Branding, AI, and Empathy: 2 days at the 2025 Brand New Conference

Conference Overview: A Shift in the Conversation

The 2025 Brand New Conference kicked off in Pittsburgh, bringing together some of the most curious and provocative minds in branding and design. Hosted by the creative duo behind UnderConsideration and the Brand New blog, BNConf has evolved far beyond a showcase of case studies—it’s now a full-scale conversation about the state of our industry.

This year’s themes pushed boundaries, from building creative processes from the ground up to rethinking our relationship with AI and challenging the very playbooks many of us were trained to follow. One standout presentation didn’t feature any brand work at all; it focused instead on what it means to sustain in an industry that’s shifting beneath our feet (shout out to Sixcinquieme).

As agencies shrink their physical footprints (though we’re proud of our Baltimore, MD home base), global teams work around the clock [literally], and creatives redefine their own titles and trajectories, the question isn’t just how we adapt—it’s how we lead the change.

AI in Creative Practice: Accelerant, Not Replacement

Yes, people are using AI. Some speakers were more transparent about their use of it than others. Was it obvious in the work? Not at all. The elevated caliber of creative thinking seemed less the product of AI and more a reflection of talented creatives discovering an unexpected new edge. Those who did discuss AI, like Red Antler, optimistically described it as a superpower, a way to think faster, visualize ideas, and get concepts “out of their brains” more efficiently. They made it clear that AI is not a replacement for creative judgment but an accelerant of it. Taste remains human. The relationship between people and technology is one of symbiosis, not substitution. In the case of Smith & Diction’s case study about an AI nutrition assistant called Alma, AI assistance was leveraged to produce an image library at scale (>1,000). We could expect a shop like S&M to embrace AI with their uniquely deep knowledge (and respect) for the technology after branding Perplexity.ai and Gamma.

AI can only imitate, while experienced creatives, who have seen trends, campaigns, and styles rise and fall, remain the true curators of taste, culture, and originality.

Motion as a Core Brand Language

Some of this year’s Brand New speakers emphasized motion design as an essential part of modern brand systems—no longer a nice-to-have, but a necessary expression of identity. Aaron Poe devoted much of his presentation (and career) to building motion into the DNA of brands, explaining:

“We are in the age of the attention economy, and your customer’s attention is the currency. Modern brands must capture attention.”

As he (and Linearity) pointed out, we live in a screen-dominated world where motion consistently outperforms static visuals. In fact, 73% of customers say video is their preferred way to learn about a new product or service. For brands, that statistic isn’t just interesting, it’s instructive. As Sam Oddo would attest, our own B2B SaaS clients have seen measurable results when motion becomes part of their storytelling. Animation doesn’t just add flair; it deepens understanding and makes ideas stick.

Zapier motion identity, Gamma brand by Smith & Diction, and Semi:Formal’s TMA brand.

Deep Empathy in Action: Mailchimp’s “Singular Customer”

One of the biggest surprises of day one came from the in-house agency at Intuit Mailchimp, known as Wink Creative. Their team approaches customer understanding with a level of depth that few external agencies could match.

To better empathize with their users, they invent entire fictitious brands—complete with strategy, naming, visual identity, and even custom photography—that represent distinct customer archetypes. Through these detailed exercises, they learn to think like their customers, not in terms of broad audiences, but as a “singular customer.” Each persona embodies a real business challenge that Mailchimp helps solve.

In one standout case study, with the support of SSS, the Wink Creative team challenged the idea that “email is dead” by staging an experiential, memorial exhibit at the Design Museum, ultimately reaffirming that email, like great creativity, continues to evolve and endure.

Constraint-Driven Innovation: The Figma Sites Case Study

Another standout moment came from the Play presentation on the launch of Figma Sites, a project that redefined what’s possible under extreme creative constraints. The brief called for 50 fully branded, responsive website templates that could serve virtually anyone’s needs.

The catch: they had only weeks to deliver and could use only open-source imagery and Google Fonts. What could have been a limitation became the catalyst for extraordinary innovation. Through discipline, collaboration, sheer determination, and killer strategists, the team created a system that not only met the brief but helped cement Figma’s position as one of the most influential tools in modern web design. You can explore more about their process and the results here.

MailChimp exhibit, Play‘s Figma Sites branding, and Third Sphere branding by Porto.

Quick shoutouts:

• Studio Born produces stellar brands, and I couldn’t get enough of their product photography. 🤤
• Dan Rugh of CommonWealth Press gave the most memorable 15-minute speech on the amazing city and heritage of Pittsburgh, told through various branding and print projects.
• Michael Carroll presented a lot of hard-hitting stats paired with a touching story of rebuilding after a great loss.
• I believe Barrington Reeves from Too Gallus, that from even a very early age, “[he] always knew what [he] had to do” — to get by, to go the extra mile, to be true to himself.
• Ren Rigby of Porto shared their journey about transformation, which took them around the globe, out of the body, to the sun, and back.
• The lettering coming out of the 40mustaqel studio is stunning.
• Mitch Wiesen told their career story with ambitious type studies and community-focused branding.
• Jim Hargreaves may have turned me into a Pittsburgh sports fan with his clever take on the most consistent sports tema branding of all US cities.

Reflections from Fifteen4

The Brand New Conference echoed much of what we live at Fifteen4—the pace of change, the power of empathy, and the constant push to redefine creativity. The talks in Pittsburgh were a reminder that while tools evolve, the heart of our work stays the same: understanding people and crafting ideas that truly connect.