Has the world gone insane? Who are these designers making these new logos for these huge companies and why aren’t they being tarred and feathered? Pepsi recently redesigned their logo and their overall packages. I feel I have been somewhat harsh in my previous blogs so, fine, I will be diplomatic and focus on some positives along with the negatives.

It is noticeable. I was in the grocery store meandering up the drink aisle and amongst the highly decorated soda designs a simple dark blue design snatched my attention. It took me a brief moment to understand that it is Pepsi with a deformed logo… but I’ll get into that later.

It is new. Change is good… when it’s done correctly.

I don’t mind the idea of slightly changing the logo to convey different concepts. For example, the diet soda has a smaller ’smile’ to illustrate the idea that it is slimmer. But wait, aren’t we mixing concepts? Why would you have a smaller smile? Because it doesn’t taste as good but you choke it down anyway to feel less guilty about carbs?

The logo looks like someone took the original and melted it. I discovered through some digging that the logo is supposed to resemble a smile. Um what? Would you have seen that if I hadn’t said so? Why is it these companies with plenty of money at their disposal keep missing the mark on logo redesign? As much as I feel I am repeating my other blogs, it needs to be said again: streamlining is good and necessary when it is done right. Sometimes the smaller the change the better! Don’t force it people!

To see more packaging design, check out Under Consideration.

Something that I hear often about packaging is the idea of “catching the eye”: making the packaging stand out more than the rest. This is important because there can be a variety of different products and let’s face it, people are just plain drawn to pretty things. Well, I’ve just bought the pretty product, what now?

What makes me excited about the product that I have just purchased are the little Easter eggs waiting for me once I start to explore the packaging. One example that I have always loved is the Herbal Essences shampoo and conditioner. The back of the bottle has well laid out, well crafted copy that makes you feel good about the product. The quirkiness of the copy is the fact that it’s not the same bland thing you read on every bottle, the verbiage on the bottle is crafted towards the specialty of that particular product. For example, the volumizing line’s directions will say “massage me in. close your eyes, enjoy, then rinse. voila! you’ve got my full attention.”, or the line for added moisture reads “lather up, soak your head. rinse and repeat. let your hair drink it up.” Herbal Essences is so proud of the copy on their bottles, you can even read them on their web site.

I think my favorite part about this particular line of products is on the back of each is a trivia question. The clever part about this is the answer to the question is not given to you directly, but is on the back of the adjoining product. For example, the answer to the conditioner’s question is on the shampoo bottle and vice-versa. Though they aren’t particularly hard trivia questions, it is still a smart way of making the consumer think about buying the second product from your line. Furthermore, the shape of the bottles fit together creating a visual cue that these products belong together. Bravo, Herbal Essences.