BY Christian Palino

Inspired by ick n ay

As part of a R110 million (US$16 million+) rebranding effort by Pick n Pay — a 40-year-old supermarket chain in South Africa, and one of its largest retail groups — that includes converting 450 stores and 1,200 product lines within a 24 month period, the store is taking the opportunity to update with a new logo that does away with its dated-looking use of slab serifs to embrace the ever-so-modern san serif.

Working with Landor’s UK office, Pick n Pay has dropped its clarendon-esque typography and adopted the font Cachet to handle all their corporate communications. In addition, Pick n Pay changed their corporate tagline from “We’re on your side” to “Inspired by you” — maintaining their focus on the customer in a slightly more positive way than the old You vs. Them language. Pick n Pay brought on Young & Rubicam SA to develop their new advertising campaign which draws from the revised tagline to create a new tonality focussed on “Inspired by—”. And, In their own words: The new Pick n Pay logo is an evolutionary change, which while quite different from the original, retains key features that have made Pick ‘n Pay distinctive in the retail environment.

Sample ad.

New product samples.

This is a much needed re-branding. The previous logo seemed dated through its use of typography and rendering of the P-in-a-box letterforms, not to mention the black and red color scheme which seemed out of place and a tad aggressive. The move to Cachet does help modernize the logo and overall brand communications, however I would guess that Cachet is tech/quirky looking enough to start appearing dated within a decade. Considering that the logo will be shortened in some contexts into “P n P” (utilizing the p-in-a-box motif for the “P” letters) the simplified “P,” having lost the outlined drop shadow, helps legibility. However, when the entire “Pick n Pay” logo is present there are certainly legibility issues that have arisen as a result of the negative “P” letterforms combined with the kerning of the positive letters, the two-color scheme and the loss of the apostrophe — creating a P … ick… n P… ay kind of situation where the “P” letterforms break the continuity as does the use of only two colors to identify essentially three words. Overall this is a step in the right direction, though with the resources being spent the final result still leaves room for improvement.

You can read a lot more about the new logo and Pick n Pay here, have a read through the online feedback regarding the new logo at Bizcommunity, and you can see a video of someone interviewing people about the logo change:

Thanks to Jonno Cohen for the tip.

\n\nAs part of a R110 million (US\$16 million+) rebranding effort by Pick n Pay — a 40-year-old supermarket chain in South Africa, and one of its largest retail groups — that includes converting 450 stores and 1,200 product lines within a 24 month period, the store is taking the opportunity to update with a new logo that does away with its dated-looking use of slab serifs to embrace the ever-so-modern san serif.

Many thanks to our ADV @ UnderConsideration Partners