Designing branding for baking mix stickers, 2009. Purely Elizabeth, sold for $850 million, 2026. Same brand DNA from her kitchen counter days? Sure is.

Almost 17 years ago, Elizabeth Stein asked me to design stickers for baking mixes. To stick onto plastic bags in her apartment.

It was the earlier days of my studio, 452 Design. I had never designed for food before. I don't design to an industry — I design for the person and the product or service in front of me.

So I designed her brand with bold color, clean typography, and real white space. Warm enough to say healthy. Minimal enough to draw people in. Bold enough to be fun at the same time.

No natural food packaging looked like it. It popped.

People loved her baked goods, so she took them to trade shows.

And she told me the same thing every time — people came to the booth because of the design.

Then they tasted what she made, and loved it.

From day one and for years after, I kept building it out — logo, business cards, trade show booths, branded stickers for packaging at first, then the actual packaging, the website, signage, apparel, you name it. Every flavor change. Every packaging change — boxes, bags, minis…

Seventeen years later, the brand DNA that I created from day one still pops — now in the aisles of more than 30,000 stores.

And this week, Liz sold Purely Elizabeth to Ferrero — the Nutella company, which now owns Kellogg's cereal too — for $850 million.

Good design doesn't just work. It's what makes people look in the first place. It sells. It lasts.

Liz is the reason this happened. Brilliant, relentless, hardworking, strong — a beautiful person inside and out, and one of the most special people I have ever known.

I just made sure people stopped long enough to find out what I already knew.

Good design helps businesses grow. Period.

🖤 Jen

Want to see the Purely brand evolution? https://lnkd.in/d8mudPsu