When we first presented our proposed new identity design of Co-opportunity Natural Foods to Marketing Director Ricardo Chavira, he noted ‘this logo has legs.’ True to his predictions, we are thrilled to see that our design was painstakingly re-created for a video initiative using actual fruits and vegetables. If a logo has legs a brand can go a long way…

6 years ago Mike ‘Mouse’ McCoy approached us to create the brand identity for his production studio start up. Mouse had a very clear vision, and it was different from what Hollywood usually seeked from our firm. From day one Bandito Brothers was conceptualized to steer things up and not only to want to be different, but to actually do things differently. Read the rest »

This is in a reply to a twitter comment by @jwojchi about my compliments to Landor for their recent re-branding effort for DC Comics.

Great branding firms do not create for the past, they also just keep the present in mind when designing for the future.

Change is hard to give into, especially when it intrudes an era of historic connections with die-hard fans, but there is a larger chance that Landor’s work will in fact do what it promises to deliver, which is to turn DC Comics’ objectives into a lively, current and adjustable brand platform that is weathered for changes within DC Comics that outside spectators, like myself, can not be aware of. Read the rest »

We are excited to share details on our just launched re-design for California based Evolution Fresh, the independent and family owned juice company, run by chefs and master juice makers. The 98 labels for the popular, all-natural, Evolution brand, and its mirrored private label ‘Harvest’ juice line, is being sold in over 500 stores along the West Coast including Whole Foods, Pavilions and Gelsons. Celebrated as the freshest juice available, Geyrhalter Design, together with the owner and marketing director of Evolution Fresh, took on the challenge of giving the brand a fresh and clean new look while staying true to its independent and free spirited roots. We focused our effort on creating a consistent brand image. By introducing a revised red identity to go along with all-red caps it enabled the brand to stand out from direct competitors such as Naked and Odwalla. The label stock was changed to matte laminated finish, which created a semi-metallic effect when refrigerated and added to the fresh feel that was sought after. While creating a uniform look, a unique color was picked to compliment each juice, giving it a visual flavor and making it easier for the customer to identify a specific juice on the crowded market shelves. The whimsical illustrations were carried over from the original design to make it easy for customers to recognize their product and keep the home-made feel that is so important to the product.Besides illustrating around 50 vegetables and fruits for the back label, the biggest challenge was to find appropriate colors for each flavor that work with the brand mark red as well as differentiate enough from the other SKU’s. It started as a clean-up initiative of the former labels, and it really opened a whole slew of layout concerns, leading up to this re-design. We are now working on strengthening the brand further through social media initiatives, shelf talkers and a new web site. It feels great keeping this wonderful brand ‘fresh’ for nearly a decade now. For us it was a unique labor of love, Evolution being one of the companys’ first clients, who enabled Fabian Geyrhalter to move the operations from a garage setting into an office space, which in its beginning was shared with Evolution’s marketing team, 9 years ago.

I fully understand that we are all bored hearing about the Tropicana branding fiasco, but Geyrhalter Design has been in the juice label design world for a while now with our client Evolution, so we just can not help but keep thinking about it. The fact that the new – now old – Tropicana package hinted at the same design sensibilities that attract clients to Geyrhalter Design (clean and simple ‘Swiss Design‘), does not help get our minds off the subject matter. It is challenging to deal with an existing brand, an existing image that might seem like it is outdated to designers, but there is an emotional connection to that image, even though it goes against all experts’ opinions. As Alex Kuczynski noted in the Design Spring ’09 Edition of TMagazine, customers of brands that evoke childhood memories, such as OJ or snicker bars, don’t think in terms of good versus bad design and outdated versus current. Sometimes the new needs to be massaged into the old, creating a transitional phase in a re-branding effort. That way it can be seen as a nice update, an upgrade even, but still look familiar to let the consumer know that they still get ‘the same good stuff’, just in a more professional package. Below you can see a project we approached the same way for Evolution Juice a couple of months ago. When I was at Whole Foods last week I spotted our revised label next to a ‘No Pulp’, original, label and it very nicely reinforced this point. 

…and it does not look like it will be any time soon. Not with such a sad smiley face.

Sure we all prefer Starbucks to McDonald’s drip coffee when we are at an airport. At home, many of us prefer to support local coffee shops instead, but why would one respond to the latest Starbucks campaign, MyStarbucksidea.com, asking to give Starbucks Corporate clever ideas on how to make them a better company. The incentive? You have a shot at seeing your idea being put to work. Not enough of an incentive, at least not for us. For Starbucks it might work, given the vast subscriber base, but would it be too much to ask for a couple of prize-incentives, like $100 Starbucks gift cards for the entries that are translated into the stores? Leaves a bad taste in my mouth, one of free labor.

I’ll keep going to get my good taste at the bean brewer next door instead, where I get free coffee for being loyal and I can tell the guy behind the counter if I have a great idea.