underconsideration.com calls this a “great redesign” and people are leaving comments on how amazing of a “strategy” it is. I get it, it’s brilliance is it’s simplicity, but let’s not get carried away by hype.
We have been inundated with this brand’s image since birth. This is a good solution. But it is also predictable and not by any means new. The fact that mainstream society can recognize a small portion of a brand’s visual identity seems interesting during an initial moment of pause, but that feeling is quickly replaced by the simple realization that this type of solution has become commercially viable. This is more of a societal observation than a critique on design. This solution is not evil – it is clever, and well executed. The agency responsible, Turner Duckworth, is doing what a good agency does… solving a problem given the audience.
But it is hyperbole to label this genius. There are so many great design thinkers out there doing inventive and beautiful things. For example, Michael Beirut at Pentagram, made a lovely interpretation of his rebrand for Saks Fifth Avenue using the same technique on bags and other communication. And Michael – like every designer who has endured a classic, rigorous graphic design education – explored the possibilities of cropping typographic forms during his first year at school.
We are talking about a big logo cropped on a can of Diet Coke. God, all this writing has made me so thirsty. I am going to go have an ice cold can of Diet Coke now… really I am.
Just as soon as I get my boss to okay this post.
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