BY Armin

Smart Start, Stupid Finish

For at least eight years I have regularly eaten Smart Start cereal for breakfast. The first time I tried it, back in my Atlanta days, was simply because I loved the packaging and I thought that anything packaged in such a way could only taste good. It goes without saying that the cereal aisle in a grocery store is simply, and visually, cacophonous. Every color in the rainbow is represented through mascots, beveled typography, and giant spoonfuls of cereal — and the closest thing to white space is the milk dropping from the sky and into the delicious bowl you will enjoy if you decide to pick this, that or the other brand. Smart Start, introduced in 1998 by Kellogg’s, literally stood apart from the competition. Despite the obligatory shot of the product in situ, the box was the whitest thing my cereal-loving eyes had ever seen. Designed by Duffy & Partners, Smart Start also sported another anomaly in cereal box design: A flat logo, without shadows, and was not set on a bulging curve but, instead, on a very straight and horizontal line, and only used red and black. [You don’t have to imagine my description, you can scroll through the rest of the post to see the real thing]. As the years have passed, the Smart Start box has slowly deteriorated with modifications, nutritional-fact add-ons and other cereal-selling, visual paraphernalia, while maintaining a hint of the original design. But on my most recent unpacking of Fresh Direct boxes I gasped at the latest iteration of Smart Start.

Original logo and box, 1998 — check out the back of the box, that’s, like, empty! Images from Duffy & Partners

What I loved the most about the old box was the hardcore logo, set in a harshly geometric type treatment that gave Smart Start an edgier feeling, as if this was the true cereal for health-obsessed people who were intense about eating the best cereal possible — it was sharp and sans bullshit. I always enjoyed the typographic play of the logo as well, so simple yet clever. Now, the logo is set in a light Art Deco-ish (or Neutra-ish) typeface that looks like it’s bulging at the seams — just look at those Rs, they look like Muffin Tops. The balance that the old logo achieved is completely lost in this new version, with too much white space around the letters resulting in very odd counterspaces. Certainly the typography is only part of the problem about this redesign: Who in the world eats out of a heart-shaped bowl? The whole look steers definitely into an older, female demographic, so in that sense the change is appropriate yet I can’t help but be saddened by the slow devolution of Smart Start’s category-breaking design. Regardless of the logo, I still eat Smart Start almost every morning, proving that design doesn’t matter.

I kid. Because I love.

\n\nFor at least eight years I have regularly eaten Smart Start cereal for breakfast. The first time I tried it, back in my Atlanta days, was simply because I loved the packaging and I thought that anything packaged in such a way could only taste good. It goes without saying that the cereal aisle in a grocery store is simply, and visually, cacophonous. Every color in the rainbow is represented through mascots, beveled typography, and giant spoonfuls of cereal — and the closest thing to white space is the milk dropping from the sky and into the delicious bowl you will enjoy if you decide to pick this, that or the other brand. Smart Start, introduced in 1998 by Kellogg's, literally stood apart from the competition. Despite the obligatory shot of the product in situ, the box was the whitest thing my cereal-loving eyes had ever seen. Designed by Duffy & Partners, Smart Start also sported another anomaly in cereal box design: A flat logo, without shadows, and was not set on a bulging curve but, instead, on a very straight and horizontal line, and only used red and black. [You don't have to imagine my description, you can scroll through the rest of the post to see the real thing]. As the years have passed, the Smart Start box has slowly deteriorated with modifications, nutritional-fact add-ons and other cereal-selling, visual paraphernalia, while maintaining a hint of the original design. But on my most recent unpacking of Fresh Direct boxes I gasped at the latest iteration of Smart Start.

Many thanks to our ADV @ UnderConsideration Partners