When Cracker Barrel rebranded its logo on Aug. 19, I felt the world of branding was at a point of no return. Rebranding is a normal and natural part of growing a brand, and there is nothing wrong with it. However, when something goes from artistic and recognizable, to boring and sad like with Cracker Barrel, many people have problems with it.
Minimalism is a style that values simplicity over non-essential elements to create sleek, clean and simple spaces. This practice has taken over the world of marketing and branding in the last decade in all sectors. Sports, food & drink, tech, entertainment and shopping have seen big changes in branding.
One of the most recent examples of this is the Cracker Barrel rebrand, with the creative directors opting for the plain text, rather than the man with the barrel many have grown accustomed to over the years. Some of the worst rebrands include Baskin Robbins, Jaguar, Kia, Tropicana and the U.S. soccer badge.
All of the previous logos had color variation, easy to read text and great pieces of art. The new logo is simple, which isn’t needed for all the brands. Baskin Robbins and the U.S. soccer badge don’t need a sleek, minimalist logo as it’s not what they’re known for.
Jaguar and Kia both had already sleek and simple designs that worked and were already minimalistic, but they changed font and the brands became even more minimalistic. Tropicana is a juice company known for color variation, yet they moved to a circular font with no character and no other design.
If you take a walk in the dining hall, you’d find a whole fridge stocked full of Tropicana with varying colors and juices. In the rebrand however, the colors were taken from the logo, and only the green letters remained.
Like many others, I myself am quite the sports fan, more specifically soccer. In the past decade there have been countless logo rebrands of teams, way more than all American teams combined.
Some notable rebrands in American sport include the Washington Commanders and the Cleveland Guardians, both changing their logo and names due to pushback as their past names and logos were considered racially insensitive by sponsors and fans.
If I were to take the logos for purely their artistic look and nothing else, I would say the old logos were better. Of course this is ignoring the problematic image of the logos and who they represent, along with the names. This is one of the better reasons for a team to change their image.
In European football, teams have been changing their logos like the plague. Some of the most notable changes include Manchester City, West Ham, Ajax, Juventus, Fiorentina and Inter Milan. In the U.S. this is a problem as well. Teams like Chicago Fire and New England Revolution have rebranded recently and the new logos aren’t an improvement.
All of the logos are simple, but they get rid of the artistic design and deeper details that made the badge recognizable and nostalgic for so many all over the world.
With all this negativity being said about minimalism it’s important to highlight the better rebrands and designs utilizing minimalism. Examples include Airbnb, Burger King, Premier League and Spotify. All of these utilize minimalism to bring a more familiar feel to their brands with the Airbnb rebrand being the best in my opinion.
Minimalistic designs don’t entirely get rid of what made the brand recognizable, just details that create a cleaner image. The U.S. soccer badge had a soccer ball in it with a pointy, round shape. The new version is shaped like a home plate with red stripes going down the middle.
Old logos were bold and creative. That’s not to say nothing is creative nowadays, just the focus has shifted to simplicity. But through that shift, there is less of everything, less of what makes a brand, team or organization special.
