A B-Side BY Armin

Meow Mix

Meow Mix, owned by Del Monte, offers dry and wet cat food and is most well known for its meow meow meow meow meow meow jingle. New logo and packaging — below (or after the jump) — have hit stores recently.

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Opinion BY Armin

Nice but not Too Nice

With more than 7,700 stores across the U.S., Walgreens is the largest drugstore chain in the country and it has long carried its own private label brands offering discounted prices on common household and grocery items. This past August Walgreens introduced its new Nice! brand which will include over 400 items when it fully launches at the beginning of 2012. The logo and packaging have been designed by New York-based CBX.

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Opinion BY Armin

Floating Soap

First sold in 1879, Ivory soap is one of the flagship brands of giant Procter & Gamble as it was one of its first products. While originally just a manufacturer of candles, P&G sought to create an American soap that would compete with the more luxurious soaps imported from Europe. This led to the formulation of a silky, ultra white soap that was embedded with air bubbles, making it float on water. Over the last 132 years the Ivory packaging and logo have changed numerous times, going from ornamental logos to serifs to sans serifs to the latest version which looks like everything else you can buy at your national chain pharmacy. With the launch of a national ad campaign by Wieden + Kennedy, Ivory has introduced a new logo and packaging.

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Opinion BY Armin

Yellow Woodpecker Farm v5.0

Today I’m stepping a little outside my comfort zone by writing about a subject that I fear I will miss to capture its cultural impact. But worse things have happened in this world. Sitio Picapau Amarelo (Yellow Woodpecker Farm) is a classic of children’s literature in Brazil, originally written as early as 1920 by Monteiro Lobato, later transformed into a TV show in the 1950s, going through various iterations of casts, and most recently has been turned into cartoon characters. The stories take place in a picturesque farm and plots form around its main characters: The farm’s owner and a widow, Mrs. Benta; her grandkids, a girl and a boy; a maid; a talking rag doll; a corncob puppet; and a cadre of animals and other visitors. The series has always had an educational bent, more than just pure entertainment, and many generations of Brazilian kids have grown up on its lessons. Recently, Globo TV, Brazil’s biggest TV network, redesigned the complete Sitio Picapau Amarelo with new character illustrations by Bruno Okada and an identity system by Romulo Castilho.

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A B-Side BY Armin

SusieCakes

SusieCakes is “an all-American bakery offering classic desserts such as cakes, cookies, cupcakes, pies, and puddings” with six locations across California where you can sit down, take out, or custom order. The new identity, packaging and website have been designed by Brooklyn-based Red Antler. The custom wordmark was created by “literally exploring letter forms drawn with buttercream frosting.” Plenty of applications here.

A B-Side BY Armin

Help Remedies

Established in 2008, Help Remedies is a pharmaceutical company that produces and retails straightforward, well, remedies. Originally designed by Little Fury, the look of the packaging became pretty iconic for its simplicity. Pearlfisher has updated the look. “We have refined the identity and color-coded the embossed pill shape to make the overall brand architecture more visually strong and to give the brand better stand-out and immediacy of recognition. The design evolution dials up Help’s equities, creating an ownable secondary language through the pill iconography, that will be used across further brand touchpoints and communications.” See the full packaging line below (or after the jump).

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Opinion BY Armin

Infinite Mountain

First opened in 1987 in New Zealand, Kathmandu is a specialty retailer and manufacturer of clothing and equipment for the adventuresome, outdoorsy audience. Kathmandu has 116 stores across New Zealand, Australia, and the UK. Their sales are 95% of Kathmandu-branded products, but they also carry popular brands like Keen, Teva, and Salomon. In September Kathmandu introduced a new logo, identity, and packaging system designed by Strategy Design & Advertising.

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Opinion BY Armin

Redefining Sharp

Founded in 1939, Gerber is a “global supplier of personal outdoor, tactical and industrial gear”. What that means is that they sell the meanest, coolest, machoest knives, axes, parangs, and all other kinds of cutting, prodding, slicing, destroying stuff. In other words it’s the bizarro consumer product of the other Gerber. Also, if you caught the premiere of The Walking Dead — sucks for you if you didn’t — that big bag of machetes and knives they find? Courtesy of Gerber, thank you. Gerber’s new identity, packaging, and advertising have been designed by Portland, OR-based Mutt Industries.

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Opinion BY Armin

Warburtons’ Complete Package

Established in 1876, Warburtons is a producer of bakery products, from your everyday sliced bread to hot dog buns to pancakes to crumpets. Now, still a Warburton-family-owned business, Warburtons employs 5,000 people working at 14 bakeries and 15 depots across the UK, producing over two million bakery products every day and, according to Nielson Data, it is the “second biggest grocery brand” in the UK. Warburtons’ new logo was introduced back in late 2010 but the complete brand rollout has taken most of 2011 to implement. The whole project was designed by London-based Smith & Milton.

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A B-Side BY Armin

Hatuey

Originally brewed in Cuba in 1927, Hatuey is currently produced by Bacardi. This summer it introduced the beer in the American market. Design by Spring Design Partners. Another image below (or after the jump).

Opinion BY Armin

Massive Diet Coke

First made available in 1982, Diet Coke is currently the No. 3 soft drink in the world, according to its producer, The Coca-Cola Company. Diet Coke was originally the first brand other than Coca-Cola itself to carry the giant’s name. Today, of course, there is like a dozen Coca-Cola This or Coca-Cola That. This coming September, to celebrate Coca-Cola’s 125th anniversary, the company will be introducing a limited-edition design of Diet Coke that will be on shelves for an as of yet undisclosed period of time. Could be three months, could be three decades. Adweek first broke the story. The design is by Turner Duckworth.

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A B-Side BY Armin

Bot Water

Introduced in 2007 as a kid’s beverage, bot is a line of “enhanced, flavored water.” The beverages have now been rebooted for an adult costumer base. The redesign was done by Boulder, CO-based TDA_Boulder. Detail of the new bottles below (or after the jump).

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Opinion BY Armin

Three Cheers for the Laundry Detergent

Since 2006 when we launched Brand New there has been one constant: every two years, the Procter & Gamble laundry detergent, Cheer, redesigns. The first redesign came in 2007 and the second in 2009. We’ve become, like, their official identity biographers. Back in July, Cheer introduced its third look in four years.

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Opinion BY Armin

Budweiser Rocks the Bowtie

First brewed in 1876, Budweiser is one of the best-selling beers in the United States and probably one of the most recognized beers here and abroad. Budweiser is the flagship brand of Anheuser-Busch, that reportedly holds a 48.3 percent share of U.S. beer sales to retailers. This past Wednesday, Budweiser announced a new can design — the 12th redesign since 1936 when it began using them — focused on the “Budweiser bowtie” which, according to this explanatory diagram was created as a symbol to encourage people to order the beer by its full name, instead of just by “Bud”. The new packaging was designed by London-based JKR. (So much for the “All-American” beer).

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A B-Side BY Armin

Celadon

Established in 1994, Celadon provides “an innovative, eclectic, fresh take on home furnishings” to customers in South Carolina. Local firm J Fletcher Design has redesigned the identity, ridding it of Papyrus. You can see the full identity here.

The B-Side BY cole

Hiro Sake

Hiro Sake is a new high-end imported brand that attempts to differentiate itself from other spirits by “expressing its cultural authenticity with a contemporary style.” The direction of the logotype was influenced by traditional Japanese calligraphy. You can read more and see the bottle here.

Opinion BY Armin

Tassimo Brews Brand New Blend

Introduced in 2004, Tassimo is a home brewing system that uses what it calls “T Discs” to produce coffee, tea, espresso drinks, lattes, and hot chocolate. It’s like a coffee machine on steroids and a little bit space-age-y with its little packets of powder that you lock into the machine and let it whir. Tassimo’s system allows different brands to create T Discs of their products and they also produce their own varieties. Since the latter half of last year Tassimo has been introducing its new look in Europe and it seems like this June it started to make its way into the U.S. and other markets around the world full steam ahead. The new look has been designed by Turner Duckworth.

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A B-Side BY Armin

Honeydrop

Launched no more than two years ago Honeydrop is “a healthy low-calorie organic beverage sweetened with a spoonful of honey and brewed with juices and teas.” New York-based Monday Collective has revised their logo and packaging. Case study here. Shot of the packaging below (or after the jump).

A B-Side BY Armin

SnackWell’s

SnackWell’s, a brand of sweet not-so-crappy-for-you snacks produced by Nabisco, has just updated its logo and packaging. New tagline is “Be Bad. Snack Well.” Press release here. More packaging images and logo at SnackWell’s site.

Thanks to Cary Whitt for the tip.

Opinion BY Armin

The Smoother O Boticário

In May of 2010 we reported on the introduction of a new corporate identity for Grupo Boticário, the parent company behind consumer brand O Boticário, which covers more than 600 products in body care, female fragrances, home spa, make up, male fragrances, man care, and skin care. I’m recycling some of the introduction from that post: Originally a small prescription pharmacy that started in 1977 in the city of Curitiba, Paraná in Brazil, O Boticário has 2,500 stores in Brazil alone, 70 across 15 other world cities, and presence in multiple sales points like department stores. Earlier this month, O Boticário introduced a revised identity designed by the São Paulo office of Futurebrand, who were also responsible for the parent company logo.

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