We’re so constantly bombarded with stimuli that our brains are built to weed out all but the most urgent of incoming material. So for the first issue in our third decade of publishing, we decided to shake things up: Our brand mark’s design, while attractive, hasn’t matched our messaging, and it was time to set that straight.
Practice What You Preach
Our focus, while always and forever “branding through packaging,” has gone through small evolutions throughout the years. Eight years ago, our previous brand mark was rolled out: the design element of the caret in place of BRANDPACKAGING’s “A.” It fit well with our tagline: “Elevating Packaging in the Marketing Mix.”
As packaging started to get the attention it deserved from the CPG industry, we turned to a summary phrase of “Where Design and Strategy Meet” to clarify that there’s more to great brand packaging than good graphics. Yes, the graphical role in packaging is immense, but functionality and structure are just as important in communicating a brand’s position to its intended audience.
This led to the all-encompassing “What Does Your Package Say about Your Brand?” we’ve been using for the past few years to help brands instantly digest packaging’s huge role in their image, identification, differentiation and customer satisfaction.
Redesign with Purpose
These changes meant that it was time for our own brand mark to better reflect our stance. So, BRANDPACKAGING’s new logo highlights the strong emphasis we place on brand strategy in approaching packaging design. A fresh font choice for our name and a switch to sans serif treatment for our tagline completes the look.
Here are some points that we kept in mind during the redesign that will help make a redesign of your own successful:
Challenge current choices: Does your design and copy still fit your mission? Is an element present just because it has always been? Reconsider everything. Figure out and keep your brand equities, but know the rest can be reassessed and changed.
Keep some familiar elements: When designing a dramatic departure, it is important to retain some commonalities—or you need a very clear way to alert customers how to find their favorite product. You don’t want to alienate your current customers in an attempt to get new ones.
Be true to your brand: You’re unconventional? Cool, stay that way. You have a more traditional story? Don’t be pressured to change your style to fit a current trend. Let your brand personality show through—it’s so much more powerful than doing whatever works for the major brand of the moment that everyone else is rushing to copy.
Show people what you stand for: People buy products that fit who they are and want to be. Help your customers decide if you are the right brand for them through your packaging.
We hope our new look shows you our dedication to bringing you attractive, inspiring brand packaging and other creative content that helps you better reach your customers. Enjoy!
