Product launch & brand activation · 2026
For SupplySide Global 2026, Lief Labs wanted to show the industry a format it had never talked about: a fast-dissolving powder you tear open and tip straight onto the tongue. I led tear&taste from first idea to show floor, covering the name, the identity, three flavors of packaging, the product imagery, the sell sheet and landing page, and a booth built around the first taste.
Visit landing page →SupplySide Global is where brand founders and formulators decide who they want to build with next year. Lief had shown up before as a dependable manufacturer. This time the goal was to put something new in people’s hands, and let the product make the case for the lab.
The catch: a sample is only as convincing as its first taste. So the format needed a brand of its own, one that felt like a treat, while still reading as something Lief could build under a client’s label.
I worked through a full board of names, from Tastix and Dose Stix to Tear & Tap, looking for two words that described the ritual. tear&taste won because it is the instructions. The ampersand overlaps both words, so the name reads as one motion, and “One tear. Zero water.” sits at the top of every stick.
Each formula got its own flavor and its own gradient, while the wordmark, layout, and callouts stay locked in the same place on every stick. On a counter full of samples, you can find your flavor by color alone.
It took five rounds to get there, starting from a type-led first pass and landing on the gradient system that let the fruit lead.
Every stick was built to a 60mm stick‑pack spec, with the eyespot, seals, and tear notch mapped before anything went to press.
Behind the art sat a real production run: 10,000 sticks of each flavor, coordinated with R&D, quality, and outside partners on printing and packing. I owned the artwork, the label copy, and the sign‑offs that got it to press on time.
The finished sticks arrived just before the show, so the imagery had to be ready without them. I art-directed every image with AI, from studio flat lays with fresh fruit to a splash shot for each flavor and lifestyle scenes, then finished each one in Photoshop for the sell sheet, landing page, and social.
A sample only works if it leads somewhere. A sell sheet traveled with every stick, and its QR code opened a landing page written for the person holding one: “So, what did you think?” From there, the flavors, how Lief builds flavor, and three ways to launch tear&taste under your own brand.
Before the show, the campaign never named the product. A teaser reel promised new flavors and formats loading, while LinkedIn and email banners carried the booth number, including one for each of the eleven people working the booth.
The booth borrowed from the candy aisle: color-sorted bins of sticks on the counter, a neon sign, and a gumball machine where every turn dropped a sample or a prize. It gave the sales team an easy opener with anyone who stopped to spin.
I modeled it in 3D first, then sourced, budgeted, and shipped every piece, down to the flooring and the tablet looping a booth film I cut for the show.
