Taco Bell Logo Refresh

Many years ago, I travelled across the USA. It was an incredible experience that I will always cherish. Business has kept me traveling back and I have since designed branding and packaging for some of the countries largest retailers. One of my memories of my time traveling the US was the bright branding used by the many of fast food companies. Competition in the US was so much greater than that of the UK, where at the time I had travelled from. Now living in Cape Town many of the chains are starting to appear here. We recently saw the arrival of Dunk'in Donuts. I am not necessarily, someone that frequents fast food establishments, but the branding is of interest to me. I love how some are stooped in the history of 1950's America. I also love how they have subtly changed over the years. To read through some of my older posts, there are stories on the evolution of Burger King and Ihop.

Taco Bell is another of the brands that I did not got to see, growing up in the UK. Back in 2002, when I travelled extensively throughout so many of the countries states, Taco Bell, the brand and the concept was very new to me! In particular in LA, I was amazed by the rich Mexican food culture! The company was established in 1962 in California. Full company history here!

I can still distinctly remember seeing a blast from the past in the old brown and yellow, 1985 Taco Bell logo, still being used back in 2002. Reading through the design press, I was interested to see that Taco Bell was going through a subtle rebranding. One area of change that I really like is the new fonts used on the word-mark. See below for more news on this:


Brown and yellow Taco Bell Logo 1985-1994

Before and after - Left: How I remember the logo from my trip across US in 2002. Right: The 2016 redesign.

Below - From the Taco Bell company website, discussing new re brand.

Brand Evolution – 25 Years in the Making
While Taco Bell restaurants have seen continuous evolution, the logo has remained unchanged. In fact, the previous logo made its debut back in 1995.

In what the brand terms an “evolution, not revolution,” the new logo mirrors the new restaurant strategy: one size doesn’t fit all. In this modern take, color makes a splash and allows customization through patterns and textures, giving usage flexibility while maintaining its iconic framework.

Digital rollout of the logo refresh takes place today, while physical assets like restaurant design, packaging and impacted retail partners will roll out more gradually, depending on development and refresh timelines.

The refreshed logo was created is partnership with the leading creative consultancy Lippincott and Taco Bell’s internal design group, TBD.

Unveils Flagship Restaurant in Las Vegas, New Logo, and the Taco Bell Experience of the Future

Irvine, Calif. (November 14, 2016) – Taco Bell makes its debut on the Las Vegas Strip today, becoming the brand’s 7,000th restaurant and first flagship destination.

Alongside its opening, Taco Bell revealed its first logo refresh in over 20 years and follows the recent unveiling of new restaurant design concepts. These latest developments represent the brand’s evolution and growth plan to become a $15 billion brand by 2022 while adding 2,000 new restaurants globally and 100,000 new jobs in the U.S.

“If you’re going to throw a party to celebrate the growth and evolution of your brand, there’s no better place to hold it than Las Vegas,” said Taco Bell CMO, Marisa Thalberg. “This flagship restaurant is our ultimate expression of the Taco Bell brand, and lifestyle."

A Flagship Experience
Las Vegas becomes the fourth Taco Bell Cantina restaurant to open, following Wicker Park Chicago, SOMA San Francisco and Austin, and the first of its kind to offer 24-hour service. The flagship restaurant is centrally-located on the Las Vegas Strip on Harmon Corner, directly across from CityCenter and The Cosmopolitan Hotel.

The restaurant will offer a dining atmosphere fit for the lifestyle of the Vegas Strip, inclusive of experiences unique to Taco Bell Cantinas:

• Retail: The Taco Bell retail experience is the latest example of how the brand looks to create new cultural ground. For the first time, customers can now purchase exclusive Taco Bell merchandise and memorabilia in the restaurant. Selections include limited edition Las Vegas branded retail and newly designed brand merchandise, ranging from hats, shirts and bags to bikinis, rings and sweatshirts. Select branded merchandise will also be available online in Taco Bell’s Taco Shop.
• Freeze Wall: Eight Freeze drink taps line the back wall. Equipped with eight base flavors (Margarita, Cola, Pina Colada, Lemonade, Orange, Baja Blast, Cherry and Blue Raspberry), customers can add alcohol (Tequila, Rum, Vodka, Whiskey and Spiced Rum) and additional flavors for customized concoctions. Both Freezes and Twisted Freezes (those including alcohol) will be served in 16 or 32oz. souvenir cups.
• Technology: The flagship restaurant will feature digital menu boards and digital ques to monitor your order process, in addition to portable ordering tablets to reduce wait times. The 16 screens lining the interior wall will feature entertainment, live-stream video, sports and social media conversation.
• Transparency: An open kitchen design and food served in open-faced baskets gives customers a look inside Taco Bell’s quality ingredients.
• Shareables: Cantina restaurants feature a tapas-style menu of shareable appetizers – including nachos, quesadillas and chicken fingers, in addition to the full craveable and affordable Taco Bell Menu.
• Vegas Touches: Dedicated space for DJ entertainment, Wall of Taps, outdoor misters and heaters, community style seating, VIP lounges and unique custom artwork will also be featured. The two story building is faced with a wall of glass, an upstairs mezzanine and lounge overlooking the action and an outdoor patio right in the middle of it all on Harmon Corner and the Vegas Strip.

 

You can read original article from Taco Bell Site by clicking here.

Origin of the Red Bull Brand

I will always remember my first trip to Thailand! It was one of those life affirming moments, a sensory overload of experience and learning!!! Travelling has been a great way for me to experience other brands and how consumers interact with them on a daily basis. Brands that I have never seen before visiting that country. Brands that are like the ones I grew up with but different! I love it. 

One of the most confusing for me was seeing what look liked the Red Bull brand, but when I tasted the product, it wasn't fizzy and was a lot thicker and more like a syrup. It seemed stronger in it's effects and they were sellking T shirts everywhere with the two bull branding on. It looked like the brand, but the product was different. Over the years, I read more and started to understand why this was. The following excerpt explains why this was!

I found this excerpt from global design agency, JKR's book 'Champions of Design 4', and it's a really interesting read, especially if like me, you were once confused why it tasted so differently in Thailand! The article was also featured on David Ariey's blog 'Logo Design Love.'

JKR's Champions of Design series, examines the history of some of the worlds most recognised brands. In this particular article, they feature the history and success of Red Bull. It's an absolutely fascinating story! Enjoy!

Under the leadership of Austrian brand owner Dietrich Mateschitz, Red Bull’s epic forays into art, racing, flying and even space have made the brand a global phenomenon. In terms of experience and communication, Mateschitz’s company added incalculable value to the brand. Where they didn’t add value was the design of the original Thai energy drink. And that of course, is what has added value. Sometimes, knowing when not to meddle with the magic is the thing that makes the magic itself.



In the 1970s, Red Bull was being marketed at farmers, construction workers and truck drivers in Thailand. Krating Daeng (‘Red Bull’ in Thai) was a populist drink for the working man: one that allowed you to overcome fatigue, pull a double shift, or drive all night.

It formed a long-standing association with Muay Thai (Thai kick boxing), which gave it popularity and street cred. With a potent mix of sugar, caffeine and taurine all packed up in a small medicinal brown glass bottle with a bright, colourful label, Red Bull became something of a success amongst its working-class consumer base.

It started with a humdrum business trip to Thailand for Austrian Dietrich Mateschitz. He stumbled across the drink and apparently discovered that it ‘cured’ his jet lag. In partnership with Thai inventor Chaleo Yoovidhya they launched a version of the Thai drink slightly modified to suit European tastes. The rest, as they say, is history.

Red Bull’s evolution from quirky local drink to global mega-brand is a master-class in how to execute a brilliantly joined-up communications idea across big-idea events. But it’s also a lesson in the value of restraint and sensitivity. When Mateschitz decided to launch ‘Krating Daeng’ in Austria, he was careful to retain the iconography of the brand, leaving its charging bulls virtually untouched. He recognised, perhaps, that a sense of the ‘foreign’, the exotic, the quirky and the doubtless potent would be positive associations for a new energy drink brand.

Design icons aren’t built overnight, and knowing when not to change them is a valuable skill. So now the world is richer for having two Red Bull brands that are of course, same same but different.

Did you know?

Thanks to Red Bull, its co-owner, Dietrich Mateschitz is the richest man in Austria.

Red Bull owns four football teams (based in Leipzig, Salzburg, New York and Campinas in Brazil) and two F1 outfits. Its F1 operation is said to cost the company half a billion dollars annually.

Red Bull racing hold the record for the fastest ever pit stop, timed at 1.923 seconds at the Austin GP in 2013.

As well as its famous extreme sport sponsorship, the company also promotes a paper airplane tournament called Red Bull Paper Wings.

New Logo For MasterCard Designed By Pentagram

The new logo for Mastercard, designed by Pentagram, has been raising eyebrows online and seems to be dividing the design industry on whether people are in favour or not.

I for one am a huge fan of the new design! I love how Pentagram have looked back at the heritage of the logo and brought back original elements, yet balanced it perfectly to create a brand-mark that is ultimately very modern and uncluttered. This is most evident within the choice of a clean and modern type style that has been employed, all in lower case and now moved below the symbol for the first time. This logo is a success for me in the same way that the updated Google logo was last year. Great branding is about creating a simple iconic message. Look at Apple, Nike or what the red cross means to us all. These are forms at their simplest that instantly connect with us and this is why the pared down and modenised re-working is so successful for me. What are your thoughts on the revised, paired down design?

Below is the press release from Mastercard.

The digitization of commerce processes and increased connectivity of consumers is driving a digital transformation that will provide seamless payment choices. To reflect a readiness and optimism about this transformation, Mastercard is introducing an evolution of its brand identity - simplified, modernized and optimized for an increasingly digital world. The brand identity starts with a new brand mark, and plays out in a holistic design system that will bring a forward-thinking, sophisticated and inclusive brand expression to every touch point around the world.

The evolved brand identity, including the most comprehensive brand design system ever introduced globally within Mastercard, will be rolled out to all Mastercard products, communications, and experiences, starting with Masterpass later this month, and across Mastercard beginning in the fall.
 

Sainsbury's Design Studio 1962-1977

I am an avid collector of design books and on a recent trip back to the UK, I stumbled across a fantastic book containing a veritable gold mine of vintage Sainsbury’s packaging, chronicling the years 1962 to 1977.

The books forward tells the story of the author, Jonny Trunk and his search for a particular 1970 Sainsbury’s pack design for cornflakes that he had memories of from his childhood. On calling the retailers head office, he discovers that there’s a huge archive of pristine Sainsbury’s own label packaging dating back from the 1960’s and onwards. An ideal subject for a book!

There is also an essay from Emily King, which gives an insight into the relationship between the company director, forward thinking JD Sainsbury and the visionary designer Peter Dixon who founded the Sainsbury’s in house creative studio and spearheaded it’s unique pack designs.

  

 

Also of note is the important role that the company played in society. Britain was going through a period of social change in the 1960’s/70’s and the supermarket evolved with its costumers. This including working mothers who strived for quick, convenient meals to fit with their busy lives and those who had just taken their first foreign holidays and wanted more exotic ingredients. Although my family didn’t travel overseas whilst I was growing up (our holidays were in North Devon), I can still fondly remember the introduction from meat and two veg, to Indian curries and Italian spaghetti bolognese. With its use of san serif typography, bold colour and form, the packaging design represented modernity within this time of great social and economic change.

Being born in Britain in the early seventies, I had huge waves of nostalgia looking through the pages and remembering some of the distinctive designs. These works really did become the fabric of daily life in Britain. The design for the coke tin, using the company logo on a slant to represent a straw would never get through the rigid rules and guidelines set out by the brand experts of today, but somehow gives so much character and identity to the design. These days, some may see naivety from a time gone by, yet others (like me) will appreciate its concept! JD Sainsbury wasn’t always keen on the slanting of the company logo but this further emphasises the full backing that he gave to designer Peter Dixon. The book also recalls how teachers would cut out the orange discs from the cornflakes packs to represent coins whilst teaching school children about money!

  

This gem of a book currently sits in pride of place at my design studio. After being based in Cape Town for over half a decade it feels like a fantastic snap shot of design and of a changing society in a country and time for which I was born and raised. A time long before the invention of the Apple Mac and Adobe software it shows how concept rules over tools and technology! I can’t recommend this book enough.

The book is written by Jonny Trunk and published by Fuel: www.fuel-design.com

Article originally published by Todd Anderson at The Design Life

Cosmoprof Bologna 2016 - Trend Report / Branding & Packaging Highlights

A good deal of my branding and packaging design projects are within the cosmetic and beauty industry and since 2003 I have been travelling to Cosmoprof and Cosmopack in Bologna, Italy. The fair is the Worlds largest beauty fair and is a the place to get an insight into the industry's newest fashions and trends.

Here are some of my brand and packaging highlights from this years Cosmoprof Bologna fair.



I felt really uncool at this years show. I was one of the only men without a beard and when I say beard, I mean a huge beard!  A whole industry has appeared over the past six months. Beard products!!!



I really liked the design for the global Cosmoprof shows. It reminded me of past Adobe identity's.

The Origin of Branding

In today's world of business a brand is likely to be a corporation’s most valuable asset. It's the DNA of most companies and represents everything that a business or its products stand for. An example of this is Apple's minimalist branding that depicts quality and craftsmanship whilst Oxfam's visual language illustrates a non profit charity with a logo that looks like it hadn't been designed by an agency, although of course it more than lightly has been! Brands have become the fabric of our lives, we put trust in them and without knowing it they guide and aspire us.

So what is the origin of branding? Well the word itself comes from the old Norse "Brandr", meaning "to burn", however its believed that branding could possibly be traced back even further, as far as 3000BC with archaeologists finding evidence of the Babylonians using advertising to encourage buyers to purchase goods. Branding of timber and cattle using hot iron rods to burn marks that depict ownership goes back as far as 2000BC. Potters used marks on porcelain in China, India, Greece and Rome from 1300BC. In England in the 1200s, bread makers and goldsmiths were required to put marks on their products to illustrate virtue of measurement. Between 1600 and 1800, Slaves would again be burnt with brand marks as a symbol of ownership. Criminals would also be branded as a form of identification and sometimes punishment.

Incidentally, the word Maverick, which has become a term to mean independently minded, originates from 1867 and the Texas land baron Samuel Maverick and his refusal to brand his cattle. Over the years to follow, the word Maverick became a generic fraise attributed to unbranded cattle.

But the invention of the printing press by German, Johannes Gutenberg in 1448, made a significant shift in the development of branding for use of advertising and away from the negative and cruel manner to illustrate ownership and punishment. This advancement of printing became very popular in Europe and set the stage for information being distributed.

However, branding as we know it today really started to emerge in the 19th Century with the industrial revolution and the rise of goods being packaged. Many producers of household goods wanting to sell their products to a wider market moved away from local communities to central factories.

Due to the familiarity of the locally produced products the large central factories struggled to find a way to generate trust in their products, but soon realised that shipping their merchandise with insignias, symbols and logo’s created a familiarity and gave a sense of endorsement and a seal of approval. In addition, unique names and colourful packaging added personality, differentiating the product to others in the same category. Information could also be added to a package to increase its usefulness.

Throughout this series we will bring the story of branding and packaging up to the present day, looking at current brands in the digital age, but for now this brings us nicely to part 2 of the series where we will take a look at the world’s first trademarked brand. Coming soon to the Design Life.

I am very keen that my blog supports local, up and coming talent. The incredible paintings of well known brands that I have featured in the opening image to this article are the work of Durban artist Morgan Rieket. I was absolutely blown away when I saw a selection of his work in the offices of a printers I use in KwaZulu-Natal. To see more of Morgans work please click here.

Coca Cola's Innovation In Design

Back in 2011 I attended a presentation by David Butler, Coca-Cola's VP of innovation and he outlined how the company were using revolutionary systems to operate on a global scale. This included designing their vending machines so that they could be easily modified to accommodate the vast stable of brands owned by the company and interchangeable languages for use throughout the world. David's presentation was an inspiration in both business agility and creating modular systems.

Coca-Cola have continued to innovate! A little earlier this year Coke announced that they had created the world's first plastic bottle made entirely from plant-based material. Coke partnered with Varent for the project who are creating chemicals and fuels using renewable resources to replace crude oil. With the plant bottle project Varent used BioForming technology that converts starches and sugars found in plants to produce the plastic. Incredibly, the plant bottle feels just like a normal PET plastic bottle.

Another recent breakthrough within their packaging design was to replace it's iconic branding and to print thousands of different peoples names on bottle labels. This was achieved with an innovatory use of digital printing techniques. The brands strong use of colour and form allowed it to maintained the products identity.

This has recently be taken one step further with the company releasing a version of it's classic red and white can without text and just it's iconic white swoosh. A similar approach was recently used when UK's Selfridges department store stocked iconic products with their band names removed This including Marmite and Heinz baked beans and Ketchup. You can read more by clicking here.

The decision to remove all copy from coke cans has more depth than just aesthetics though! These innovative coke cans will launch in the middle east over the month of Ramadan.

The Dieline website features a quote from the company:

"Coca-Cola has shared the first-ever “No Labels” cans as part of a social experiment idea during Ramadan. The cans are created to make a compelling point about removing stereotyping and prejudices. The message on the cans spells out their purpose, sharing with every consumer who grabbed those cans that labels are for cans, not for people.

The sleek cans appeared for the first time ever, without the traditional label on them, but still bearing the beautiful, iconic brand cues, as part of the social experiment."

"The cans have been released in time with Coca-Cola’s global campaign, ‘Let’s take an extra second’, where the brand invites the world to take an extra second and get to know people, in order to get rid of all the stereotypes and preconceptions one might have.

Coca-Cola is probably the one mega-brand that talks most about equality in its communication and it’s only natural for them to strip their own labels, in an effort to encourage everyone to strip the labels off of people as well.

In the Middle East, a region with over 200 nationalities and a larger number of labels dividing people, these Coca-Cola cans send a powerful and timeless message that a world without labels is a world without differences. And that we are all basically just the same - human."

Read the whole interview at the Dieline by clicking here.

Here's a great quote from David Butler on how he views designers as 'Natural Optimists'. You can read the full interview on the Coca-Cola website by clicking here.

"Designers don’t see problems as problems. We see problems as opportunities to make something better … we’re hard-wired that way. Today’s world is more connected and complicated than ever before. The types of issues we’re faced with have moved beyond complicated to what some call “wicked problems” — multidimensional, nonlinear challenges like obesity, water scarcity, global warming and the international debt crisis. We can’t really solve these problems; we can only chip away at them. They require all of us to “think like designers” with a new level of optimism as we design solutions for a dynamic and uncertain world."

David's book, Design to grow is now available. Read more here. 

Why Pink & Blue?

I recently became a dad to a wonderful, amazing little boy and he is definitely the most loved new addition to my design life.

Whilst my wife was still pregnant, we decided that we did not want to know the babies sex before the birth and loved the idea of it being a surprise. This however was met with some shock and surprise from a good many of our friends who just couldn't believe that we wouldn't want to know this in advance. How could we possibly prepare if we didn't know what colour to decorate the babies room or buy them clothes?

I suddenly started to ask myself why! Who decided that pink was a feminine colour and blue masculine. The marketeers? The branding experts? More so, why is there actually a need for a gender based distinction? At this point my curiosity kicked in and I suddenly wanted some answers.

After some research, I found images of babies clothing from the 18th century, showing both girls and boys in white frilly dress style outfits. Many articles claim that It wasn't until the mid 19th century that the pastel colours began to appear, although it seems as though the colours weren't gender specific at this point and in many cases it was pink for boys and blue girls. On other occasions it was blue for blonde and blue eyed babies and pink for brunettes or those with brown eyes.

It was't until the 1940's that retailers settled on blue for boys and pink for girls. In the 1960's and 70's, trends moved towards more neutral colours, which many believe to be related to the women's liberation movement. The development of parental testing in the 1980's brought pink and blue back as the 'natural' choice for parents to dress their baby's and paint the nursery.

However some believe that colour preferences among the sexes are biological rather than that made by culture. An experiment by the University of Newcastle in Great Britain conducted tests on a number of participants from cultures without the blue and pink gender distinctions, to find that the female subjects still had a preference to pink and male towards the blue.

I would love to get your thoughts on this topic. Are these colour preferences nature or nurture?

Colour Wars

Is it acceptable for a brand to trademark a colour?Colour plays such an essential role in the identity of a brand. Think of the blue used in the Facebook logo, Caterpillars yellow or Home Depots orange. Then there's Coca Cola's red that's such a strong identity that it even managed to change the colour of Santa clause! But with this in mind, should these company's be allowed to own that specific colour?

The confectionary company Cadbury lost a five year court battle to register their distinctive shade of purple, Pantone 2685C. The company stated that they had been using the colour on their Dairy Milk bars since the first world war. Lawyers for rival company Nestlé, who use a similar colour on their quality street packaging, overturned a previous judgment that prevented other manufacturers from using the colour. In closing the judges claimed that the colour alone did not constitute as the trademark but instead only played a part with other elements.

The mobile phone provider T-Mobile fought a similar battle for it's shade of magenta and sent a letter to engadget.com to cease using the colour on the lettering of it's mobile section.

My own personal thoughts on this discussion are that colour is an important part of any brand, but as with the Cadbury case, this is in relation to the typography, Imagery, shapes or graphic device that is also employed. It's only when you combine all these elements that you truly have a recognisable and successful brand mark. If someone is trying to pass off their goods or products with another's identity then surely that's wrong. For instance Christian Louboutin won the rights to trademark it's red heals. I strongly believe, that with any of these discussions, there needs to be an element of common sense and we cannot begin to cross off blocks from our Pantone books. I do agree that in certain situations a colour is an essential role of a company's identity and it's important for us not to confuse the term "trademark" as ownership, as it only allows a business to use a specific combination and shade of colour within it's own area of expertise.

I look forward to hearing any thoughts on this topic.