Whole new way to do good
Reviewed by Thomas Barnett
Wholesome is a new breed of supermarket that doesn’t fill a gap in a market so much as it positions itself at a nexus of multiple intersecting demands. The pursuit of ethical grocery and household shopping has, for decades, been both deeply commendable and exasperatingly time-consuming, expensive and convoluted. One supermarket will stock Fairtrade products but have a scant gluten-free selection. Another will excel at vegan options but be mired in a sticky pool of palm oil. Australian design studio Universal Favourite observes that ‘the pandemic saw a boom and growing trust in online grocery delivery services but introduced a whole new level of choice paralysis. Add healthwashing and greenwashing into the mix and it’s near impossible to know what to choose or trust.’
Wholesome brings all these (and more) specialist product categories together under its newly coined umbrella category of ‘eco-health’. Serious, intersectionally ethical consumerism has moved out of the fringes and into the mainstream, and Wholesome aims to be the one-stop destination to service those multilayered needs. In short, if it gets Piers Morgan’s knickers in a twist, Wholesome will stock it…
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Beatport
Kurppa Hosk
Beatport’s prior logo, an abstract pair of headphones used from the company’s founding in 2004, is labelled by Wikipedia as “not meeting the threshold of originality needed for copyright protection”. Ouch. To be fair, this is down to it “consisting of only of simple geometric shapes”. Surly that’s the point? Anyway, this is resolved by Kurppa Hosk with a new logo that finds a balance and synergy between a distinctive ‘B’ and what feels loosely like a record, arm and stylus motif. Again, its abstract, consisting of simple geometric shapes, but in its creative intersection is far more protectable. Despite the rise of digital downloads and DJ tools, vinyl and its associated visual language conjures up an authentic connection and active involvement with music, rather than the passive consumption other streaming services encourage. So the motif works well, particularly as vinyl experiences a resurgence.
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Payback time
Reviewed by Emily Gosling
According to The Collected Works, one of the main reasons its recent client Expensify was looking to rebrand was to remedy a perceived mismatch between the ‘wacky’ vibe of the brand’s marketing and ads (namely its 2019 Superbowl commercial), and its core visual identity. Which begs the question – how far does a brand identity itself have to mimic or dictate its ads?
Sure, the main point of any identity project’s strategic phase is to ensure that there’s a holistic, recognisable, consistent brand world that translates across every touchpoint, from its signage and email signatures, to social media posts and tone of voice. Everything visual, verbal, and aural has to come back to that brand’s core ethos – it’s branding 101. But do branding elements themselves – the logo, typography, illustrations, colours – need to be directly mirrored across, say, packaging to TV spots?
One of the best ads of all time, the iconic Jonathan Glazer-directed Guinness Surfer, has nothing to do with Guinness whatsoever until the last minute – let alone mimic its logo or imagery. The film would have been rather different were it peppered with Guinness toucans, and had the voiceover not have been Scottish, and were it not shot in the distinctly-not-Ireland location of Hawaii.
In short, brands can be cohesive while also modulating their mood. No-one, and no brand, is always bouncing-off-the-walls cheery, as Expensify seems to want to be. And in many ways, its new branding reflects this: the logo in its static form (and to an extent in motion) remains largely neutral, since it’s almost entirely down to the illustrations (and, sometimes, the playful typography choices) to do the legwork when it comes to showing just how ‘fun’ the company is through bright colours and out-there characters.
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Now on Brand Archive:
Oobli by Zeus Jones
Brand Archive is a new research tool from the team behind BP&O. Discover a long history of corporate identity design, from the 1960s to present day. Using our custom built filter, discover individual assets from signage, to packaging to liveries, drawn from over 700 brands.
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Logo Histories – Stories behind great historical logos.
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