The Drink Cart: Being Impossibly good.
The only newsletter where earnings calls, Thai hotels and Apple logos walk into a bar and teach you about craft.
Dear marketing fans and everyone who’s still designing for the grid.
While scrolling through approximately 400 social feeds and watching the algorithm serve me up the same carousel posts on repeat I’ve been thinking about this: What if the most radical thing a brand could do right now is just, be really, really good at design?
I know, I know. Revolutionary thinking from your booze-centric newsletter correspondent. But I stumbled on two things this week that made me actually stop scrolling, and in 2025, that’s basically a miracle.
First, everyone is talking about Quartr. You know, that qualitative research app that tracks boring-as-hell company earnings calls and investor updates? Oh you haven’t yet? Don’t worry, you will.
They’ve managed to make the most mundane info look impossibly cool. We’re talking moody colour palettes, minimalist editorial-level typography, art direction that makes you forget you’re looking at EBITDA discussions. They took the driest content in business and wrapped it in a visual language so compelling it proves design can make anything relatively cool.
It was crafted by just two self-taught designers who figured out how to “do a few simple things really well.” Just focus, craft, and an understanding that consistency beats complexity every single time.
But wait. There’s more. (And yes I’m doing the Shamwow infomercial voice in my head right now.)
Apple just dropped the behind-the-scenes of their new Apple TV logo animation and it’s made on REAL GLASS. Like, actual cut and polished glass. Filmed with practical effects. No CGI. No 3D modeling. Just craftspeople manipulating light and material to create a logo intro.
At a time when Coca-Cola is using AI to make entire Christmas ads (way to ruin the holidays, guys), Apple went the opposite direction. They hired TBWA Media Arts Lab to build a physical glass Apple TV logo and film it against changing coloured backgrounds. The highlights? Real. The chromatic aberration when it spins? Practical camera work. The whole thing? A love letter to the invisible work that goes into making TV.
Some people pointed out that CGI would’ve been cheaper and faster. And they’re missing the entire point. Apple’s VP of marketing literally said this approach reflects their focus on “tactile detail and camera-centric aesthetics.” It’s a flex. It’s saying: we still believe in craft when everyone else is automating.
Then there’s this quote from Indiana Marie Jeffreys that’s been living rent-free in my head. She was talking about the Thailand hotel Maison Mystique and said: “No influencers, no trending audio. Just world-class brand storytelling and high-concept art direction that says: you’re becoming part of something.”
That’s it, right? That’s the whole damn thing.
Scroll through Maison Mystique’s feed and it’s like falling into a portal. Deep emerald greens. Ornate architectural details. A kind of green-centric Wes Anderson fever dream. While every other hotel is chasing virality with brand collaboration merch and elaborate short films, Maison Mystique is over here building an entire visual world.
So what do a financial research app, a boutique hotel in Thailand and a two-second Apple TV logo have in common? They all understand that how something is made matters just as much as the end result.
Quartr took earnings calls (STUPID EARNINGS CALLS!) and turned them into something people actually seek out. Not because they gamified it or added trending audio or partnered with finfluencers. But because they committed to a singular aesthetic vision and executed it with such craft that it became its own competitive advantage.
Maison Mystique doesn’t even think it’s in the hotel business. They’re in the secret society business. Every touchpoint—website, physical spaces, social content—reinforces one cohesive world. It’s design as an invitation to experience hospitality where every single detail has been considered. And they don’t even post that much. And yet, I keep seeing their images in my feed.
And Apple? They spent who knows how much time and money filming real glass for two seconds of airtime. Because the craft IS the message. In an industry racing toward AI-generated everything, they’re saying: “We still believe in making things with our hands.”
And here’s what kills me: in an age where everyone’s scrambling to farm things out to AI and optimize for engagement—these brands just cracked the algorithm. They defined their own aesthetic territory and committed to it completely.
The Quartr designers learned to do a few things really well. Maison Mystique built a world instead of a feed. Apple filmed real glass when CGI would’ve been easier. All three prove that when you commit to excellence and execute with obsessive craft, you don’t need to chase attention. It finds you.
The question to ask, “What if we just got impossibly good at one thing?” Because the grid will still be there tomorrow. The algorithm will keep algorithming. The influencers will keep influencing.
Drink Cart Approved™ agency discussion topics
Stop using circle back. Start saying this instead.
Dole is inventing new fruits or variants of fruits? Meet the Colada Royale.
Something about these people who fall in love with their Chatbots is profoundly absurd.
It’s way to soon in the holiday season for Cheez-it gingerbread houses.
Brands haven’t made it until there’s wrapping paper.
That time cream cheese married a bagel after a corporate merger.
Ad History: Marlboro (until 1999)
Absolutely Iconic billboards on Sunset Boulevard.
Ad Hisotry: Time Life Treasury of Christmas Music (1986)
Instant nostalgia.
Tis the Season for jello salads
The Holly Berry Wreath is iconic.
Last call: The Drink Cart’s The River Styx
This one’s another Old Fashioned riff, perfect for late fall, that leans into coffee and chocolate territory. Think bourbon (sorry in this stupid province it has to be Rye), coffee liqueur, crème de cacao with bitters and allspice flavour doing the heavy lifting on complexity. I pulled this recipe from Pranthik Samal who learned it from Bar Kindred.
Here’s my take on it:
2 oz Rye Whiskey
1/2 oz Coffee Liqueur
1/2 oz Créme de Cacao
1 dash Angostura Bitters
1 sm. splash spiced rum mixed with simple syrup.
Stir with ice, then strain and pour over a proper cube.
The Drink Cart is your weekly fuel for pop culture brains and ad junkies. A cocktail of ad insights and hot takes that feel like you’re hanging at your favourite dive bar after launching your latest campaign.
That Apple TV logo animation is so pretty. And that little sound mark is icing on the cake.