Bonnie Clyde’s rebrand by Mouthwash Studio is a Shakespearean world

Bonnie Clyde’s Baby frames catapulted the Los Angeles-based eyewear label from a niche creative following into the mainstream, and Founder Jon Yuan took that as his moment to go to the next level. He started the label in 2016 out of his family’s four-decade eyewear manufacturing business, building it on “90s-inspired frames and an ethos that says ‘No! to cynicism’” and instead embraces love and self-expression. “Baby brought a huge influx of new customers, and, quite frankly, we were still figuring out who we were speaking to,” Yuan tells us. “Repeating what was working and chasing the next trend started to feel soulless.” For the rebrand, Bonnie Clyde turned to Mouthwash Studio with a remit covering narrative, strategy, graphic identity, digital and motion design, and the website. “I basically asked them to build Noah’s Ark,” Yuan explains. “The ambition was so big, and there was so much work involved.” “I wanted people to look back at the 2020s and 2030s and think, ‘Shit, those decades were so Bonnie Clyde.’ Obviously, you cannot just brief someone to make something iconic, but that was the level of ambition,” he continues. “More than a product silhouette, a celebrity co-sign or a campaign launch,” Mouthwash Studio’s Strategy Director Alex Tan notes, “what makes Bonnie Clyde special is the team driving it forward. So it wasn’t a matter of if they break out of their niche, but when.” The Los Angeles-based design studio came back with a Shakespearean world – rooted in love and wide enough to take in play, artistry, storytelling and self-expression.