Food & Beverage
Baskin Robbins
Why: Given that Baskin Robbins underwent a major rebrand in 2021, we honestly don’t understand the reason for this change. The official line is that the ice-cream brand wanted to “modernise its identity.”
New identity and packaging: The new identity, packs and collateral were developed by ChangeUp.
Bombay 99 (New launch)
Who: Parle Agro launched Bombay 99, a range of mixers in three key flavours.
Name & Packaging: Developed by & Walsh, the name was inspired by the pin code of the company’s headquarters. The typography and motifs are ‘India-inspired,’ with illustrations by Sanchit Sawaria.
Himalayan Jams & Honey (New launch)
Who: Himalayan, a Tata brand so far associated with bottled water, has been extended to include jams and honey.
New packaging: Designed by Landor & Fitch, the new labels incorporate the shape of the mountains after which the brand is named.
Licious
Why: Seven years after launch, the meat brand wanted to move its image beyond hygiene to a warm, gregarious personality passionate about meat.
New brand personality and identity: The new brand personality was summed up in three words: Hearty, Gregarious, Gastronome. This was reflected in a new identity developed by Codesign.
Mac & Cheese
Why: Kraft redesigned its macaroni and cheese line to create a more contemporary image and declutter packs for better shelf-throw.
New packaging: The rebrand was done by J Knowles Ritchie and introduced flat blue boxes, versus the earlier gradient. The name change to ‘Mac & Cheese’ reflects how customers typically refer to the product. The custom typography is inspired by the shape of Kraft macaroni noodles.
Magnolia Bakery
Why: Magnolia Bakery and its famous cupcakes have expanded globally (there’s one in Bengaluru) – but the identity was still anchored to brick and mortar stores.
New brand identity: The new identity was developed by J Knowles Ritchie to factor in the demands of digital platforms like Instagram and Tik Tok. The ‘M’ monogram is inspired by a cupcake!
Sprite
Why: Sprite underwent its first brand refresh in a while to unify its identity across all global variants
New brand identity: Designed by Turner Duckworth, the new identity retains signature visual elements such as the green and yellow colours.
New packaging: Sprite shifted its PET packaging from the brand’s signature green colour to clear plastic, because the latter is easier to recycle.
Toblerone
Why: Toblerone’s packaging, while distinct, had not been refreshed in decades and the brand wanted a more contemporary look, which also looked interesting on digital mediums.
Design strategy: The makeover by Bulletproof, highlights the distinctiveness of the triangular brand in a world of horizontal bars.
New identity and packaging: The triangular shape of the box is retained, but gets a whole new look – from the redrawn logo to the brighter palette.
New Website: Media Monks created a new D2C site, with a feature to customise wrappers.
Gardening
Ugaoo
Why: D2C gardening and plant brand Ugaoo needed to to re-examine its strategy, communication and identity for the next phase of growth.
New strategy: Thought Over Design developed the brand purpose, strategy and identity – identifying a need amongst city-dwellers for some green in their lives, especially after the pandemic. The brand’s new purpose ‘To inspire a world where every plant journey is a personal revolution of inner change and growth,’ further translated into the communication platform of ‘Plants grow people.’
New identity: The logo is meant to be a representation of the joy of growing plants, with a rebus built into the pot-shaped ‘U.’
Logistics
Instacart
Why: The pandemic was an inflection point for Instacart, creating opportunities as well as competition. The delivery titan will now be moving into new retail categories beyond food.
New brand strategy: Created by Wolff Olins, the idea was to add an emotional layer to the brand, versus a functional, digital product. This resulted in the brand platform ‘Shop+Savour.’
New brand identity: The carrot has been reimagined into a more flexible symbol – the arrow shape on the top represents ‘Shop’ and the roots represent ‘Savour.’ There is of course, new typography and a new colour palette.,
Personal Care
Anomaly
Who: Priyanka Chopra Jonas’s hair care brand was launched in partnership with global beauty incubator Maesa and is now available in India via Myntra and Nykaa.
Noteworthy: Every item is priced uniformly at $5.99, as evidence of Anomaly’s commitment to the ‘democratisation of beauty.’
82°E
Who: Deepika Padukone and venture capitalist Jigar Shah launched a skincare line called 82°E. The name is inspired by the meridian that passes through India.
Identity and packaging: The identity packaging have been developed by Ideo.
Sirona
Why: Founded in 2015, Sirona was best-known for its flagship urination device, PeeBuddy. the rebrand aimed to position it as the ‘go-to feminine hygiene’ brand with a spectrum of products.
Identity and packaging: Developed by Elephant Design, the new look for the brand is positive and unapologetic, signalling fast-changing mindsets towards feminine hygiene.
Pharma & Life Sciences
Cohance (New launch)
Who: Private equity firm Advent acquired and merged two companies into a single API platform called Cohance Lifesciences. They continue to be on an acquisition spree, with more companies expected to be folded into Cohance.
Name, positioning & brand identity: Developed by Done & Partners, the name Cohance is derived from ‘Collaborating to enhance value.’
GSK
Why: GSK’s rebrand is part of a growing trend to separate pharma and consumer good businesses. (Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer have done the same.) The company changed its name from GlaxoSmithKline to simply GSK. Consumer-facing products, including brands like Sensodyne and Panadol, will be housed under a separate brand called Haleon, while GSK will focus only on the biopharma space.
New brand identity: Wolff Olins carried out the rebrand for GSK, using the ‘visual language of biosciences, genomic sequencing and data analysis.’
Sanofi
Why: The French pharmaceutical giant rebranded in an effort to integrate its diverse businesses and entities.
New brand purpose and identity: The exercise was done in collaboration with FutureBrand, Paris. The new brand purpose states: ‘Sanofi chases the miracle of science to improve people’s lives.’
The purple dots in the new logo embody the scientific journey between a starting point, wondering “what if?” — and a finish line.
Zydus
Why: The company changed its name from Cadila Healthcare to Zydus. It also wanted to move its perception from an Indian pharmaceutical company known for generics, to a global life sciences company.
New brand slogan and identity: Developed by the India office of the Conran Design Group, the new slogan is ‘Dedicated to Life.’ The new logo is a stylised visualisation of two hearts with ‘us’ at the core.
Media
CNET
Why: Media platform CNET wanted to extend its subject area beyond tech news to topics such as money, home, wellness, culture, cars and climate.
New brand identity: Developed by Collins, New York, the new identity aims “to bridge the past and the future, while having those elements evoke both familiarity and surprise.”
Sony India
Why: Sony wanted to create a unified, contemporary look for all its channels
New brand identity: The cropped ‘S’ in the old icon has been replaced with a curve that creates a unifying visual thread across properties.
The Verge
Why: Online tech publication, The Verge, changed its interface to be more like a feed, versus a traditional media publication.
New design: The edgy new logo and site design were developed by Vox Design.
Multi-Business
Nava
Why: On its 50th anniversary, Nava wanted to signal its move beyond mining and power, to a multi-business, global company. This also meant a change in name from Nava Bharat Limited to Nava Limited.
New brand identity: Developed by Design Orb, the new identity is anchored around a wordmark with the rising sun built into the ‘V.’
GE
Why: In 2021, GE announced that it was splitting its businesses into three companies: Healthcare, Aerospace and Energy.
New brand identity: The company said that after ‘thousands of conversations’ it had decided to retain the GE monogram, only using different typefaces for the three businesses.
Splashy launch: In a first, GE bought out all the advertising space in New York Times to announce its new brands.
IT Services
Accenture Song
Why: Accenture Interactive was the go-to-market entity for more than 40 creative agencies acquired over the years by the IT services giant. The rebrand to Accenture Song, ‘reflected the post-pandemic landscape,’ where the term ‘Interactive’ did not adequately represent the firm’s offerings. Accenture Song will be led by David Droga.
HCL
Why: The third largest IT company in India changed its name from HCL Technologies to HCL Tech and wanted a brand platform to better reflect its ambitions.
New positioning and identity: The new brand slogan for HCL is ‘Supercharging Progress.’ This, along with the new brand identity, was developed by SomeOne in London.
Cognizant
Why: Cognizant has been in turbulent waters and the new branding aimed to put focus on the company’s digital expertise and growing digital business.
New positioning and identity: The new slogan, ‘Intuition Engineered.’ and new brand identity were developed by OneDesign NYC.
Mindtree
Why: After acquiring technology services firm Mindtree in 2019, L&T Infotech seems set to merge the company with itself.
New name and brand identity: A press release announced what looks like an interim solution, before the Mindtree brand is dropped. We were curious about why they chose to use the construction parent logo instead of the L&T Infotech one.
Retail
Nexus Malls
Why: After acquiring 17 malls across 13 cities, the Blackstone-owned company wanted to bring them all under the unified Nexus brand.
Positioning and brand identity: Developed by Elephant Design, the strategy and the new brand identity aimed at moving Nexus from a B2B brand to a more consumer-friendly one, with flexible elements to allow for wide-ranging applications.
Tata Neu (New launch)
Why: The super-app from the Tata group launched in April 2022, with the promise of a single e-commerce and loyalty platform across all Tata companies.
Brand identity: The brand identity for the app was created by Landor & Fitch.
Notable: The overall app strategy is being reconsidered, as the ambitious project achieved only 50% of its target in 2022 – US$ 4 billion versus its stated ambition of US$ 8 billion.
Social Media
Why: Instagram’s first refresh after five years aimed to create a design system that would be inclusive of its growing global audiences.
New brand identity: The existing gradient in the icon was upgraded via 3D modelling
New typography: A new typeface called Instagram Sans ”prioritised accessibility and global scripts from the beginning.”
Stationery
Kokuyu Camlin
Why: In 2013, Japanese firm Kokuyo completed its acquisition of majority stake in Camlin, rebranding it to Kokuyo Camlin. The ruling stationery brand for decades, Camlin had started to feel out-of-date. The same was true for its art supplies brand, Camel.
New brand platform and identity: Landor & Fitch developed the brand platform and identity for Camlin and Camel, with the objective of moving the brands beyond suppliers to fuelers and enablers of the creative spirit.
New website: Developed by Bombay Design Centre, the site aims to go beyond a sales channel to create a platform for artists. Read this great website design case study here.
Software
Hootsuite
Why: The social media management pioneer rebranded for more visibility in a crowded space and to “break free from a sea of sameness.”
New brand identity: The brand mascot Owly gets a makeover, which is accompanied by a new logotype, colour palette and typography.
New brand platform: Hootsuite is seeking to position itself beyond a scheduler of tweets. It wants to be seen as part of the creator economy and a guide to the wild world of social media.
Monster to Foundit
Why: Job portal Monster.com wanted to reinvent itself for the age of LinkedIn, adding new functionalities and targeting a new demographic.
Name, positioning and brand identity: Developed by Landor & Fitch, the new brand positioning is anchored around the ‘Path to possibilities.’
Microsoft 365
Why: 32 years after it was launched, Microsoft is replacing the ‘Office’ brand with Microsoft 365 to unify its cloud-based features, integrations, and applications.
Mural
Why: The rebrand accompanied a new UI and feature set
New brand positioning and identity: The new brand positioning of “Intentional practices. Extraordinary work” was reflected in the design strategy of ‘structure and play.’ Created by Collins, New York, the new wordmark expresses the idea of connected teams doing their best work together.
PeopleStrong
Why: The HR tech platform was launching new products, including a mobile-experience platform, and wanted to create a unified experience.
New identity: The new brand identity was created by Lucid Design
Zapier
Why: The Zapier team says that even after a decade, the automation platform had no unified way to present or speak about the brand.
Brand positioning: The objective was to shift perception toward a more expansive vision of how automation will change how businesses run and how Zapier helps that happen.
Brand identity: The rebrand, done by internal teams, resulted in a new unified design system, although Zapier firmly remains an ‘orange brand.’
Zoom
Why: As the video conferencing space heats up, Zoom wanted to show that it had capabilities beyond its core offering and position as an all-in-one productivity app.
Travel & Hospitality
Four Seasons
Why: The hospitality brand wanted a fresh brand and creative platform that would be relevant for contemporary audiences and evolving luxury codes.
New brand platform: The new brand platform called ‘Luxury is our Love Language’ was developed together with NYC-based creative collective, Le Truc. It is based on the idea that true luxury is not impersonal or rigid. Rather it is “about a meaningful sense of belonging, acts of unscripted care and the simple elegance of empathy.”
New visual identity: To completely shrug off any “perceived stuffiness,” a pastel pink dominates brand collateral.
Hosa Goa (New launch)
Who: Launched by the team behind Indian Accent and Comorin, Hosa Goa is a modern exploration of the flavours of South India. (Hosa means ‘new’ in Kannada)
New brand identity: Designed by Studio Roy, the Hosa mark adheres to the simplicity of the overall brand portfolio of the sister restaurants, but is offset by a lush, tropical theme.
Thomas Cook
Why: The India arm of Thomas Cook had been wholly bought by Fairfax in 2019. The company wanted to create an identity that was separate to the original British parent which collapsed during the pandemic.
StayVista
Why: The platform for private stays changed its name from Vistarooms to StayVista. The rebrand was accompanied a strategy to focus on the growing segment of premium travellers in South Asia and build distinction from traditional hospitality.
New name, positioning and identity: Developed by Codesign, the new brand positioning for StayVista is built around the call to “Inspire Your Moment,” to position the brand as a discerning curator. The visual identity system for StayVista was developed as a set of layered assets that can be combined to create multiple expressions.
How We Picked the Brands on This List
- The brand must be significant in terms of either scale or potential impact
- The brand must indicate an important trend in the industry
- The work must meet our team’s threshold of quality
So even if we don’t absolutely love the design, an important rebrand or launch will make the list because it helps us to understand where the industry is headed.
Did we miss anyone who rebranded in 2022? Tell us in the comments.
Hetero
https://hetero.com/
They got a new positioning, purpose and identity