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When these "
minimalist brands" started popping up on the
A2591 blog a few weeks ago, they seemed like a fun design exercise. The designers simply reduced familiar packaging to its bare essentials, taking colors and graphics away in a dramatic, three-step reveal.
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Some of the brands look especially sharp when reduced to a bare-bones execution; others are reduced to an almost unrecognizable state without their cascading milk falls or sides of sliced fruit.
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These seem like products stocked in some fantasyland grocery store patronized exclusively by anal-retentive designers, but as I started to look at some recent rebranding stories, I'd argue that the minimal trend is actually infiltrating the market faster than we think.
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Remember the outcry over the
new Pepsi branding? Compared to a few years ago, heck, even compared to the other brands in its flock, that's about as streamlined of a design as you could get. If you walk down the soda aisle, Pepsi's wall of solid blue and silver definitely sticks out.
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Method, the eco- and design-minded soap and cleanser company, has always taken the most minimal route when it comes to branding. Its candy-colored soaps and simple type have inspired more than a
fewcopycats in the market.
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And look at the branding of Canadian private label
No Name we covered a few weeks back, or this extremely similar but slightly more elegant take for the new U.K. co-op
The People's Supermarket. This simple, two-tone identity has been exalted by designers and consumers, who like the no-frills, no-spin packaging. And of course, there's another great example that popped up yesterday:
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Compare
A2591's minimalist exercise to the move that Starbucks has made with its
recently-redesigned logo, and well ... it's almost uncanny.
What do you think: Will we see more of this more-is-less packaging in our slimmed-down future?
Disclaimer: GOOD partners with PepsiCo on the Refresh Project.
