I don't know whether this is a positive or negative, but I have never eaten at Popeyes, the fast food chain serving fried chicken that seems to occupy a similar cult status to White Castle. Popeyes was served at Beyoncé and Jay Z's wedding, it is the butt of the joke in films like Rush Hour and Little Nicky (okay, that may not be saying much but…), it finds its way to all sorts of lyrics, and people are always willing to admit it as a guilty pleasure. From what I gather, the spicy, Cajun-style, fried chicken there is delectable. I'll find out one day, maybe. As kooky as the following to this fast food emporium is, its former logo was equally amusing (in that kitschy, fast food sort of way) and the colorful red-blue-and-yellow sign on the facade always stood out. With a new identity designed by Pentagram's DJ Stout, Popeyes is positioning itself to be slightly more upscale (relatively speaking) while retaining its quirkiness.
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Guest Editorial by Guilherme Machiavelli
In Brazil, one of the biggest competitors of coke (be it Coca-Cola or Pepsi) in the soda market is a soft drink called Guaraná Antártica, made from the local fruit, guaraná. Ten years ago, Coca-Cola, in an attempt to tackle its rival, launched Guaraná Kuat. Kuat has been marketed in various forms, beginning with the (slightly odd) strategy of declaring itself as having the same taste as Guaraná Antártica. The brand later decided to target a teenage audience, with campaigns following the "Open up your mind‚" motto.
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Atlanta Bread Co., hailing from, you guessed it, suburban Atlanta, is a casual bakery-café franchise offering fresh, quality food fast. Originally started as a small sandwich shop in 1993, the company has since franchised into approximately 100 locations in 24 states. As they have expanded, Atlanta Bread has not only enhanced the retail experience of their cafés, but updated their brand identity as well — a process they have been slowly rolling out over the past few months, here is an early look at the change.
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If you live outside of New York City, you may only be nostalgically familiar with this frozen dessert retailer by way of mentions on Sex and the City and The Apprentice. And if you're from the 1990s, Tasti is the rumored unaccredited culprit on the "Yogurt" episode of Seinfeld. To the uninitiated, this dairy based treat is "Not frozen yogurt, because it doesn’t contain yogurt. Not ice cream, because it contains less fat," according to Tasti faqs. So let's just call it substance.
It is quite likely that you've never heard of Cholie's. I hadn't. It's not a national pizza franchise. Nor regional. It's not a famous local joint that people travel to. It's not even its hometown's most famous pie. Cholie's is a small chain in Chicago, with three locations, aptly named Cholie's, Cholie's #2 and Cholie's #3. Its logo is not even a logo per se, it's whatever the sign painter can muster using the name, and a pizza with a slice coming off. So why in the world would we be reviewing it?
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Compared to Pizza Hut or Domino's, Donatos is by far not a big retail chain, but the 45-year-old pizza place that started with (as the web site proudly states) $1,300 does have a good following in its hometown of Ohio, as well as franchises in Alabama, Ohio, Indianapolis, Orlando, North and South Carolina. On February it officially launched its new identity and campaign, but the identity has been in the works since 2006 undertaken by Interbrand's Design Forum — somebody needs an update of their own if you know what I mean. The new logo and a prototype store were tested in a 1975-square-foot prototype in a western suburb of Columbus in 2006, and here you can see some nice shots of the updated interiors and exteriors. Having never been to a Donatos I can't vouch for the old restaurants, but the new ones look like what a fast food chain should look like in the twenty-first century and, unfortunately, that's exactly the same thing I can say about the new logo. The old one may have been overly traditional, but the new one is far too technologically advanced to trigger images and cravings of yummy pizza. Donatos claim to fame is its Edge to Edge® pizza, which is then cut in squares, so I guess that's where the D-in-a-skewed-box comes from, but I'm not sure where the crazy wordmark comes from with those poor deformed letterforms — and poor "S"s they always get it the worst. The update, as usual, makes sense, the execution, also, does not.
When I was growing up, there was nothing better than getting some candy for being good. Sugar of any sort could silence me for hours. One of my favorite candies was Lifesavers — especially the green and red flavors. As I was walking down the candy aisle the other day, I noticed the entire Lifesavers family got a nice new logo and package update.
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Of all the juicyjuicetastic drinks out there, I can only recognize Snapple. Even as I write this I couldn't name off the top of my head other brands of juice drinks promising "100% Natural!". But I know Snapple. When I want something more than water but less than soda, I go for an iced-tea lemon snapple or whatever other thing they might have — they all taste the same, except the red- or pink-colored ones, those taste like pomade. And I can spot a Snapple in a deli fridge among all the other finely-designed, colorfully-labeled bottles: I can do a quick scan for that weird sun that shows up in the iced teas, or the checkered or otherwise patterned cap, or, of course, the angled logo — but, unfortunately, it looks like all those recognizable traits and quick identifiers (for me at least) will soon be gone. In their place, a very slick look will replace this idiosyncratic brand, blurring the distinction between it and all those other nondescript bottles. Sigh.
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Ruby Tuesday, the international restaurant chain known for its casual dining menu and impressive salad bar, has been implementing a new, “fresh” (a word emphasized over and over) identity over the past several months to coincide with an update of the brand’s interior. Gone are black- and white- checkered tablecloths and the hodge-podge of sports memorabilia that adorned the walls and were reminiscent of Applebee’s or TGI Friday’s In their place is a more upscale and elegant look and feel.
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There are a million restaurants out there, and of those millions thousands are national franchises. Of these, unfortunately, there aren't too many that really stand out — they all seem to blend together for some reason. Chili's, T.G.I. Friday's, Ruby Tuesdays (yes, they have a new logo too, to be reviewed here soon), and, the cause of this post, Appleebee's, are only a few of them. They all have roughly the same vast menu, same average price, and same lackluster service. Most of these places are so cookie-cutter from the decor to the menu, it's hard to differentiate between them. Close your eyes at any of them and take a sample of the food and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. But this is the exact thing Applebee's hopes to fix. Applebee's goal is to make a "special place for people to come together."
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(Total Number of Pages in Food: 2)
