We create innovative, disruptive brands and packaging in food and drink.
We ask the right questions, develop concise strategy, and deliver fully realised brand identities, packaging design, print and spaces.
We Do
Innovation Strategy & Workshops
Ideation Sessions
Category Audits
New Product Development
Brand Strategy
Brand Identity
Brand & Product Naming
Logo Development
Brand Revolutions & Evolutions
Packaging Design
Copywriting
Store & Drive Thru Design
Menu Design
Print Design
Brand Campaigns
Custom Type Design
Photography
Illustration
Branded Comms
We love a challenge.
Our small, agile team of brand and innovation specialists is made up of strategic thinkers, designers and writers.
We’re good humans, with good brains not big heads – although our photos might suggest otherwise. Meet some of the team below.
Tony Ibbotson
Founder and Creative Director
The Creative Method is led by Founder and Creative Director, Tony – first and foremost a designer, but also author of several books on unleashing creativity, a sought after speaker on the design circuit, and all round legend at pub chat and All Blacks trivia.
Banished from his family’s wine estate until he developed a true appreciation for Marlborough grapes and soil, Tony embarked on a trip around the globe working with some of the world’s biggest brands and best creatives.
Armed with this wealth of knowledge and experience, he returned to Sydney to launch The Creative Method in 2005.
Tony’s genuine love of food, drink and design, and obsession with cracking the most challenging of briefs – large or small – has led to him becoming one of the most trusted creative partners in the Australian food and beverage industry today.
Paulina Larocca
Strategist and Innovation Specialist
Paulina has over 15 years’ experience training people in the science of creative problem solving and inspiring real-life business and cultural innovation in companies such as Diageo and Pernod Ricard Winemakers (PRW).
As Global Creativity and Innovation Director for PRW, Paulina transformed the organisation from traditional and conservative to one renowned for its cutting-edge, dynamic culture of innovation. As a result of her establishing the company’s Th!nk Creative Leadership Lab, PRW was featured in Australian Financial Review list of Australia’s Most Innovative Companies.
Paulina has a Master of Science in Creativity and Change Leadership from Buffalo State University of New York, is a graduate of THNK Creative Leadership School in Amsterdam and a Faculty Member at The School of Life. Paulina is an in- demand keynote speaker on creativity and innovation.
Lee Nicol
Creative and Copywriter
After years of torment for the size of his ears and being laughed at for looking like the boy on the front of Mad magazine, Lee’s dreams of a modelling career were short lived. He took solace in drawing, which led to his first true love – design.
Originally from Scotland, Lee cut his teeth in London’s bustling design scene, before his second true love – his wife – led him to settle in Australia.
As a creative, Lee has always loved both written and visual communication. Words and wordplay tend to drive everything he creates, which includes national campaigns and branding projects for some of Sydney’s most renowned studios and brands. Lee loves working on branding projects from early conception, hearing their stories of origin, discovering what makes organisations tick, and then helping them tell their story to the world in their own voice.
And for what it’s worth, he’s finally grown into those ears.
Lucy Ryan
Account Director
Lucy used to like it when things just looked nice. Now she loves to get under the skin of brands, working closely with clients to unleash all that they can become.
With a career starting in London 10 years ago, Lucy’s experience spans branding, packaging and marketing communications across local and global markets, with heavy involvement in strategic and innovation projects.
Lucy has worked with global corporations such as Unilever, Mars, Coca-Cola and CooperVision, down to the smaller guys such as Guzman y Gomez, Black Hawk and Taylors Wines, working across B2B and B2C to deliver high impact brands and campaigns.