While driving through Verona, NY (between Syracuse and Utica), I noticed this campaign sign for Mike Hennessy, a “fiscally conservative Democrat” running for the New York State Senate:

Here’s a better rendition of his logo:

(Photo source)

Patriotic, no doubt. The problem is, this logo was used once already. By a Republican. Running for president:

(Photo source)

Even the same color scheme. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any more information about the logo or any mention of it being a rehash (theft?) in any news article. Seems strange, though, that Mike Hennessy, a Democrat, is using Mitt Romney’s logo from his failed 2008 presidential campaign. But that’s politics, I guess.

Back in August, I mentioned I first saw the new Stop & Shop branding on the milk jugs and cartons.   In the post, I commented, “I hope this cohesion [of the new branding] is extended to their line of shredded cheese because it’s a mess.”   The cheese aisle in August:

Well finally this week, I noticed the new branding started creeping into the cheese packaging.

Great to see a more cohesive packaging in the Stop & Shop dairy aisle.   I’ll have more on Stop & Shop’s repackaging endeavor some other time.

I haven’t posted any branding/packaging images in a while, so here you go.   Recently at the grocery store, I discovered a mother lode of new packaging: General Mills cereals.   Except for the Kix packaging, the design seems retro, so I wonder if this is a limited-time redesign similar to the Oreo and Ritz redesigns from last summer or if this indeed a temporarily permanent redesign.   Either way, these look great.   Gone are the Americanized, ADHD-inspired design elements like arced balloon text and swirls within swirls.   Instead, we have simple text, simple layer styles, and simple design elements.

More please!

Black. Orange. Brazil. Rivers. A well known brand named after a famous Brazilian river perhaps?

The Brand Quiz tests your knowledge and color/visual association of specific brands.   For each question in the quiz, you’re presented with two colors from the brand, a visual clue, and a cryptic text clue.   Some are easy; others, not so much.

I scored 18/21 on my first trip through.   I’d love to know the answers of the ones I skipped over.

How did you score?

(Nod: Brand New)

I wrote back in April about the then-recently-redesigned Wheat Thins logo and packaging.   While I was doing my shopping today, I noticed this new packaging:

Curious, as they just redesigned their logo and packaging not too long ago.   Here’s the now-old packaging on the left with the new-new packaging on the right:

And here’s the then-old and then-new (but now-old) packaging I saw in April:

At least at my store, only the original and original reduced fat Wheat Thins have the new-new packaging, but according to the Wheat Thins website, all varieties are being re-branded.   As with the last redesign, I couldn’t find any press release or any other information on the redesign.

The new logo tosses the wheat icon that survived this year’s earlier redesign, and the text is decidedly more flamboyant than before.   Coupled with the logo, the exploding cracker with the various food items bursting from it definitely thrusts the energy level of the packaging to a new level.

So this year’s earlier redesign cleaned-up the logo and packaging, giving the brand a much-needed face-lift.   Now this redesign injects a sassy, energetic attitude into the packaging.

I liked the earlier redesign.   I like this one even better.   Excellent work, but curious why it happened.

When I do my grocery shopping, I usually walk up and down every aisle in the store 1) because walking around is enjoyable and 2) because I’m always on the lookout for new packaging design.

Well this week when I was at the store, I was walking down the personal care products aisle and had to do a double-take at the shampoo bottles.   At first, I thought the Pert shampoo was redesigned, but upon closer inspection, I discovered the bottle I was looking at was a Pert-Plus-look-alike.   The bottle was the generic Stop & Shop brand CareOne designed to look nearly identical to the national brand.

Curious, I only saw these types of look-alikes in the shampoo section. Here are the others:

…for packaging design, at least.   I found these a while back at Waldbaum’s.   The minimalism is striking compared to your average national brand.

I heard about this a while back, but recently, I finally saw for myself the special summer packaging for Ritz crackers and Oreo cookies at Target.   This packing is both retro and sparse.   How fun!

Ritz crackers (regular packaging on left, special packaging on right):

Oreo cookies (normal left, retro right):

Last August, Stop & Shop unveiled a new identity:

Curiously, though, none of the store-brand items in either of the two Stop & Shop stores I stop and shop in adopted this new branding.   I don’t know if other stores in more heavily-shopped areas adopted the new branding sooner, but finally this week, when I was milk shopping, I noticed the Stop & Shop milk jugs were rebranded (old design on the left, new on the right):

Here’s a closeup of the new label:

The cartons have been redesigned as well:

And:

A quick check on the other Stop & Shop items in the dairy case yielded one more find:

The new packaging finally makes use of the Stop & Shop rebrand, and the simplification and unification of the visual elements on the packaging offer a greater sense of visual unity and cohesion with the brand.

I hope this cohesion is extended to their line of shredded cheese because it’s a mess:

…as compared to this:

InstantShift has a very interesting article with excellent supporting images and commentary on the evolution of 20 corporate logos.

(Nod: @LogoDesignLove)

In conjunction with the soon-to-be-released Firefox 3.5, the Firefox logo received an update.   From Alex Faaborg, Principle Designer on Firefox:

The updated Firefox icon is based on sketches and conceptual artwork by Jon Hicks and Stephen Horlander.   It is also of course an evolution of the previous rendering of the Firefox icon which was created by Jon Hicks, based on a sketch by Stephen DesRoches and the creative direction of Daniel Burka and Steven Garrity.

This new logo was created by  Anthony Piraino from the  Iconfactory and is a marked improvement to the iconic logo.   The old rendering was good, suitable, and memorable.   The new logo retains the old logo’s feel and makes definite design improvements, rendering the fox smoother and with enhanced shading.   Although not drastically different than the old logo, the new logo doesn’t have to be.   The old logo worked; the new one works better.

New Firefox logo:

Old Firefox logo:

What I find more interesting about the updated Firefox logo is the transparent design process: Faaborg documented the process on his Mozilla blog giving readers updates and a peak into the behind-the-scenes back-and-forth of the process.   On his blog, Faaborg shared the Firefox team’s Creative Brief in preparation of the logo update:

In addition, Faaborg shared several iterations of the design while Piraino worked with the Firefox team to update the logo:

As well as the final iteration in context:

Many thanks to Faaborg and the design team for posting these images for all the world to see. Allowing us to see this usually internal process is both enlightening and fascinating.

On Brand New last week, I read Kraft is continuing their apparently on-going product redesign campaign (following, so far, Wheat Thins, Toasted Chips, and their shredded cheese line), this time with Miracle Whip.   So while I was at the grocery store, I stopped for a few snaps.   Below, the old logo and packaging on the left, the new on the right:

And the squeeze bottles:

Wow, what a transformation.   All the excessive text and over-designed elements have been jettisoned in favor of simpler, clearer designs and messaging.   Compared to the old design, the new Miracle Whip design has an almost retro feel to it, from the lack of crazy swirls and over-scripted word mark to the sparse background and simplified design elements.   But compared to other recent redesigns, this new packaging follows the trend of less-is-more.

Curious, too, is the treatment of the “NEW!” messaging on the new design versus the old design.   The old packaging has a bold and distracting “new” message, whereas the new design has a “new” message that better coheres with the design as a whole.

Several of these redesigns I’ve wrote about here make a great study in American packaging design.   We’ve become accustomed to the over-designed, compete-for-your-attention mess that is much of American packaging design.   Look at the old Baked! packaging as an example, the old Miracle Whip packaging as another, or many other brands at the grocery store.   This type of design is what we’ve come to expect from package design more is more.   Product packaging attempts to fit every possible bit of information and marketing ploy on them.   Marketers, executives, and designers somewhere, though, realized what a mess the American shopping experience has become and decided to change it.   In a packaging world where each package design tried to out-design the competitor, these new, simpler, and clearer designs come along and say, “Yeah, you have seventeen more typefaces and eighty-three more colors and text bursts than I do, but you all look the same.   Here I am ready to quietly stand out.”   And stand out they do compared to the over-designed chaos at the grocery store.

This new Miracle Whip packaging is another successful redesign from the Kraft Foods family.   What Kraft brand is next?

I was poking around Chris Creamer’s excellent website sportslogos.net the other day, and I browsed to the Cleveland Indians page.   For many MLB teams, Chris includes the logo for the team’s stadium if it has one.   Not being in Cleveland and not seeing Indians games on television, I wasn’t aware of the logo for Jacobs Field when it became Progressive Field last year.   Chris Creamer made me aware aware that the Progressive Field logo is an outstanding example of mundane inadequacy and mediocrity.

The logo for Jacobs Field does one very important thing: it clearly and uniquely represents the venue.   A unique architectural feature of the stadium is represented in the Jacobs Field logo.   This representation makes the logo a distinctive representation for Jacobs Field and Jacobs Field only.   The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame logo is similar in that it uses the facade of the building as its logo (which simultaneously represents an abstracted musical staff):

Both the Jacobs Field logo and the Rock Hall logo go beyond a simple graphic representation of their respective structures’ architecture and instead employ an abstraction of some architectural elements.   This abstraction gives both logos a stronger and more creative presence. The Jacobs Field logo:

…abstracts the three left-center field scoreboard lights (image from The Wiki):

And what does the Progressive Field logo have to offer in terms of unique representation of said venue?   The logo offers as much uniqueness as a seasonal cold offers happiness and cheer.   This logo could be for any baseball field even a local little league field.   Nothing about the Progressive Field logo is unique.   Swap the Indians logo for any other team’s logo, and you have yourself a new logo.

Furthermore, the Progressive Field logo looks like it was designed by a high-school student.   For such a professional use and venue, this logo is beyond amateur. In fact, this logo actually would be a better fit for a local little league field since the logo exudes as much talent and professionalism compared to the Jacobs Field logo as a little league team does compared to a major league team. The gradients are cheap, the strokes excessively heavy, and each element, together and separate, is so uninspired.

What a disappointment. As if changing the name of the field wasn’t bad enough, we get this mundane work of mediocrity. The logo for the Cleveland Indians stadium has become progressively bad.

On Monday, the Detroit Lions revealed a “new comprehensive brand” that included a new team logo.   From the press release:

“We will consistently present the Lions as a first-class organization with a clear sense of mission and direction,” [Lions President Tom] Lewand said. “We have made several significant changes this offseason in accordance with that commitment. The introduction of this new brand identity is another element of that process. Today is an exciting and historic day for this franchise.

“The new identity retains many important aspects of our history in terms of our primary mark and our colors. However, the evolution allows us to present our Lions brand and visual identity in new, versatile and distinctive ways. We stand firmly committed to improving the team on the field. That success is always the most determinative factor of any NFL brand.”

The old logo was awful and in desperate need of an update as it sort-of had the shape of a lion, but the head was more of a blob trying to evoke a lion-like animal.   A huge improvement, the new logo is merely an update rather than an overhaul, but it adds much-needed definition throughout the illustration: which legs are in the foreground and which are in the background are clear, the paws have discernible digits, the lion can see now with its new eye, and the lion can now take a bite out of something or someone.

The new logo is a definite improvement, but did it go far enough?   If the aim of the “new comprehensive brand” were to revitalize the team, perhaps an overhaul was needed in the logo instead of these refinements that make the new logo more of an evolutionary change and not a revolutionary change.

Past revolutionary changes to NFL logos include the Denver Broncos:

and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers:

The evolutionary refinements to the Lions logo were badly needed, and they help make the logo more successful overall.   I still wonder, though, if a revolutionary overhaul to the Lions’ brand might roar some life and vigor into the struggling team.   A new logo can’t solve all the team’s problems, but the freshness could go a long way as the Lions prey for more success next season.

(Old Lions logo and Broncos and Buccaneers logos from sportslogos.net; new Lions logo from The Wiki)

The Tropicana section of the orange juice aisle has been completely taken over by the old carton design.   The only new design left was the orange juice I buy, so I get to hang on to the new design for at least one more week.

Alex Bitterman, a former design professor of mine, sent me an article by David Kiley at BusinessWeek’s Brand New Day blog.   Kiley quotes Advertising Age:

After its package redesign, sales of the Tropicana Pure Premium line plummeted 20% between Jan. 1 and Feb. 22, costing the brand tens of millions of dollars. On Feb. 23, the company announced it would bow to consumer demand and scrap the new packaging, designed by Peter Arnell. It had been on the market less than two months.

Now that the numbers are out, it’s clear why PepsiCo’s Tropicana moved as fast as it did. According to Information Resources Inc., unit sales dropped 20%, while dollar sales decreased 19%, or roughly $33 million, to $137 million between Jan. 1 and Feb. 22. Moreover, several of Tropicana’s competitors appear to have benefited from the misstep, notably Minute Maid, Florida’s Natural and Tree Ripe. Varieties within each of those brands posted double-digit unit sales increases during the period. Private-label products also saw an increase during the period, in keeping with broader trends in the food and beverage space.

Wow, Tropicana lost $33 million in sales by redesigning their cartons.   I guess I would be hard-pressed to argue for keeping the redesigned cartons, too.   Yikes.   I think I may have been one of only two people who actually switched to Tropicana because of the new designs.   But I certainly didn’t buy $33 million worth of orange juice to make up the difference.

I’ve done much commentary on packaging redesign lately, but this past weekend I used several of the products I’ve blogged about. My happy family of packaging (taken with an actual camera and not my iPhone like my grocery store product shots):

How did I acquire these packages you ask (ok, you probably didn’t ask that, but I’m going to tell you anyway)? Since the launch of the then-new Tropicana packaging, I’ve purchased Tropicana orange juice, so I always have a carton in my refrigerator. A coworker of mine drinks Diet Pepsi, and at lunch one day, I commented how much I liked the Pepsi rebrand and specifically the Diet Pepsi can, so he brought me a can. Finally, this past weekend, I made a taco dip. The dip is topped-off with shredded cheese, and I needed nacho chips for dipping, so naturally I decided to buy Kraft shredded cheese and Baked! Tostitos because of their new packaging.

So if the aim of the packaging redesign was to get casual shoppers like me drawn to the products, I suppose the redesigns succeeded.

Shots of the individual packages:

Walking past the cheese section of the dairy aisle this weekend at the grocery store, I discovered Kraft shredded cheese packaging was redesigned. On the left, the new design; on the right, the old design:

Here are two old-design packages:

Two new packages:

Larger shots of the new packaging:

On the Kraft Foods website, I could’t find any more information other than this short blurb:

Kraft Natural Cheese has always given you the highest-quality pure cheese taste. Now you can get the same Kraft Natural Cheese you love in an exciting new contemporary package that puts the focus on freshness. We’ve even freshened up our on-pack recipes to offer great new ways for your family to enjoy delicious Kraft Natural Cheese. Look for our new package in your grocer’s dairy aisle now.

Another fine and successful redesign job for Kraft Foods following the Wheat Thins and Toasted Chips redesigns. In the old shredded cheese packaging, the packages for each cheese variety followed the same basic template, but typefaces and other design elements were wildly disparate. With this new packaging, however, the several cheese varieties now coexist in the same design with only slight modifications to differentiate the types of cheeses.

Showing something of a product before-and-after on the packaging is an interesting treat. We see the cheese on the packaging as chunks before it is shredded and through the packaging as the shredded end product.

One quibble I have is that the colored rectangle carrying the text of the cheese type seems mis-aligned, and if it were aligned with the white vertical rectangle carrying the chunks of cheese photography, I think the packaging would be visually stronger overall. I mocked this up (don’t mind the Photoshop skills here, I did this quickly):

Overall, though, the new packaging compared to the old packaging is cleaner and more unified across all the cheese varieties Kraft offers. To see another major brand shift toward simpler design is exciting. If this trend contiues in the Kraft Foods family, I can’t wait to see what’s next.

I assume when Nabisco, a Kraft Foods family member, rolled-out the Wheat Thins redesign, their Toasted Chips line was also redesigned.   Below, the old design on the left and the new design on the right:

New on the left, old on the right:

New design:

Much like the Snapple and Baked Lays redesigns, the Toasted Chips redesign steps-up the classiness of the packaging.   The photography and branding of each variety (“North End,” “Great Plains”) are a little curious as they don’t offer much, but the photography is nicely placed and unified with the other elements.

A few other curiosities: why does the sour cream and onion Ritz Toasted Chips packaging not feature green anymore?   Where did the Nabisco logo in the upper-left corner of the old design go?

Also, the bags appear to be made of a different material, and as a result are less shiny.

Overall, though, the new packaging is classier and simpler than the old packaging and is another welcomed step away from the over-designed boisterousness that plagues so much of American packaging design.

I went grocery shopping today, and I’d say at least half of my time at the store was occupied by taking pictures of products.   While I work on more in-depth posts, here’s this post for now of some miscellaneous snaps I took.

The simple design of O Olive Oil is stunning:

My favorite shots at the store are the comparisons:

The new Gatorade packaging:

I find this Gatorade packaging curious.   While I like the idea of breaking up the text, I wonder if the phrase “No Excuses” was divided appropriately because if you just glance at the bottles quickly, you may read “No Uses”:

I’m still loving the Pepsi redesign:

More later! :-)

What was that about me being obsessed with taking photos at the grocery store?

Apparently I missed this packaging and logo redesign when it happened (and I can’t find a press release or other information about it), but the Nabisco brand Wheat Thins is sporting a new logo and packaging design.   I snapped these at the grocery store this morning:

Old packaging on the left, new packaging on the right:

Another brand turning to a simpler, cleaner design, offering American consumers a welcomed break from the over-designed mess that is much of our visual stimuli on our products and our media.

If you’ve been around here long enough, you already know my disappointment with the decision by Tropicana to, what I call, un-design their juice cartons.   I’m very upset at the abandonment in favor of blah design.   Critics charged that the new design was “generic.”   Again, the new design:

But a quick look at four other carton designs, including the old (new?) Tropicana design, really shows how generic orange juice carton design is:

The Tropicana redesign actually made the cartons stand-out more because they didn’t look like every other orange juice carton.   But because the designers went for a simpler and more elegant design and execution, people cried “generic.”   Were the new designs perfect?   No, they weren’t, but instead of simply trashing the designs, why not modify them to placate the masses?   How about a hybrid of the two designs?   Ugh, how frustrating.

At work, we have Flavia coffee machines that make a single cup of coffee. You select the coffee blend you want, stick the packet in the machine, press a couple of buttons, and you get a freshly brewed cup of coffee (I don’t drink coffee, so I can’t vouch for the taste or quality).

The brewing machine (image from Flavia):

I noticed this week, Flavia, a division of Mars (the M&Ms and Snickers people), redesigned their logo and their coffee packets. From an October 2008 press release:

After launching almost 25 years ago, Mars ® Drinks is proud to unveil a brand refresh for FLAVIA ®, its groundbreaking linke of single-serve beverage systems. With a new tagline – “Think Fresh” – as well as exciting new packaging, FLAVIA ® will make freshness, choice and convenience center stage to further solidify its role as a leader in workplace beverages.

Mars ® Drinks knows how important fresh, quality beverages are to keep employees’ workdays running smoothly and its FLAVIA’s unique 3-step process, Source. Seal. Serveâ„¢, does just that: ensures each delicious cup is fresh and full of authentic flavor. FLAVIA’s new brand elements showcase this dedication, highlighting the freshness of the beverages each and every time they are served.

“Our new packaging features crisp and modern designs, showcasing the authentic ingredients inside every FLAVIA pack,” said Nick Branden, General Manager, Mars Drinks North America. “We are passionalte about freshness and want our customers to know that only FLAVIA fresh packs are specifically designed to make sure that each beverage tastes as fresh as if it was brewed at the source of origin.”

Here are some snaps I took of the old and new coffee packets at work:

The logo is curious, mostly upper-case with a giant, lower-case ‘f’ at the beginning of the wordmark. The “lavia” characters go well together, even the check-mark-esque ‘v,’ but the ‘f’ seems tacked-on to the more cohesive remainder of the wordmark. Furthermore, the descender of the ‘f’ looks prematurely cut-off by the encasing oval. But with the slightly italicized and less-bold typeface, the new logo is less imposing than the old logo and is simplified by the removal of the wisp-like extensions on the white shape behind the text.

The new packaging is also less imposing and is far more attractive and elegant than the old packaging. Solid black has been replaced with an expanded color range to differentiate the several coffee blends and coffee bean photography that is as attractive as coffee bean photography comes.

For the coffee bean photography, having individual coffee bean photography for each coffee blend would have given the blends and their packaging a little more uniqueness. French roast, house blend, and Italian roast use the same bean photo.

Overall, the new packaging is a success. The product is more attractive and inviting, and the design is still clean and simple, which is always a winner in my book.

I think I’m becoming obsessed with finding products at the grocery store to take pictures of.   While I was going up an down the aisles, I stumbled on these Baked Lay’s bags sporting a new design:

The announcement sticker on an old package of Baked Ruffles:

I only saw these designs at my grocery store, but after some research on The Internets, I discovered the entire line of Baked products is being redesigned.   From the FritoLay snack blog:

We redesigned the packages to improve their appeal to consumers looking for healthier products and to increase the snack’s visibility on store shelves.

I assume the new packaging coincides with the new Lay’s brand campaign:

Lay’s Classic Potato Chips America’s favorite potato chip has launched a new brand campaign with TV, print, and a redesigned lays.com. The campaign introduces a new theme line, “Happiness is Simple,” designed to celebrate Lay’s place in Americana and its role in bringing people together for life’s simple pleasures.

FritoLay is, of course, owned by PepsiCo.   The folks at Pepsi have been enjoying themselves lately, redesigning everything that isn’t bolted down.   Here is the entire Baked line from fritolay.com:

And from Twig & Thistle, the old packaging:

The new packaging by Hornall Anderson is fantastic for several reasons.   First, the new packaging clearly pays homage to the previous design with the same general layout (“Baked!” at the top, product logo in the middle, product image at the bottom) and the sun burst.   Second, the new packaging is a simpler and more elegant execution.   By comparison, the old packaging looks crazy and is certainly not helped by the almost obnoxious sun burst, which in the new packaging is tastefully dialed-back.   Third, the new packaging has a greater cohesion across the several products.   While each product in the old package design followed the same basic layout formula, fonts, type treatment, and imagery were all inconsistent across each product (e.g. why aren’t the two Ruffles logos the same?).   The new packaging is more harmonious and consistent: all the product photos are spilling from the right, all the flavor text (“Original,” “Sour Cream & Onion,” etc.) is identical (except for the Cheetos flavor text).   Fourth, the new designs just make the product look and feel like a healthier snacking option than regular chips.

Terrific job.