yes."

Chief Creative Officer Alex Moulton and Executive Creative Director Rosie Garschina love big challenges. On this week’s Graphic Design USA podcast, they discuss the beauty of collaboration and how multidisciplinary backgrounds inform their creative approaches and leadership. Link in bio for the full episode.

Graphic Design USA: An Interview with Alex Moulton and Rosie Garschina 

Trollbäck + Company isn’t exactly a small family business, but Director of Client Partnerships Ryan McRee writes about why the “+ Company” in our name defines a studio culture that feels that way. 

Small Family Business

Nine frames is a photography series produced by the Trollbäck staff. This week we share photos from Junior Designer / Animator Tyler Rispoli, who took these on a trip to Carlsbad, CA. 

Nine Frames: Tyler Rispoli

Can AI build brands? Chief Creative Officer Alex Moulton puts ChatGPT, a new language-generation software, to the test and gets fascinating results.

Can I Use ChatGPT as a Tool for Branding?

Muse by Clio: 2 Minutes With Executive Creative Director Rosie Garschina

Former Tröllback+Company Creative Director Fran Roberts led our team through a skillshare to talk us through the enchanting and complex history of color.

“Culture is just one of many factors that influence our experience of color, which lives at the intersection of many: environmental, perceptual, material, physiological, and behavioral.”

Skillshare: All About Color

Senior Animator Marcelo Meneses writes about the sometimes-overlooked world of video games when it comes to finding inspiration for motion graphics. 

Finding Motion Graphics Inspiration in Gaming

Building brands has a lot in common with making movies – they both require emotional, evocative, compelling stories to succeed. Executive Director of Creative Strategy Bo Bishop writes about how having a background in filmmaking is his “secret sauce” for articulating strategy.

Five Films That Inspire Me as a Strategist 

Junior Designer + Animator Krysta Coates on what it’s like to start your first job remotely, and some tips for young designers doing the same. 

Navigating a First (Remote) Job

For our series Art All Around, Staff Writer Jo Beck visits the permanent home of Dan Flavin’s elegant light works in Bridgehampton, NY.

Art All Around: Dan Flavin 

Chief Creative Officer Alex Moulton writes about how brands can adapt to changing markets while maintaining their integrity.

"Succeeding when challenged ultimately comes down to knowing why your brand exists—beyond making money—to offer the best experience possible."


Pivot or Persevere: Alex Moulton on Retaining Equity in a Shifting Market

Mika Saulitis writes about branding's most overused word. 

The Trouble With Branding's Most Overused Word

Abstract Rorschach images made with smoke and mirrors

Smoke + Mirrors

Trollbäck's Executive Creative Director Elliott Chaffer shares his Nine Frames, taken with a triple-lens 3D film camera. 

Nine Frames: Elliott Chaffer

Sarah Cortese, Senior Animator+Designer at Trollbäck+Company, writes about the creative joys of parenthood and finding inspiration in her kids. 

“Art resides in the quality of doing. Process is not magic.”



“I have never expected anything from my work but the satisfaction I could get from it by the very fact of painting and saying what I couldn’t say otherwise.”

“Your eye is a muscle, you have to keep it in shape and the more you draw, the more you see.”


Motherhood by Design: Creative Lessons I Have Learned From Parenting

Trollbäck+Company's Director of Creative Strategy Mika Saulitis on the FAST future of entertainment

Streaming Media: Director of Creative Strategy Mika Saulitis on the FAST Future of Streaming 

Nine frames is a photography series produced by the Trollbäck staff. This week we share photos from Executive Director of Creative Strategy Bo Bishop, who took these on a beach trip to Stone Harbor, NJ. 

Nine Frames: Bo Bishop

Senior Designer Diksha Watwani has taught at SVA since 2016. She's found a balance being both a teacher and a perpetual student. Read her essay on our website.

“There is only one way to eat an elephant: one bite at a time.”

Diksha Watwani on Teaching at School while Learning on the Job

Mixible is the dynamic new identity by Trollbäck+Company that expands Paramount's ET Live into a comprehensive network for pop-culture news.

"Mixible provided us the perfect opportunity to flex both sides of our studio: timeless Scandinavian design principles in service of immediate cultural impact."

Communication Arts: Bo Bishop on Mixible, the dynamic new identity for Paramount

Our design interns Jo Iijima, Mel Petzoldt and Yunjia Yuan chat studio life, work styles and reflect on their time at Trollbäck.

"I've learned to pay better attention to the outside world and find inspiration everywhere."

"It’s really important to think about things from a higher level and know that things can keep evolving."

Q&A: Summer Internship Wrap-Up

We’ve got a new Trollbäck+Company website and we’re very (very) excited that you’re here to check it out.

Check out all the new features of our new website

The IDGs framework consists of five categories organizing 23 skills and qualities of human inner growth and development.

The Inner Development Goals: Making The Global Personal 

Elliott Chaffer, Executive Creative Director at Trollbäck+Company, talks us through his creative process and how he uses references to inspire creativity, communicate ideas and connect with people.

"It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to."


"Every idea is a juxtaposition. That’s it. A juxtaposition of existing concepts."

"To spark my creativity…I often re-use pieces from my other works…basically collaging my own stuff…"

"I absolutely believe my best work lies ahead of me, and lies in the work I’m absolutely on fire to steal from."


"Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everyone I’ve ever known."


"Don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it."

Stealing Dreams: The Art of Pulling References

What could web3 mean for the future of advertising? Trollbäck’s Creative Director, Fran Roberts dives into the burgeoning potential of contextual advertising in a rapidly evolving digital landscape with The Drum.

“The wider use of AR and VR-capable devices and platforms will add the multi-sensory experience into the equation for the first time.” 

The Drum: Fran Roberts on Contextual Advertising 3.0

Trollbäck’s Director of Creative Strategy, Mika Saulitis, sits down with Chris Do for his podcast series to discuss his journey from film school to branding and how it’s shaped his creative and strategic thought process.

"Brand strategy is about codifying a client’s gut feeling. You do the due diligence to explore relevant positioning so that when you arrive at the final product the client says: ‘this is it.’"


How Brand Strategy Works: Mika Saulitis on The Futur with Chris Do

When first starting at Trollbäck+Company several years ago, Chief Creative Officer, Alex Moulton got a piece of advice from our founder, Jakob Trollbäck, that has stuck with him ever since. It now informs most of the decisions we make as a studio.

“When your focus is building brands that stand apart in a complex business environment, having a "house style" is antithetical.”

Alex Moulton on Muse By Clio: "We Should Never Repeat Ourselves"

Trollbäck Art Director, Lili Emtiaz talks with Shots about how TikTok, Tod Haynes, and slowing down have turned into some of their most promising creative influences. 

"I started working in the industry just as brands were starting to acknowledge the power behind social media. It’s been exciting to watch social and digital teams grow. Where social design and strategy were once an afterthought, they are now a staple."

On My Radar: Lili Emtiaz

Our Creative Director, Fran Roberts, chats with Fast Company about how brands can play an active role in getting ahead of social media giants and take charge of their metaverse experiences to create more engaging and deeper connections with audiences.

"The metaverse is in turmoil, and it hasn’t even been built yet."

Fast Company: The Metaverse is a Second Chance to Right the Wrongs of Social Media.

Executive Creative Director Elliott Chaffer talks with Creative Review about how our co-created program .movtogether offers a more personal and conversational approach to mentorship and created a space where newcomer creatives felt supported and more primed to enter the industry.

Creative Review: How Young Creatives Benefit From More Informal Mentorship 

Variety features ABC's latest brand refresh which showcases an incredibly flexible, emotional, and compelling brand system we helped develop while updating Paul Rand’s iconic logo.

"We felt it was time to evolve the overall look of the network to make it more vibrant, modern, and fresh."

Variety: ABC Reimagines a Simpler Logo for a More Complex Era

Our Executive Creative Director, Elliott Chaffer chats with motion design publication, Motionographer, about making a title sequence that speaks to redlining, racism, and supernatural violence in 1950’s Compton.

"After becoming immersed in the show and reading the Director’s bible from Little Marvin, our team felt so many emotions, from upset to outrage and disgust. These feelings powered our drive to deliver work that both respected and did justice to his vision."

Motionographer: Elliott Chaffer on creating the title sequence for Them: Covenant

After our recent collaboration with Mixteca, Design Director Nadia Shireen Husain talks with 'Design Is Everywhere' podcast about how to build a brand that helps connect a community to their mission. 

Designing For A Community: Nadia Husain talks branding Mixteca on the ‘Design Is Everywhere’ podcast. 

On May 23, Season 4 of The Chi debuts on Showtime, featuring a fresh promo package by Trollbäck+Company. To preview the debut, we recently sat down (digitally) with Chicago-based artist Nikko Washington, whose work forms the foundation of the series’ vibrant new identity.

"My work now is a culmination of abstract art and text in direct response to questions on police brutality and gentrification"

The Chi S4 Preview: Q&A With Artist Nikko Washington

Any creative professional out there will mostly be able to tell exactly what made them the person they are. Alex Moulton, Chief Creative Officer at Trollbäck+Company, certainly isn't different.

"The best advice I can give to aspiring creative people is to stay curious while putting in the work."

Creative Pool: #GettingtoKnow CCO Alex Moulton

From March 18-20, we're tabling digitally at the Savannah College of Art and Design, with an eye out for design/animation/3D interns.

CoMotion 2021: Going Virtual at SCAD's Annual Design Conference

It's March again. How are you coping? One year into our all-remote workflow, Trollbäck staffers share their inspirations and insights on how to create in the "new normal."

Creative Review: Finding Purpose in 2021

This week in Print Magazine, industry reporters sat down with Design Director Nadia Husain and Executive Director of Creative Strategy Bo Bishop to talk about our latest rebrand for Mixteca – a case study in how to get culturally-appropriate, mission-driven branding done right.

Print Mag: Mixteca's Rebrand By Trollbäck Shows How to Design For Nonprofits

This month in Creative Pool, CCO Alex Moulton calls the creative industry to action for a radical new era of truth and transparency in branding.

"The time for “beautiful lies” is over. Branding in this new era must be about powerful truths."

Insights and inspirations from our studio

Featured

From free to fee: how to build a brand worth subscribing to

From free to fee: how to build a brand worth subscribing to

Listen: podcast interviews

My Life In Design Podcast: CCO Alex Moulton

Graphic Design USA: An Interview with Alex Moulton and Rosie Garschina

How Brand Strategy Works: Mika Saulitis on The Futur with Chris Do

Latest posts

Reframing authenticity to build the SketchUp brand

My Life In Design Podcast: CCO Alex Moulton

From free to fee: how to build a brand worth subscribing to

An Ode to Dreams

Staff Spotlight: Boris Schneerson

PRINT Magazine: What Matters to Rosie Garschina

Let's make annual brand diagnostics a thing

All About MOGRTs

Have streaming channels given up on aspirational branding?

Shots: Five lessons for brands from YouTube creators

Not to jinx it, but is branding…cool?

Type trends for 2024 every designer needs to know about

In Defense of Vibes

Producing: The Dynamic Intersection of Beauty and Logic

Navigating the Melodic Maze: How to direct musicians for sonic branding and advertising

Alex Moulton on Adweek: Take a Page from the Motion Identity Playbook

ECD Rosie Garschina to join 2023 Clio Entertainment Jury

Explaining What I Do to My Parents

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