Making BAD Look Good

When I first started working with MEGABAD, I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. A massive online retailer for bathroom products – everything from faucets to toilet bowls – MEGABAD is a household name in Germany, but let’s be honest: the brand was anything but sexy.

Even the name MEGABAD (literally “Mega Bath” in German) reads like a joke in English: mega bad. Not exactly what you want when you’re aiming for international growth.

But rather than starting from scratch, we leaned in. Loud? Let’s be bold. Trashy? Let’s own it. Uncool? Let’s make that cool. Because BAD doesn’t just mean bath – BAD can also mean badass. That mindset became our creative lever.

The turning point was a simple but bold idea. Before a presentation by one of MEGABAD’s Managers (Hans Dohrmann) at K5 Berlin – one of Germany’s leading e-commerce conferences – I created a hoodie and t-shirt design. Bold and with just one word on it: BAD. It was a humorous and self-aware statement that made an impact without needing many words.

And it worked. People noticed. The CEO got comments. Team members wanted the hoodie. Today, many employees wear it proudly – not as a uniform, but as a statement. Internally and externally, the hoodie became a symbol of brand ownership, self-irony, and surprisingly: pride. People didn’t just work for MEGABAD – they were BAD.

What started as a spontaneous piece of merch turned into something bigger: a new energy around the brand. We even joked about launching a revenue stream from it.

Behind the scenes, the hoodie was just the tip of the iceberg. Over the past 2–3 years, I’ve been deeply involved in a wide range of brand-building and design work for MEGABAD and the broader Swash Group – contributing across strategy and execution.

I played a key role in shaping the brand positioning and identity principles, supported the development of the overall brand architecture, and contributed to the portfolio brand strategy and management.

I was closely involved in the visual and UX redesign of MEGABAD’s landing pages and banners, co-developed the premium sub-brand LMdB, and collaborated on building the full brand identity and digital presence for the Swash Group.

In parallel, I shaped the visual language for employer branding, directed people photography, and developed creative visions for both the MEGABAD Showroom and Outlet Store concepts.

In many of these projects, I collaborated closely with Meike Quentin (communications) and Sophie Müller (marketing). Together, we became the unofficial external marketing unit – internally known as Team BAD.

This project taught me something simple but powerful:
You don’t always need to reinvent everything. Sometimes the raw material is already there – you just have to flip the perspective.

By embracing the “BAD” in MEGABAD, we didn’t just update a brand – we unlocked a new way of seeing it. And when people feel that shift – employees, customers, even random hoodie enthusiasts – that’s when a brand really comes to life.