DAMNE BRANDS™ is a creative direction and branding studio based in Italy, working with clients worldwide.
In a world where beige luxury and stale “old money” brand aesthetics (that all look the exact same) became the norm, I created DAMNE for brands that crave glamour, spice, flavour, provocation.
For what you could ironically call the “damned” ones: aka the controversial ones, the disruptors, the outcasts, the artists, the boujee maximalists. the brands that refuse to behave.
for The Vivienne Westwoods in a world of Ralph Laurens.
The ones who refuse to play it safe and don’t want to choose between their brand feeling premium and, at the same time, like a bad idea their clients can’t quit (so good, they almost want to damn it).
I guess you could call it branding with damn(e) attitude. Branding that’s rich, audacious, sensorial, rooted in culture, media & art history (not cookie-cutter “elevated” minimalism meant to erase identity & uniqueness).
Why I became a designer for bold luxury brands
Every time I look around, I ask myself: when did 50 shades of beige and text so thin you can’t even read it (because God forbid you actually say something 🤡) become synonymous with “premium”? When did branding that’s saying absolutely nothing become synonymous with “luxury”? As if the more dry, tame and anonymous it is, the more “eLeVaTeD.” The more “sophisticated”.
You can see it in the way we keep replacing historical buildings with glass boxes that all look the same. In the way we got rid of color in our homes so we can live a sleek beige on beige life. The underlying message is: non-expression, aka the absence of color, shape, texture, attitude, personality is the more desirable choice. And I think that’s reallllly fucked up.
We need art, history, color, texture, culture, flavour to thrive. And for our businesses, we need branding that’s rich, opinionated and rooted in culture, media and art history, not cookie cutter ~elevated minimalism~ designed to make us all lowkey look the same and stand for nothing with a side of nothing. 🫥
Someone convinced us that this is the price we have to pay in order to look “expensive”. And that’s what DAMNE BRANDS™ is here to change.
