Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Kraft Corporate Is All Smiles

If Pepsi's new logos weren't smiling enough for you, Kraft Foods corporate has decided to make their logo 'happier' too. Luckily this is only on corporate materials since I don't think the new design is nearly as powerful as the old one.
The older logo has a very distinctive shape we all associate with Kraft Foods. When people see a design they tend to remember shape first, followed be color and then content. It's part of why people recall the Nike Swoosh, Apple's Apple and specific brand colors like Tiffany's robin's egg blue so easily. You'd be amazed at how easily you can recall some brands just based off a part of their logo in black and white or a color swatch of their specific brand color. This logo seems to have forgotten all that. Granted the rectangle diamond-ish shape of the old logo isn't as powerful as the Nike Swoosh, it's easily recognizable. The new smiley thing? Not so much. Not to mention the dimple/starburst at the end made out of all different shapes and colors. You could argue that this is a corporate logo, so quick consumer recognition is not as important, but that just brings up another issue with the new logo—it's childish. Really. Look at it. It looks like a logo for some sort of children's company. I get that Kraft makes many family friendly products, but for your corporate logo? It doesn't seem to fit.I don't mind the Kraft Foods font, and I agree with Brand New's remark that the lowercase k is actually quite pretty, but what was the designer thinking with that tagline font? Is that an Italic Comic Sans? Just the thought makes me shudder. Comic Sans is a font that should drop off the face of the earth, never to return. Ever.

At least Kraft didn't roll this out past usage as a corporate logo, but I'm still not a fan. What do you think?

2 comments:

gesika22 said...

The tagline font looks like Tekton bold. Not comic sans, but just as bad.

raster said...

Ugh, new logo is bad... reminds me of Wal-Mart. Does every logo need some sort of "star" thing that radiates out... I guess to suggest "synergy" or something equally as goofy?