Typophile - Another redesign to make you cry - Comments

Those Utz look cool. At

magnus_gaarde — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 03:50:07 -0800

Those Utz look cool. At least the logo is pleasing.

In denmark the leading chips brand is called KIMs
See this link for a stupid web page http://www.kims.dk/
The guy appearing there is the main character in the branding through Kims Chips tv commercials. He is ridiculous.

Magnus

Utz is a very popular

dezcom — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 12:14:40 -0800

Utz is a very popular American brand of chips. It may not have made it over the pond :-)

ChrisL

Has anyone else checked out

all about seb — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 10:38:37 -0800

Has anyone else checked out the Link that Joseph posted to the utz potato chips logo?

Now that is a delicious logo *hmm* - never heard of the brand, but suddenly overcome by an urge to buy a bag...

Made from cow chips perhaps?

dezcom — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 18:23:09 -0800

Made from cow chips perhaps? :-)

ChrisL

I can see the slogan now:

Dan Weaver — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 16:24:54 -0800

I can see the slogan now: Cape Cod Potato Chips made from real Sea Gull droppings!

Offtopic but growing up with

dave bailey — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 16:08:12 -0800

Offtopic but growing up with these spoiled me to no end...absolutely delicious. The Dark Russet variety are unreeaall. :-D

My guess on the redesign had

Dan Weaver — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 16:04:13 -0800

My guess on the redesign had nothing to do with the packaging but with the marketing of no trans fats. That alone is a reason to change the packaging. The average consumer will think if its not bad for me, it must be good.

Something about the extended

John Hudson — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 15:48:32 -0800

Something about the extended K leg in the new design makes it much easier to misread as WANKERS on first glance.

i like utz potato

Joseph — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 12:49:21 -0800

i like utz potato chips.

http://nationalmssociety.org/nyn/more_content/walk/utz.gif

< J o s e p h >

this dubious style isn’t

timd — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 11:49:08 -0800

this dubious style isn’t uniquely American
Yes I was wondering if it was fair to attribute this bland genericism just to US. I didn’t realise that pointless sun/crisp thing was so widespread, everytime I see it I think of something going to repro with a missing picture.

I’m still wishing we had that masala flavor here in the US.
Tikka Masala isn’t Indian, apparently it was invented in Glasgow when someone asked for “gravy” to go on their Tandoori chicken.

Mr Tayto at least has charm.

Tim

My personal favourite

elliot100 — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 10:53:32 -0800

My personal favourite branding in the potato crisp market is Mr Tayto, the Irish brand leader:

looks like to me (which was

thierry blancpain — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 10:08:02 -0800

looks like

to me (which was done by dalton maag).

I’m still wishing we had

Chris Rugen — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 09:05:34 -0800

I’m still wishing we had that masala flavor here in the US.

…what were they

James Arboghast — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 09:05:20 -0800

...what were they thinking?

a) It seemed like a good idea at the time
b) Newness for its own sake (novelty, or “a change is as good as a holiday”)

I was actually going to say that it seemed a bit Japanese’d to me - Americanized? I guess these days that’s getting to be about the same.

We have had a rash of the same kind of non-sensical generic food packaging makeovers here in Australia, particularly potato chip brands and quickie-snack products found in supermarket freezer aisles. So I guess this dubious style isn’t uniquely American.

For about the last 2 years there has been a lot of twaddle from brand managers I work with about brand positioning and re-positioning, niche consumer appeal and “leveraging” consumer products. It translates into lots of pointless and stoopid packaging redesigns.

Quite possibly the font used on the new Walkers package is an attempt to differentiate the brand from other potato chip brands that use a flair serif (as the previous Walkers pack did). Flair serifs are common on chip packets.

That, however, doesn’t excuse the awful new font they’ve used. It isn’t organic enuff for a food product. Nuts!

Maybe they needed to stress the ready salted over the actual brand name. :^/

:^) That is exactly the kind of thing I’m on about—-brand sub-positioning and niche appeal. The brand image takes a back seat to the directive of some farcical “consumer focus group study”.

j a m e s

It used to be that “Salt

canderson — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 08:54:45 -0800

It used to be that “Salt ’n Vinegar” chips in the US invariably had the Union Jack featured somewhere in the design. Now it seems like blue dominates, possibly inherited from the old color schemes. This is the brand I usually get.
This post doesn’t make me cry as much as it makes me hungry.

Another redesign to make you cry

timd — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 06:50:05 -0800

Not having had a redesign to cause a stir/laugh for a while, I give you this excretion*.
In case you were wondering the new design is on the right and it is already in production, what were they thinking?

*I should point out that this is nothing to do with me.
Tim