Opinion BY Armin

Eat! Organic! Mouths!

Opened in 2009 as one of the most committed and focused stores in providing organic and environmentally conscious products — from produce to laundry detergent to milk — in Stockholm, Hermans Ekohandel has grown in popularity and in ambitions, leading it to redesign its identity and rename its store, to Eat! Ekoaffären, with the help of Stockholm-based Bedow Creative.

As Perniclas Bedow, principal of Bedow, explains to me in light of my poor Swedish, the original name “Ekohandel” stands for organic (eko) shop (handel), with handel being a common descriptor for smaller shops by the countryside. The new descriptor for the name, Ekoaffären, stands for organic, of course, and store — a small distinction perhaps, but important to allow it to grow. The new name is also broader, Eat!, which grew out of an initial idea to name the store E.A.T., as in Ekoaffären Tegnér, with Tegnérgatan being the name of the street the store is located at. With the name in place, it was just a matter of making it appealing and fun.

Bedow worked with illustrator Axel Hugmark to create the flexible-armed Eat! character, which looks both friendly and slightly deranged as if you happened to make it mad, it would probably strangle you at night. To contrast the quirky lettering, the use of Alright Sans by Okay Type, adds a nice serious balance. And while plenty of grocery stores in Sweden use red, Eat! decided to go with magenta.

The rest of the identity is accompanied by mouths, mouths and more mouths, that appear on aprons, bags and at the check-out counter (see last images). If I have one reservation is that the identity would make the store appear to sell food and only food and none of the other items it has in inventory, but the overall feel of the identity is very playful and contemporary.

Luke Jones’s comment is:

I think they’ve done an excellent job here. It looks really sleek, stylish and modern but is completely appropriate for the brand. I love their application of it on the bags and particularly behind the checkout. It looks fantastic.

On Jul.21.2010 at 06:41 AM

Everett’s comment is:

Brilliant! This is some of the best work I’ve seen here in quite some time.

On Jul.21.2010 at 06:47 AM

PaulM’s comment is:

I really like this.

On Jul.21.2010 at 06:50 AM

Kevin’s comment is:

Looks a bit like artwork done by Parra, but it’s good.

On Jul.21.2010 at 06:57 AM

Richard Baird’s comment is:

For me this is a really exciting blend of great illustration and typography, it gives a fresh visual approach to the organic food industry. I’m hoping my clients will see this and let me go a little crazy!

On Jul.21.2010 at 07:01 AM

Paul’s comment is:

Yuck. I like the spirit of it, but I find the execution disturbing. Everything looks like something I’d doodle in my notebook in junior high school while waiting for the final bell to ring. The best part of it is the type, which from the ligature I believe is just Alright Sans typed right in.

Those mouths are a travesty. Again, I really like the playful spirit of it all, but this still looks like something that is one step past the doodle stage.

On Jul.21.2010 at 07:14 AM

qwertyale’s comment is:

penis

On Jul.21.2010 at 07:19 AM

sdlsd’s comment is:

Super weird, but kind of awesome. It has a lot of character and is obviously going to be very memorable. Definitely makes me want to shop there more than the original logo.

Could nitpick on the execution, but there’s really no point. It does the job.

On Jul.21.2010 at 07:22 AM

Josh’s comment is:

Maybe they couldn’t afford Parra?

On Jul.21.2010 at 07:38 AM

Josh’s comment is:

(Not to discount Axel’s illustration skills at all. His work is quite nice!)

On Jul.21.2010 at 07:48 AM

Erwin’s comment is:

As a fellow dutchman I immediately thought of Parra too, but let’s be reasonable, he would never combine his handwritten style with the lowercase sans serif like shown above… So apart from the “EAT” logo there’s nothing Parra about this identity, certainly not the context it is used in (with all those crazy mouths).

“EAT” wordmark is cool, “Ekoaffaren” is waaaay too bold and prominent, and the horror vacui of mouth shapes was a bad choice IMHO. Who came up with the idea to put it all in magenta?

Cool basis, bad execution. Yes, it has something amateurish about it, but it’s also fresh in a way… Undecided about this one…

On Jul.21.2010 at 07:52 AM

ScottyM’s comment is:

Terrific!

Don’t even need to study it for little flaws. It’s so pleasant, and shows so much creativity … a refreshing kick in the arse to do logo work that’s not just based on type but illustration.

On Jul.21.2010 at 07:52 AM

Stripeyhorse design’s comment is:

I think the execution is great! I do agree with Pauls comment, that some of the mouths look like a doodle in a notebook, but this just adds to the feel of it. The arm grabbing that T leaves me with a bad feeling, and i dont know why.
But love the new design and execution and its a lot better than what went before.

On Jul.21.2010 at 07:59 AM

Sara Tack’s comment is:

FRESH

On Jul.21.2010 at 08:00 AM

Steph’s comment is:

Ha, well so far I guess it’s just me. But I think it’s really creepy, the arms look like it’s strangling itself (I see the “Eat” as one complete entity). So, this blood red strangling arms thing put in the context of food just makes me think of cannibalism. Or that the food in the store was gotten by aggressive, brutal ways and we’re being forced to “eat” it.

This is just my perception, but to me it seems unfriendly, intimidating and something that would go on a Korn album or something. I know majority of people are going to disagree with me on this, but again this is just the impression I get from looking at it. But if it works for its intended audience, then they did their job well. I feel like the quality of the illustration and type is well done.

On Jul.21.2010 at 08:09 AM

Larry W’s comment is:

AWESOME!

Fun, exciting, interesting… a VAST improvement over the last one!

On Jul.21.2010 at 08:19 AM

Rodrok’s comment is:

fun, aggressive, raw, natural, casual… i love it, it definitely creates a solid brand

On Jul.21.2010 at 08:31 AM

Rondal’s comment is:

Hands down one of the best redesigns I’ve seen on this site in recent memory! The company really went all the way to “own” this rebrand and I just love the fun, funky logo and all its applications, though I must admit that I like it better when it’s shortened to just “Eat!”

On Jul.21.2010 at 08:47 AM

Steve’s comment is:

at first, the logo horrified me. i really couldn’t understand how this was, well, a good idea. Upon seeing the application and wall treatments, etc. it seems as though they hit it spot on. it’s bold, exciting and stylish.

now i’m hungry.

On Jul.21.2010 at 09:08 AM

Anatoly Vyalikh’s comment is:

I do not like new logo. It looks like it was made by hippies and friks and it reminds me drawings in teenager notebooks in school.
Previous logotype was neutral, not very exciting, but better than what they have now. New logo is okay for sweets shop, but not for ecological product store.
Globalisation.

On Jul.21.2010 at 09:12 AM

lance’s comment is:

Wow, this is awesome for an organic grocery store to have something this fun and cool. Wish we had a store this bold in the U.S.

The only thing kind of off is the wall graphic behind the counter, its a strange shape and they could’ve just used a square like on the bags.

On Jul.21.2010 at 09:17 AM

horacio da silva’s comment is:

A lot of fun, excellent job. I’m envious.

On Jul.21.2010 at 09:25 AM

Jeff’s comment is:

I like the style of this…I’m not sure why people think it’s something THEY’D doodle. The funny thing about people who think, “it’s not good if I could do it” - is that you didn’t do it because you didn’t have the vision. They didn’t just slap this together. They wanted something that spoke to their brand and to their customer base.

I do feel like the little “Eat guy” is masturbating, and not eating. I might have chosen to not have the hand wrapped around the stem of the “t”. I lose the sense that the character is eating because they’ve done away with the mouth and the “E” doens’t look enough like a face to equate “person” to me. This doesn’t kill the whole thing for me, but it does mean that if one is not aware of the service being provided, they might not understand it is a grocery store, outside of the word “Eat”.

This isn’t bad work, I know they didn’t want to literally have a mouth in the logo, but I would have continued to resolve it a little further. And I agree with an earlier comment that seeing the logo in the context of it’s applications will serve to strengthen the branding.

On Jul.21.2010 at 09:34 AM

herrimanjoe’s comment is:

I’m relieved to see a vampire mouth among the others. Vampires get far too little recognition in logos these days. The drawings don’t look great on their own, but somehow when you put them all together it works.

Also, I think I’d like this logo a lot more without the hand on the back. It looks like a dead or rubber appendage.

On Jul.21.2010 at 10:18 AM

buruno’s comment is:

Very vibrant! The typeface — as a friendlier Gotham — fitted the visual system perfectly, giving it a nice balance.
Added to my wishlist (the typeface).

On Jul.21.2010 at 10:21 AM

jen’s comment is:

Overall it’s solid. The logo leaves me a bit uneasy and the food photography is a solid D- terrible. Maybe it’s the repro but does not look like it was done by a professional photographer.

On Jul.21.2010 at 10:22 AM

Ben Thoma’s comment is:

A breath of fresh air!

On Jul.21.2010 at 10:36 AM

Austin’s comment is:

Ah, I want to like this, but I find it disturbing. It doesn’t make me want to eat anything, it makes me feel kind of sick in my stomach. I don’t know what it is about it, but obviously it is a personal thing, as most everybody else on here really enjoys it.

It is a fun idea.

On Jul.21.2010 at 10:46 AM

felix sockwell’s comment is:

quirky. fun. refined without looking overcooked

On Jul.21.2010 at 10:51 AM

smirker’s comment is:

Everyone’s going nuts over this and I just don’t see it. I think the Eat! icon is cool in some respects, but it also looks a bit like an early sketch for a logo.

If it was just the hand/arm icon with the cool mouth graphics all over the shop I’d love the identity, but the relationship with the logo and the word “Ekoaffären” is just awful.

The whole thing feels like a student project… 3 cool elements stretched to make a brand, but they don’t quite fit with each other.

On Jul.21.2010 at 11:06 AM

John McCollum’s comment is:

Mouths are cool. Masturbating letterforms are not.

On Jul.21.2010 at 11:09 AM

Andrea’s comment is:

The free arm/hand should be taken away…that’s the only part I don’t like. Magenta is one of my favorite colors, so WOO-HOO, Magenta!

On Jul.21.2010 at 12:13 PM

Impossibly Stupid’s comment is:

Like the mouths, dislike the Eat. It comes across as clumsy and amateurish to me. It could be the somewhat sexual overtones, as noted by others, whether that be masturbation, E giving A’s T a reach-around, or just plain ol’ fashioned Japanese tentacle porn!

If not sex, then it’s at least violence; if E isn’t doing something happy to T, it’s doing something bad. That kind of gets back to a comment I made a while ago in a different discussion: You generally don’t want your food mascot/logo to be shown dying.

Or maybe its just the sign of the times that I’m not feeling the overall message that “Eat” delivers. The logo does strike me as overwhelmingly gluttonous in that respect. That seems contradictory to the message I would expect from a “organic and environmentally conscious” company. They might just as well have gone with CONSUME.

On Jul.21.2010 at 12:28 PM

santiago orozco’s comment is:

so veldig bra!
the distressed typography on the wall gives a casual look and eco-friendly concept,
without losing the fun idea.

On Jul.21.2010 at 12:32 PM

ck’s comment is:

The design is beautiful, but as a Swede I can’t help but be sad and dismayed at the continued Anglification of my country. At this rate it feels like the Swedish language will be completely replaced by English in my own lifetime. Not really sure why it has become so “cool” to use English words in place of the Swedish ones either, but it’s everywhere these days. In the case of this one, the Swedish word for eat is even shorter (ät) so there’s no real reason to use the English word other than that it sounds more hip and modern.

I’m jealous of the French and Italians (for example who stand proud by their language and sustain it in the face of the general Anglification going on in the world.

On Jul.21.2010 at 12:36 PM

Paula is QuiteCurious’s comment is:

I absolutely love it! It’s smart, witty, and unforgettable. Great stuff.

On Jul.21.2010 at 12:47 PM

Tom Cutter’s comment is:

Not sure that this would ever fly in the U.S. Very playful, but a little out there. Must admit that some of the mouths are pretty creepy when you start to look at them closely. (Vampire teeth?) Okay, enough already with the vampire infatuation. Also, does give off that erotic vibe, which does seem inappropriate for a sustainable market. Fun - Yes!, but does it communicate the proper message? Not sure about that one. So, love the design, but not on target.

On Jul.21.2010 at 01:18 PM

cmkg’s comment is:

I have to agree with Steph. This is ghoulish goulash.

On Jul.21.2010 at 01:34 PM

adam’s comment is:

PARRA RIP OFF

On Jul.21.2010 at 02:43 PM

SIMON’s comment is:

I like!! Especially the Bar BQ apron (I want one)and the halo reverse channel letters look great.

On Jul.21.2010 at 03:17 PM

Mark’s comment is:

Clever and fun I LOVE it!

On Jul.21.2010 at 05:56 PM

Jvdp’s comment is:

The second arm on the logo ruins it for me. It doesn’t need
a second arm , honestly.

There is also some serious tension between the logo/illustrations and the clean neat digital type.

It’s just so awkward, although I like the general idea.

On Jul.21.2010 at 06:05 PM

pixel’s comment is:

Great, a store that appears to specialize in selling nightmare fuel.

On Jul.21.2010 at 07:53 PM

bjornyeo’s comment is:

A logo shown eating itself? I guess there’s a first time for everything…

The logos kinda oook for me, the expansions kinda cool but the word ‘eat’ gets so ‘devoured’ by the busy graphic mouths I really see it more detrimental to the already strange ID. Separate applications of the graphics and the logo would have works wonders I feel.

On Jul.21.2010 at 08:44 PM

Brendan’s comment is:

THOSES FF’S !!!!!!!!!! eeewwww

On Jul.21.2010 at 10:10 PM

Bryan Layne’s comment is:

Shop here = lose a finger.

I love it otherwise - but why not a 5 fingered hand. Swedes have 5 fingers right?

On Jul.21.2010 at 10:23 PM

Bryan Layne’s comment is:

Update:

Both the person with the head of lettuce and the man in black have indeterminable finger counts. This may be an important issue.

On Jul.21.2010 at 10:27 PM

Dale’s comment is:

Successfully idiosyncratic, for the most part. But the “t” stem needs to be taller…it’s too stunted right now to ensure no-confusion legibility at smaller sizes, and as a previous poster pointed out, is reading as a phallus. A proportion fix might eliminate that.

On Jul.21.2010 at 10:55 PM

Tim Gengler’s comment is:

It’s a very strange branding, and not necessarily an appetizing one, but I’ll be darned if it isn’t attention-grabbing. I like it quite a bit, and everything is tied together nicely. This is interesting, likable work.

I’m not quite convinced that it’s appropriate, but it’s hard not to applaud the effort.

On Jul.22.2010 at 02:09 AM

Bedow’s comment is:

Thanks everyone for commenting. The positive ones—very flattering! The critical—I hear you. Learning a lot here. And Armin, thanks for posting!

Best,

PB

On Jul.22.2010 at 03:11 AM

obse.’s comment is:

Love it.

PS: I didn’t notice the “E” was eating the “a” until I saw the sketch with the tongue. They should’ve kept that one.

On Jul.22.2010 at 10:55 AM

JC’s comment is:

“Eat” seems to be spanking his own ass. And someone has already mentioned his behaviour with the “t”. Rule 34.

On Jul.22.2010 at 11:08 AM

Foo’s comment is:

Seriously. No one designing this logo realized its masturbatory suggestivity? Big-time logo fail.

On Jul.22.2010 at 12:46 PM

Stacy’s comment is:

I didn’t even see the word “eat” at first glance. I saw a hand grabbing a cross shape, and wondered where the religious aspect of the store was… and only when I started reading the brief and comments fully - did I read it as “eat”.

On Jul.22.2010 at 01:11 PM

Tori’s comment is:

What a strange balance of fun and aggressive. Definitely memorable!

On Jul.22.2010 at 04:40 PM

SpaceMonkeyX’s comment is:

Alone, I’m not a fan of the logo. But once you put it all together with the other mouths, or even inside the simple circle on the coffee cups, I suddenly love it. So I think it’s all about context.

On Jul.22.2010 at 06:46 PM

Chris’s comment is:

This is such an oddly cool brand. The EAT mark reminds me of something written on the back of a school notebook and much less like a logo than I would expect. In that same respect, it’s nearly perfect. That is not an image I’ll soon forget.

And I love the stylish association with the serious sans. It’s hard to achieve such a serious level of playfulness without looking sloppy, but I think this brand totally pulls it off.

On Jul.23.2010 at 03:44 AM

David’s comment is:

I think it is fantastic. It’s refreshing to see someone take a dry lifeless mark and create something original and organic. It seems nowadays it usually goes in the opposite direction, with results that are boring and typical of nearly every logo redesign out there. This is bold and courageous. Bravo.

On Jul.23.2010 at 11:51 AM

FG’s comment is:

I like this. It’s characteristically Swedish, and I mean this as a compliment—the design coming out of the Scandinavian countries tends to be fresher and more engaging than a lot of work put out in the US. I would definitely shop here if I lived in Sweden.

On Jul.24.2010 at 02:16 AM

alison’s comment is:

love it. i think it’s cute without being “cutesy” and fun without being too childish. i would keep that shopping bag too - very cool!

On Jul.25.2010 at 12:21 AM

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On Jul.25.2010 at 04:58 PM

MSGDS’s comment is:

I like the fact that now the logo has some character, but I think the illustration of the hands needs a little tweaking. Right now they don’t seem to go together. What bothers me the most is the text, how the two f’s are touching, the first one looks very awkward. And, proper kerning would have been helpful, especially between the second f and the dotted a.

On Jul.27.2010 at 08:37 PM

sad sage’s comment is:

I find this redesign is disgusting. The history behind the place is lost, the person behind the business is pushed aside. The wrong way to go - generally, in this case - definitely.

On Aug.19.2010 at 04:09 PM