Minimalist renditions of international brands • Hacker News Board

Re: Minimalist renditions of international brands

#11

Post by haribilalic » Thu, Dec 23, 2010, 7:33 AM UTC

The food packaging loses a lot of meaning. The original Nutella, Nesquick, Toffifee, Corn Flakes, Lindt and Pringles packaging all show what's inside or a "serving suggestion". If I didn't already know what the product was, it'd be a lot tougher to know what I was buying.

The same applies for the Durex packaging. I assume that Durex Select condoms are fruit flavoured or scented, because there's fruit on the box. I can't make that assumption with the "minimalist" packaging.

I think they do look good, but design isn't a synonym for modernist aesthetics; it has a goal and I don't think the goal is being met by these.

Re: Minimalist renditions of international brands

#12

Post by scarboy » Thu, Dec 23, 2010, 7:41 AM UTC

These renditions ignore illiterate or lazy shoppers who rely on pictures for their purchasing.

Re: Minimalist renditions of international brands

#13

Post by Confusion » Thu, Dec 23, 2010, 8:18 AM UTC

I find most of these 'minimalist' renditions are vastly less attractive than the original ones, to the point where I think I would stop buying them in favor of a more attractive competitor (if I would be buying them; I never buy most of these products). However, true minimalist designs are often more attractive than 'decorated' counterparts. So I think these aren't minimalist renditions; just bland renditions.

Re: Minimalist renditions of international brands

#14

Post by fleitz » Thu, Dec 23, 2010, 8:20 AM UTC

scarboy wrote: post #12

These renditions ignore illiterate or lazy shoppers who rely on pictures for their purchasing.

Also, shoppers who don't speak English as a first language. Whenever I'm in the ethnic isles at the local grocer I heavily rely on pictures to figure out what stuff is.

Re: Minimalist renditions of international brands

#15

Post by fleitz » Thu, Dec 23, 2010, 8:22 AM UTC

nchlswu wrote: post #9

Reminds me of the "No Name" Brand in Canada (maybe local to certain provinces; Google Images: tiny.cc/nonamepics). It's interesting because the brand has purposely gone minimal. It's easily distinguishable treatment and lack of loud elements actually make them much more distinguishable in supermarkets. Despite what some have said, I think in general these are done fairly well. Some are great, some are worse, but over…

No Name also heavily competes on price. You have to look very closely when dealing with No Name, for instance No Name veg is frequently Grade B instead of Grade A. I'm not sure how CFIA grades veg but I noticed that the No Name peas I bought tasted like crap and upon further inspection I saw they were Grade B.

Re: Minimalist renditions of international brands

#16

Post by weego » Thu, Dec 23, 2010, 8:53 AM UTC

This is more accurately reductivism/reductionism, there is no requirement for there to be "less" when dealing with minimalism and that was never the goal of artists who followed that school.

Re: Minimalist renditions of international brands

#17

Post by code_duck » Thu, Dec 23, 2010, 10:36 AM UTC

No doubt this appeals to people like us, steeped in the popular aesthetic trends of the web. However, a brand would have to be very well known to be able to pull off a design like that for these sorts of mass market products.

Re: Minimalist renditions of international brands

#18

Post by geedee77 » Thu, Dec 23, 2010, 10:39 AM UTC

DannoHung wrote: post #8

The Schweppes and Lindt ultra-minimalist designs are really good. They retain all the brand recognition while removing all cruft. The other ones aren't bad, but they're not great.

I thought the Schweppes one was easily the best but the Lindt version took away from the luxury feel of the brand and damaged the buying experience.

Re: Minimalist renditions of international brands

#19

Post by CognitiveLens » Thu, Dec 23, 2010, 2:15 PM UTC

haribilalic wrote: post #11

The food packaging loses a lot of meaning. The original Nutella, Nesquick, Toffifee, Corn Flakes, Lindt and Pringles packaging all show what's inside or a "serving suggestion". If I didn't already know what the product was, it'd be a lot tougher to know what I was buying. The same applies for the Durex packaging. I assume that Durex Select condoms are fruit flavoured or scented, because there's fruit on the box. I ca…

I agree that if you didn't know what the product was, the minimalist designs would not work, but I get the impression the designers chose these brands because they were already widely known (in some places, anyway) - once you've established that you make X, and people associate X with you, there's no longer a need for a serving suggestion.

Re: Minimalist renditions of international brands

#20

Post by CognitiveLens » Thu, Dec 23, 2010, 2:19 PM UTC

marcusbooster wrote: post #5

This is a pretty lazy foray into minimalism. It should be about breaking the product down to it's most basic components, not just removing the background layers of a psd.

Isn't it more of a design exercise that shows how removing background layers of a psd affects brand/product impressions? It's a thought experiment, not a marketing pitch - using a very simple idea to show some interesting variations on brand image.