Storytellers create worlds for audiences to inhabit, regardless of the medium. What makes those worlds so magnetic is that they tap into our need to feel seen, to find meaning, and to connect. These needs don’t disappear when the story takes the shape of a product, a brand, or a place. If anything, it becomes an opportunity. Just as a book is built on elements like character, audience, tone, and subject matter, the same principles of constructing a narrative apply to storytelling across every other form.
The story of Nowadays began as an untitled cleaning cube project that came to us at the very start of its journey. It had no face nor voice, but a strong sense of direction set on transforming the everyday cleaning experience into an effortless and enjoyable one.
“Who are you?” “What do you stand for?” These are the same questions you’d ask when building any compelling character. Before building a world, you need to understand what drives the character at its core so that every subsequent decision moves with purpose. In Nowadays’ case, that purpose was clear from the start. To transform cleaning into what it should have always been: simple and approachable. The kind of brand that gives busy people back their time, ease, and peace of mind.
Cleaning had long meant heavy bottles, confusing measurements, and products that promised a lot while asking even more of you. Their story cut through all of that with a disarmingly simple truth: “This should be so much easier.” The promise was the reclamation of time and energy through a clean home, a clear conscience, and more room for what actually matters. It showed up as early as the color: vibrant and full of life, a visual declaration that this brand takes its job seriously without ever taking itself too seriously.
The cubes themselves also helped to point the way; the contrast between size and power was more than a functional detail but a creative compass. The clearest expression of our story came through the helpers: illustrated cube characters shown lifting loads of laundry, tackling dishes, and carrying toilet cleaning supplies without a single complaint. More than a design choice, they were the product brought to life; the brand’s most direct translation of its promise to show up and make things easier. Lifestyle photography extended the world further still, placing the product inside real moments with the same playful energy that ran through everything else.
But perhaps the most important thing storytelling does at this stage is leave room for the consumer to bring their own imagination, context, and connection to it. The story doesn’t end when the brand speaks but continues in the mind of whoever receives it.
Storytelling is hiding in plain sight. It’s the ongoing texture of human experience, the way we make sense of things and pass that meaning on to others, and perhaps the clearest expression of what human creativity is capable of.
What Nowadays reaffirms is that it isn’t a standalone element you layer on top, but something that runs through everything, mutually reinforcing itself at every turn. From a color choice to a line of copy, from an icon on a package to the feeling a customer gets when they pick it up. None of it works in isolation.
As for us, our stories are continuously being written one experience, connection, and decision at a time.
