old for NEW!
Branding Serbia 1
author: Olivera Batajić
September 2006
translation into English: Danijela Tomazović
November 2009
If you went on a trip this summer, even just for a weekend, you must have brought Plazma or Smoki with you. Or both. If you went to visit your friends abroad (in Diaspora) it is quite possible that you brought some of these goodies to them as a present. If you perhaps rested by the river, or read some interesting book in the shade it is possible that you unconsciously ate from one of these rustle bags. Smoki and Plazma , besides being proud owners of prizes, really are one of the key representatives of our food industry. And both products are something you would recognize within the sea of other and inviting products, because most of us grew up with them or referred around as something unique, incomparable with other products from the same family, from all around the world. Besides nutrition quality, they had this distinctive look, the look of times far behind us, even behind that time full of changes. Interestingly, both with red colors predominating in the look. This summer, well known packages got to be “modern”. It was shocking. Although it seems the same, the change is drastic. Whether from the revolt because of “interfering with sacred” or because the old design misses not much except for this digitalization present in everything .
SMOKI
(Manufacturer: Stark, Belgrade )
I heard that Smoki package design is going to be changed as early as in the beginning of this year. Instantly I reacted strongly, and the person I spoke with and which participated in changing the old package said: “you'll see you will not even notice the change”. I of course spread the news, and everyone reacted in the same manner as I did. I thought about why it is like that and realized that with the emergence of computers here, design of so many items changed to worse. Instead for this tool, powerful as many understand it, to make it possible for us to create wonders, we relied on the speed of projects realization and the striving for long term thus better quality solutions spontaneously disappeared. Computer and graphic software today are accessible to all, so everyone is a designer and hence the potential creator of esthetic part of our planet. This is why passionate consumers of these products are afraid for the future look of what they enjoy. In contemporary world, full of speed, the change is necessary as the postulate for surviving in the market. On the other hand, we have agency-team work which erases any identity. The accounts are transferred from one to another designer, and the final product gets centrifuged by the hiring company as well as by the transfer from hand to hand (designer 1, 2, art directors, marketing experts and similar).
The new thing on new Smoki package is makeup, I'd say. The typeface previously used for writing the product name, with letters probably drawn by hand, a bit sharp, is replaced with the new version of more Smoki-like typeface , this time probably created using computer. Gold-brown-white line also got curves around the little window. Behind this window, little smokis used to peek previously, relaxingly staining and making dirty once clean windows. Through it, you could have maybe get to determine how fresh the goods is or if it is damaged in transport, and now there is a photograph of always fresh and tidily organized pieces. Manufacturer's trademark ( Stark ) is emphasized, which is a good thing, as well as product definition placed as a signature below the tidy window. All together, this summer, refreshment was not necessary.
New package design: Afirma FCB
PLAZMA
(Manufacturer: Bambi , Pozarevac)
The story about Plazma is a bit different. The first thing you notice on redesigned package is that Bambika disappeared!!! Plazma biscuit will soon celebrate 40 th birthday, and for the last 26 years, the package was decorated with the picture of a girl known as Bambika . The first Bambika was elected in 1980 (Olivera Nikolic from Pozarevac) and second one in 2000 (Aleksandra Nedosan from Kikinda). Design of the package itself was changed at that time. I remember that in 2000 the whole collection of photographs on the back of the package disappeared. Those photographs were what made me trust what I eat. At that time, I was most fascinated by the photograph of a sportsman and I was certain that if I eat Plazma I will be able to do anything. And then everyone ran away off the package. The notes informing us about nutritive values also disappeared as well as ears symbolizing our agriculture, at least of the northern part of the country. What was left were impressive horizontal white lines and typography.
Both Bambika and the impressive lines ran away off the latest package. Typeface was changed. Light coming from the red color also ran away, and although the package now is coated, it does not seem fresh. Even though that sun is trying its best to shine, it is not very successful at that. What definitely is better is typography. The typeface chosen for the product logotype, compared to the old one which seemed as if it was hanging on some marble board with its heavy grey frame, is more lively and readable. This as well as new typeface on Smoki package follows the curves of biscuit itself. The typeface chosen for the signature (slogan) is unattractive and bad. The signature in this case is the slogan: “Right choice…Anytime, anywhere!” I did not quite understand the ellipsis. Is one buying the product thinking, having second thoughts, choosing other product? Is it the moment of intense anticipation? Or do we need to see the commercial to understand the point of ellipses?
On the package background, instead of boring nutrition information in different languages from the previous package, through the fog emerge white stripes on the red background (or opposite) which ran away off the package front, and onto a shirt of a maybe grown up Bambika . While on the previous packages hands are raised in wonder, this new one in a particular way, trying to touch less possible, holds the biscuit sample, mildly smiling while looking at the list of nutrition values.
As a pleasant surprise comes the hidden inside package. Open the box and hop! Instead of white cellophane, as it was before, there is one typographically refreshing solution. The friends from Germany getting Plazma in some Turkish store told me that they saw completely different package. There the name of the manufacturer is emphasized; therefore Bambi is written in huge letters, and the one buying the product supposedly knows that Plazma is inside. What else would it be?
New package design: McCann Erickson Belgrade
IMLEK
This is not the end of the story, just as it is not the end of the summer.
Imlek's contest for the best Little Cow which will be displayed on the new milk package recently ended. Children had the right to participate in the contest, and which Little Cow out of 202 suggested will be on the package is to be determined by voting in o3on gallery at the exhibition lasting from August 30 th to September 4 th .
Again, this might be only the matter of habit and slow adjustment to changes.
[...]
After the text “old for New!” was published, another novelty emerged in the market: Prima snacks. They are also manufactured by Stark and I believe design was done by the same agency.
Above mentioned faithful followers will take this even more tragically because besides the package, the product itself has been changed, also the quantity is decreased (but the price remained the same). Now the snacks look more like their European cousins. They are glazed and thin. That's probably why they are lighter.
As in Smoki's case, the little window disappeared in this case too, and instead of it appeared a “perfect” photograph of the army of snacks. Now you will not able to disapprovingly hide the package with many broken snacks on the shelf. I also know the ones who were picking the packages based on how much the product is scorched, because they liked those better, but those are impossible to recognize now.
The typeface used for product logotype changed a little. “P” is going for becoming “T”, so that the snacks are named Trima instead of Prima . The glory of the existing logotype, and besides the effect known as glow in Photoshop, is achieved with another emboss effect, and all for the purpose of as sweet package design as possible. The yellow flag emphasizes that the snacks are salty, which was harder to notice on the old package, but the typeface used for this information seems as if it was taken from some website with free fonts, where the ones inappropriate in every sense are usually found.
The bag is now also easier to hang at the shelf in the store, but thus is much harder to open. Maybe a dotted line and stylized drawing of scissors should be added somewhere.
Theme: BRANDING SERBIA
What about the Little Cow?
Typography of Election Campaigns
COMMENTS
Whoa, I survived.
I do get the nostalgia for handmade design and I do agree that with the computers emerging a larger percentage sucks, but I do not like that this is said within the Smoki part of the text. Remark that anyone can be a designer today, combined with mention of “makeup” (I would rather say face-lifting, that was my intention) could lead someone who did not see the package to think that it is all about patterns and emboss . The truth is that this redesign did not utilize any of the “computer goodness” and that all of this can be done without a computer, so what is said is not applicable in this context.
Now after Smoki emerged in the market and in TV, I must admit that I am very satisfied with how it looks. Even the minimal (?) changes made after the client requested and after I left Afirma, changes that irritated me a couple of months ago, now seem justified and logical. Namely, they implemented back sharp edges on the lower verticals of letters “m” and “k” (typographically justified – you know this better), so the typeface was slightly more Smoki-like and they changed the font on “flips with peanuts”.
Reality is that Smoki had to move to metallized package for the purpose of product quality, and to remain as fresh as possible, which automatically opts out the thing we're most attached to – the window.
Out of 4 designs entering the contest finale, among which were designs similar to mine only “built-up” with gradient and scribble effects (this is what I would call makeup), all the way to completely new design with the playful smokis jumping from the end into front plan, this design was, I have to be pretentious, definitely the best. It was SMOKI the most. I played with “the sacred” the least. The examples of light face-lifting such as this one can be noticed within many European brands redesign.
The task I have put before myself was to take Smok i into metallized with AS LESS PAIN AS POSSIBLE, and I think I succeeded in that: reactions are mostly positive (regardless if they come from the workers in the field or not), in shelves it is understood as old Smoki , nostalgia within consumers goes away fast, the sales increase because of the marketing and the new package… Task completed successfully.
I think that all of us would harder accept something more radical.
Vladimir Radivojević
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Dear Typometerers ,
I just ate one biiiiig package of Smoki .
While commenting the quality of the product, which is somehow less natural, harder, saltier. They obviously went for crunchiness which, as you for sure know, is emphasized in that idiotic commercial for our favorite crunch-crunchy. Then the comment to the new “New-Age-Design” came: smooth, brought closer to EURO-standard, including package material which is harder to open, is more durable, and kind of looks like the old one but actually looks alike. I know that sensations last for a couple of days only and that we will soon get used to Smokier letters – those sharper ones from before no one was noticing, but regardless, our Smoki never got to expire in the stores because we loved it so much. Taste was what sold it, not the package too, a bit poor, “socialist”. The one today is for new generations of users, who want everything stronger, everything louder. Let it be for them. A little illustration: many of our people live abroad, generations close to my daughter's. They all love Smoki . A child came and got delicious crunchy from its mother and all looks coordinately fell onto the lucky creature, thinking “give me some!” The mother said to the child: “give some to the others”, and then the child sadly looked at how little Smokis disappear. Also, my daughter came home, and bought a lot of Smoki to bring back with her – SHE DIDN'T COMMENT PACKAGE DESIGN, SHE DIDN'T EVEN NOTICE THE DIFFERENCE! She is in the field of applied art, and did not look at the package but tasted what's inside and what she likes.
I will let you know if she notices.
My comment does not have much to do with design, and even less with typography. It is nostalgic. But, I could not resist, simply, both way consuming happened at once.
Faithfully yours,
Vesna Todorović
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