2009 Design Prediction: Generic-Modern
I know, I know… the only thing designers complain about more than corporate branding is corporate branding redesign. Both Pepsi and Tropicana unveiled new brand designs in the past few weeks. From the looks of it, the marketing department finally decided to modernize the brands, as designers across the world had hoped for years. Yes, we had been begging them to control all the starbursts, call-outs, dropshadows, glow effects, and whiz-bangs in their packaging. We had hoped for a controlled color palette and streamlined information. From the looks of it, they really did remove everything – including the spirit of the brands.
First let’s start with Tropicana. For as long as I can remember, the brand symbol was an orange with a straw poking out of it. Hokey? Maybe, but it was a brand staple that positioned them as the freshest orange juice on the market – straight from the grove. While I can’t argue that I liked the look of the old Tropicana packaging, at least it had an angle. They’ve replaced the image of the orange with a straw with a simple glass of orange juice and the copy “100% Orange.” It feels very grocery-store brand. There’s really no concept behind the design at all. Furthermore, we’re finally catching up with the sans-serif revolution, except here it just seems lifeless and flat.
I don’t know what to say about Pepsi. On one hand, I want to commend them for the huge task of removing all the excess clutter on the packaging. I would say this stripped down look would be considered modern and radical ten years ago, but now it just feels stale. They’re one of the few companies with such widespread recognition that they can boldly rely on a symbol, color and name to sell the product. I don’t necessarily think that gives them a pass to abandon all concept and meaning, though. While I personally miss some of the brand identities from Pepsi’s past (specifically the 1940 and 1984 brand designs), my guess is that they’re trying to set themselves apart from Coca-Cola (the classic) with a modern look (the choice of a new generation). Fine, then why not do really modern instead of hanging on to a look that was trendy ten years ago? Develop the look of a new generation rather than the look of a generic-modern generation.
As for me, I’m going to make a personal resolution for 2009 to try to use sans-serif typefaces more carefully, and take a break from a few of the overused (ahem.. Chalet).
Only thing designers do more it seems is complain about corporate redesigns without any real merit other than their own subjective/artistic opinion. I yearn for the day when a designer actually debunks a redesign on merit vs. “I don’t like it, because I don’t like it.”
I’m not a big fan of either redesign at first pass – but I’m also waiting to see what they surround it with, or how it looks on the shelf, or even start to see how it extends.
I’d love to understand or try to assimilate to the business challenge it’s trying to overcome, fortify, change, uphold, etc. before whaling away at it.
By: James on January 7, 2009 at 4:29 pm
But I do like the little leaves tranforming the cap into an orange. Unfortunately it has no relationship to the glass of juice. Or anything else in the design.
By: Angie on January 8, 2009 at 12:25 pm
I agree!!! The Tropicana redesign is a disaster!!! No hierarchy whatsoever and even the glass used is horrible! You can’t really tell on the photo but the glass actually extends up to the little cap – it’s a very soft grey… everybody I spoke to thought they were buying the a generic brand of OJ.
If you visit the link below you can see where the designers started which wasn’t as bad as this – somewhere along the way the OJ must have gotten really watered down:
http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/pepsi_takes_the_tropic_out_of.php
As far as Pepsi I also agree – it’s great that they are trying to clean up their act but they’ve abandoned a beloved history in favor of something that seems like a cross between the Girl Scouts of America
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4c/Girl_Scouts.svg/394px-Girl_Scouts.svg.png
and Korean Airlines
http://www.koreanair.dk/
The only example I’ve seen in this clean sans serif uprising that works is Tylenol
http://www.artandscienceblog.com/blog2/chickensoup_TylenolFeelBetterAd.jpg
They’ve kept the logo and basically cleaned up everything around it… clever.
By: J to D on January 8, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Hi Angie – unfortunately even the nice small touches like the leaf on the cap were removed in the final design. Here are what the products actually look like.
By: ellen on January 8, 2009 at 4:03 pm
I’m wondering why Pepsi changed their logo? I was watching TV the other day and saw a Carnival Cruiseline commercial where they blow up a giant beach ball and bounce it on the city streets. The look at the end of the commercial stuck in my head so that when the new Pepsi commercial came on later I thought it was another Carnival commercial. Then, just for fun, they actually played the two commercials back-to-back, which I think was bad for both companies. If you look, the logos are sort of similar now. The tags were very close too. One said All for Fun and Fun for All; the other said All for One and One for All. Anyway thanks for the post Sheri, I was sort of thinking the same things… at least for Pepsi.
By: Stephanie on January 8, 2009 at 7:09 pm
[...] controversial new packaging that hit the stores a few weeks ago. When we first saw the redesign, we had the same reaction much of the public did: yikes. The rebranding seemed to strip Tropicana from its identity and [...]
By: reactions » Blog Archive » Overthinking It: When Design Misses the Mark on March 12, 2009 at 10:43 am