Some time ago UnderConsideration introduced the new design of the Tropicana packaging, a brand of the Pepsi Company.
The new bottle showed a cold, anonymous big picture of a glass of orange juice with plain sans serif typography.
Article ended the commentary with “I really want to believe that the screw-cap will not be an orange-colored boobie as in the rendering above”.
I couldn’t agree more.
That half-orange shaped cap was not only ugly but probably difficult to use too. (The one above is the initial rendering, at the end of the post the two real bottle compared)

YES.
I’ve said “was”.

New packaging arouse hell in all designers communities, and after a brief test period Tropicana has decided to return to its old packaging.

Let’s face the truth, with redesign it lost his identity: it was not
anymore the fresh fruit bursting with juice that made us all eager to drink.It became a plain product in a glass. Like anyone else.
There’s more.
Maybe this loss of quality in packaging was even perceived as a loss of quality in the product itself in the usual consumer too?
It may be.

Am I unfair?
I mean…I’ve always liked clean and sleek designs and this design is not bad in itself. Really.
Problem is that those that made the redesign forgot that this brand
has his history and his (strong) personality, and in their eagerness
to reach kids, moms, dads, grandpas and all in between cleaned up
and cut too much and in the end made it just…floppy.

So…what’s next now?
Will we see an update of the rejected design, an update of the old
one, a completely new one or we’ll keep on see the old beloved one
for years to come?

When in 1970 John Pasche designed the famous Rolling Stones logo he was paid only £50.
He got 200 more two years after from the band as a bonus, so much they were pleased with it.

That logo, created for the album Sticky Fingers released in 1971, made music history and now Victoria and Albert Museum in London has bought for £50,000 (which means 92,500 USD) the signed original artwork sold by author with an auction.

Pasche says that he took inspiration for the logo from the rebellious spirit of the band and sexual connotations of Mick’s mouth. He designed it in a bold graphic style so that it could stand the test of time and he wanted it in an easy to reproduce shape.

Increasing success of the logo led, in successive years, to copyrights issues on two fronts:

• the mark needed to be registered worldwide because other business started to use it for their own products;
• a further agreement needed to be drawn between designer and the band for the merchandise.

The designer continued to create artwork extensively for the band until 1974.
This led him to work for Paul Mc Cartney, the Who and many other artists.

Actually this logo is one of the most famous in the world, a real icon of the pop art culture.

Ever since I was a child I’ve always loved it.
So colorful, so powerful, so direct.
But, most of all, it really was, (and still is) “ONE” with the band itself, a perfectly merged symbol.

David Butler, who now is vice-president for design, joined Coca-Cola almost five years ago, receiving what he calls “the Post-it Note mandate: We need to do more with design. Go figure it out.” He then had soon written up a 30-page manifesto setting out a design strategy for the company.

Here it is how new Coca-Cola design course started.
With new approach, instead of developing new concept that probably would have never seen light, the design team had to concentrate on problems and issues that could be fixed by design.

‘How can we make the can feel colder, longer?‘
It has been from this starting concept that the new aluminum bottle and the new generation of coolers are born.

Aluminum is more modern, less expensive to produce, it has a re-sealable cap, and yes, it gives to customers the perception of being more cold. In addiction, it is manufactured using recycled material and is itself recyclable.
Coca-Cola aims, too, to reinforce brand installing new designed coolers into stores. And for those stores that don’t want to invest in a new one, a set of panels has been created to attach to old cooler to give it the look of the new model.

There are few brands in world as famous as Coca-Cola.
However in last decade it really seemed struggling with competitors, everyone fighting to add the more sparks and ribbons and bubbles and splashes and so on to their designs.

Coca-Cola classic brand redesign decided to invert this [messy, in my opinion] tendency and get back to basics.
The redesign of the logo removes all the unnecessary stuff and leaves a clean logotype over a red background.
This update brought Coke’s home the Cannes Lions Design Grand Prix. Good job!

This is the LESS IS MORE I love.