Strangers is a new confectionery brand created by Valgosa, a family company dating back to 1912 and seemingly best known as purveyors of saffron. It seems an unlikely starting point for such a boldly positioned brand – and one boasting an exquisite visual identity thanks to Milan-based Auge Design (Erbert, Ginori 1735).

According to Auge – which worked across everything from strategy and naming through to packaging, logo design, bespoke wordmark typography, 3D design, creative coding and more – the brand is “Built on over a century of expertise,” and “blends traditional knowledge with a spirit of experimentation, aiming to redefine the boundaries of flavor and challenge conventional expectations within the candy category”.

The result is a confectionery identity that feels genuinely different. It presents itself more like a niche fragrance or beauty brand than treaty sweeties; eschewing the saccharine visual shorthand that still dominates much of the sweets aisle – no syrupy colours, no weird/cute/infantilising mascots grinning out from the pack. Instead, Auge has created something moodier, stranger and as such, something which feels altogether rather more sophisticated.

Which is just as well, since Auge says the project largely set out to establish Strangers “as a disruptive player in the confectionery market”. The studio continues, “In a category dominated by predictable flavours, visual codes, and sweetness-driven narratives, the challenge was to create a brand that could break category conventions, appeal to a more mature audience, and introduce a new, curiosity-driven way of experiencing candy.”

That ambition is evident immediately in the packaging system, which uses richly airbrushed gradients and grainy, distorted textures to evoke the flavours within without ever spelling them out too literally. I love these gradients, and I think they reveal the conclusion of something I’ve been pondering for a while: just as I think we’ve all finally realised that like black, white and grey, leopard print is in fact a neutral (goes with everything, never looks bad, never not appropriate – praise be, Kat Slater et al) – gradients are, or have become, a neutral too.

We’ve long discussed gradients in terms of them being a ‘trend’, or being/not being ‘in’. But I’d argue we’ve now transcended such labels. They just are, in the way that singular hues are accepted to be. Here, Auge uses them brilliantly: colours bleed and bloom into one another with a soft-focus haziness that feels simultaneously digital and tactile. The effect is vaguely psychedelic but never gimmicky, nodding perhaps to experimental print processes, heat maps or even the blurry abstraction of early CGI.

Importantly, the gradients don’t merely decorate the packs; they perform a semiotic role. Auge explains that “a proprietary generative system translates each blend’s sensory profile – spice, acidity, intensity, complexity – into a unique visual pattern, making every pack a direct expression of what’s inside.” It’s a clever move that transforms flavour into something almost data-driven and coded, while still maintaining an emotional, sensorial quality. In doing so, it all very much leans into that central idea of a more grown-up sensibility around curiosity: it’s subtle – showing, rather than telling.

And discovery is very much the point. Strangers positions itself around unusual flavour combinations including raspberry, pepper and lychee; saffron, orange blossom and cinnamon; and strawberry, acerola and tarragon. I – and I’m guessing a fair few other less-than-’foodie’-type-people – haven’t even heard of a few of these, so safe to say, these are combinations that deliberately challenge the conventions of what sweeties are and taste like.

The products are sugar-free, vegan and gluten-free too, though mercifully the branding avoids leaning too heavily into the occasionally joyless visual and verbal language of such wellness-leaning products. Instead, it retains a sense of indulgence and intrigue.

Auge describes the brand as being “built on a simple dare: do you take candy from strangers?” which is where things become slightly more divisive. Perhaps I’m being far too serious here, but honestly, while I appreciate the intention to make the whole thing feel a bit naughty and edgy, making an act we’d usually associate with predatory child-snatchers the main foundation of a brand feels a bit… odd. It leaves something of a bad taste in the mouth (or at least my mouth), pun only half-intended. When the word ‘Yewtree’ springs to mind when pondering an otherwise beautiful sweets brand, something isn’t quite working, is it.

That’s not to say I don’t think the name works overall – it does, if only because it connotes the strangeness of the flavours and the positioning of the brand and its audience. Let’s just avoid the copy that veers too close to the wound-down van window of a leering creep chirpsing Year 8s.

And that’s really my only criticism. I love the art direction – classy, sassy, sort of tongue in cheek – sexy and racy and sort of smoky in that way that late nights look like they were in the 1980s when everyone reeked of Martin Amis-ish arrogance (and/or cocaine) and the sort of blithe optimism and hubris that went on to floor the Gordon Gecko types eventually.

That atmosphere comes through not only in the imagery and colour handling but also in the typography. The custom logotype is elegantly condensed and sharp-edged, carrying just enough tension to feel disruptive without tipping into novelty. Supporting typography comes courtesy of Berlin-based type foundry ABC Dinamo’s Diatype, a warm yet sharp grotesque. It’s an astute choice here: Diatype has enough neutrality to anchor the otherwise expressive visuals, but enough personality to stop the system from ever feeling too cold, serious or minimalistic.

That balance between experimentation and restraint is perhaps the project’s greatest success. Despite the intentionally disruptive positioning, Auge never allows the identity to descend into chaos. The typography remains structured and controlled; the layouts are disciplined; the embossing and material finishes add tactility without veering into overt ostentation. Even the more chaotic visual textures feel carefully calibrated.

The confidence in ambiguity feels refreshing in a branding landscape still overly reliant on prioritising clarity at all costs. Strangers trusts consumers to be curious enough to engage with uncertainty – a truly refreshing approach in a world of miniscule attention spans; it whispers instead of bellowing into your face.

Whether the central conceit entirely lands is perhaps debatable. But visually, at least, Auge has created a beautifully arresting and genuinely forward-thinking, original brand identity: tactile, provocative and gloriously strange in all the right ways.

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Ela Vinhos by Pedro Vareta Studio

Pedro Vareta Studio are so pleased with their logotype for Ela Vinhos they made a cute little gif to show us how each letter is informed by the contours of a red wine bottle. It’s wholly unnecessary, it’s totally felt, it doesn’t need an explanation. The full logotype is gorge, full of character, even the abbreviated ‘E’ symbol, used on their website holds some of this character. The balance of positive and negative space and the cropped half bottles give the ‘E’ enough of a personality to be ownable, even the trademark office agrees, bestowing a ®. As a bottling and finishing service, the stacked bottles also feel a little industrious, as if they’re rolling off the production line.

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Museum of Narratives by Pentagram

Pentagram developed the strategic idea of ‘dimensional time’ for Japan’s Museum of Narratives as a way to express that while time might be experienced as linear, ideas, traditions and culture don’t behave that way and further, they recur, get reinterpreted, loop back to find new meaning in a different age. Pentagram’s logo, a spiral monogram, is perhaps the most literal expression of this idea. This is advanced, forming the logic for the visual system that weaves, flows and connects, in motion, in physical space and in print. As a static asset printed with one ink, the logo is distinct, reduces down well and carries with it a conceptual significance that is effectively exploded out elsewhere. The logo earrings are a delight! Read more here.

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The corner shop near my school used to have a fridge that sounded like it was fighting for its life. Inside sat a chaotic wall of colour. Coke, Tango, Lilt, Irn-Bru, Dr Pepper and the odd mysterious import with radioactive colouring and absolutely no concern for dental enamel.

I used to buy Mirinda for one reason.

It looked dangerous.

Not actually dangerous obviously, although I’m fairly certain it could remove varnish if left long enough.

That’s probably why this new rebrand works.

Mirinda always looked excessive. The orange too bright, fruit graphics huge. The whole thing had the visual subtlety of somebody hitting every button at once. Which made perfect sense when you were twelve years old choosing drinks almost entirely on visual impact.

PepsiCo hasn’t tried to dull it down.

The new identity pushes harder into the sensory overload people already associated with the brand, but now there’s more structure behind it. Organised chaos.

The packs push flavour harder than before. Bigger fruit graphics, heavier colour blocking and typography with enough movement to feel animated. Your eye lands on orange, mango or lime before it lands on Mirinda itself, exactly where PepsiCo sought the attention.

Mirinda doesn’t have the luxury of being Coca-Cola and can’t survive on fragments and memory alone. In crowded fridges and crowded phone screens, it needs to look like the drink with the biggest flavour hit before anything else.

That pressure’s shaping beverage branding everywhere now.

Soft drinks spend half their lives appearing through delivery apps, social clips and mobile thumbnails. A lot of brands have responded by flattening themselves into cleaner, safer design systems that hold together neatly at postage-stamp size.

Mirinda’s gone the other way and that’s why people are reacting.

The older identity often felt disconnected depending on the market. Some packs looked playful, some tired and some barely connected. This redesign finally gives the brand a recognisable global structure without draining the personality out of it.

Semi-circular fruit graphics sit are still central to the system. The same curve runs through the logo, the “Smile Please” platform and the motion system, creating recognisable shapes that survive even when the logo shrinks or disappears.

That matters for a brand sold across India, the Middle East, Asia and Eastern Europe, all with different retail environments and flavour ranges. The whole thing still reads as Mirinda even when regional teams start to pull it in different directions.

There are still trade-offs. Some versions push flavour so aggressively the logo becomes secondary, and “Smile Please” sits in crowded emotional territory. Half the drinks industry is trying to sell tiny moments of happiness to exhausted people scrolling on their phones.

Still, I think the redesign succeeds because it remembers something a lot of beverage brands have forgotten.

Fizzy pop is supposed to be fun.

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Logo Histories – The stories behind historical logos

Dataforeningen simply translates as ‘data organisation’ from Norwegian to English, and funnily enough, that’s exactly what the organisation is. Operating nationwide across Norway serving people working in tech, it was looking for a new identity that reflected a shift in who and what it was, and its future aims.

Taking on this potentially tricky brief was Oslo-based Bielke & Yang (Norwegian Structure, Solrug, Taco República), which says that when it came on board, Dataforeningen was looking for a new brand that “better reflected their ambitions and their position within the Norwegian tech community”.

The agency continues, “The brief was to modernise the brand in a meaningful way – to create something lively that broke with the conventions of a ‘typical association,’ bring Norway’s tech community together, and speak to a new generation of technology enthusiasts.”

The strategic underpinnings of the new designs were informed by interviews with Dataforeningen members across Norway – and it was the history and diversity of the organisation and the people within it that went on to inform the core concept for the design work that followed: data culture.

“By looking back at the shared cultural roots of technology, we reopened the door to the old computer room and rediscovered the playfulness, curiosity and joy for the craft that’s always been at the heart of this community,” Bielke & Yang explains.

That’s where this identity is so smart, and so joyful – it really conjures up the more utopian, human aims that were at the heart of the beginnings of the internet, and technology more generally.

There’s almost a sense of anarchic freedom to the whole thing; delighting in playing with a mixture of the serious, dextrous nature of data and the more wild, expansive possibilities of technology more broadly.

Reflecting this is the colour palette – multifarious and bold, ranging from letterbox red to a charming shade of purple, a bright blue and a more computer-ish shade of green-tinged yellow.

The use of gradients is a masterstroke in further underpinning this mixture of, as Bielke & Yang puts it, the “precision and personality, seriousness and play” that underpin “data culture”. These gradients also manage to transcend trends – so easily ‘in’, just as easily ‘out’, but here, just existing, all sweet and serene and knowingly intrinsic to internet ‘aesthetics’.

Likewise the font choices here are all about that balancing act between fun and functional. Bielke & Yang has opted to use one serif and one sans, each acting as the perfect foil for the other. For the sans, the identity uses Onsite by London-based Sociotype; meanwhile the serif is the rather lovely PS Times by Seattle-based Parker Studio – which, as the name suggests, is a new and delightful take on Times New Roman.

What’s really interesting about this identity is that the brand world is so well done and fully formed that the logo almost doesn’t feel that important – it’s nice enough, but serves as a cog in a far larger, comprehensive machine.

However, it is of course worth discussing: much like the rest of the overarching look and feel of the new Dataforeningen, it’s a smart, wry play on merging millennial aesthetics and more timeless, future-facing brand nous.

Bielke & Yang describes the logo as “abstract enough to invite interpretation, but concrete enough to feel clear and recognisable for members across the country”. Taking the form of a dynamic swirl and ‘D’ letterform shape, it manages to sidestep overt references to nostalgia (or indeed, ‘fauxstalgia’) and instead forms a robust anchoring device for the rest of the identity.

What works so well here is how relaxed everything feels, while also feeling demonstrably, recognisably ‘Dataforeningen’. It’s all very self aware in the subtle use of humour, which comes through even when you don’t speak Norwegian – the copy doesn’t matter so much as the overall vibe.

Everything is resolutely modern and flexible, but also slightly tongue in cheek in its references to the tech of yesteryear: design inspiration, according to Bielke & Yang, includes computer advertising from the 80s and 90s, as well as more “subtle cues”.

What’s lovely is how human it all feels – the art direction is superb here, blending more fashion-leaning editorial inspirations with images using a sea of wires and sort of server cross sections – a nerd’s paradise, if you will, making it all give that beautiful sense of anarchic utopia that computers and tech should, but frequently don’t, offer us.

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LogoHistories – Stories of logos of the past

Ideogram by How&How

Ideogram is one of the many new AI image generation tools developed for the design industry, promising post-image generation editing functionalities; essentially a prompt-based Photoshop alternative. This integration of AI into human-led creative workflow is beautifully expressed through Ideogram’s logo, a representation of the mind and a negative space ‘I’. This is also furthered in the balance of the organic and the symmetrical. AI continues to be positioned as an assist, not a replacement, and the visual language at play here works well to position it not as a cold threat, but a creative play thing, an extension of human creative capacity.

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The Stack Group by Fourth Canvas

The ‘Stack’ Group, such an invitation for a logo designer. Why complicate things? It’s a group, so duplication, and an S expertly linking the stack. Simple. Works well at different sizes and feels full corporate, straight from the modernist playbook kinda thing. There’s a lovely flow between the blocks, and a good balance of positive and negative space. The case study suggests that there’s a T-S-G in there, a T perhaps, an S for sure, a G though…hmm. Overall, nice work by Fourth Canvas.

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Logo Histories – Stories of logos from the past.

Bars are back in personal care. Not out of nostalgia, pressure is building. Plastic targets, retailer demands and a growing sense that rinse-off products still rely on a system that doesn’t hold up.

So brands are pushing solid formats again. Shampoo, body wash, conditioner, all compressed into something smaller, lighter and easier to justify. Bars cut out most of the water shipped in a bottle, last longer and remove plastic entirely, reducing packaging, weight and transport impact.

That shift is starting to show in how they’re presented.

Ghilli avoids the muted eco look and goes straight to colour with a Mediterranean edge. Loose script, a gold seal, everyday photography. It looks like something you’d pick up anyway. Still a cardboard box, just one you don’t rush to throw away, and it doesn’t hide the sustainability story.

A lot of the category still reads as a trade-off. Better for the planet, less appealing everywhere else. Ghilli closes that gap by making the product something you’d choose without thinking twice, not a worthy alternative parked on a lower shelf.

That part gets you through the door. The real test starts once the box is gone.

In use, the bar has to deal with a tougher reality. Shampoo bars still haven’t broken through and most people stick with the bottle.

Hair washing is automatic. You pick up the bottle, use it and put it back. Bars interrupt that rhythm. You’re working out how much to use, trying not to drop it, figuring out where it lives in a bathroom that wasn’t designed for it. Get it wrong and people go straight back to what they know.

The category is still paying for the first wave. Early bars left waxy roots, odd rinse-off and products that cracked or turned to mush too quickly. That memory sticks. New brands are working against it. When the bottled option is cheap, predictable and everywhere, “plastic free” isn’t always enough to justify the switch.

There’s also an image problem. Even among people who care about single-use plastic, bars often sit in the “worthy” bucket rather than the desirable one. Packaging can shift that. Ghilli shows how to position a bar as Mediterranean skincare rather than a compromise, but that only holds if the product delivers.

Most brands still spend more time talking about what they’ve removed than how the product performs. The questions people care about are simpler. Will it clean like what I already use, how long will it last, and can I live with it day to day without it turning into a wet brick.

Great packaging gets you picked up. Week three decides everything.

Converted yet, or still loyal to the bottle?

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New! Portal – Design-driven jobs board and applicant management.
Brand Archive – Research tool for brand designers.
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LogoArchive Shop – Vintage design books & LogoArchive Zines.
Logo Histories – The stories behind historical logos

Another week, another branding project for those – love them or loathe them – ‘pet parents’. I honestly thought we were post-pet-parent, but seemingly we’re still very much in the midst of that icky phrasing – the “live, love, laugh” of dogs, a sort of endless bottomless brunch with the #girlies. I’m an ‘elder millennial’, but it all seems disgustingly,…

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Fotografiska by BankerWessel

An explosive monogram derived from the initials of what was to be known as Fotografiska Museum, but shortened to Fotografiska, and ex…

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Packaging sets the price long before anyone checks the label. That’s retail reality. The same pan or towel set can read as a £15 purchase or a £50 one based purely on how it shows up on shelf.

Own label either knows what it is or it disappears. In homeware, that means sitting next to Tefal, Brabantia and Joseph Joseph without copying them. Push too far i…

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Escola + Natureza by Pony

Oooh look at this little logo delight designed by Polar for Brazilian institution Escola + Natureza. The institution transforms urgency …

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Juana is a Dubai-based company creating CBD-based “bioactive” skincare, founded by Yann Moujawaz Martini, a French-born entrepreneur with Syrian roots and a background in brand strategy or – as he himself put it in an interview – “a decade designing multibillion-dollar wellness and medical tourism mega-projects for governments and Fortune 500s”, after w…

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Most people associate Italian rice with the north, the vast paddies of the Po Valley feeding the country’s risotto habit.

Southern fields once told a different story.

Centuries ago, the plains around Paestum in Campania were under cultivation. The soil was suitable, but the conditions weren’t. Rice required standing water, which led to mosquitoes and the …

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St Paul’s Cathedral is undoubtedly one of the most iconic, recognisable landmarks of London’s skyline: its vast dome, all beautiful copper-tarnished turquoise, resplendent with dazzlingly golden pineapples (one of its architect Sir Christopher Wren’s favourite accoutrements, and back in the 17th century a distinct status symbol representing all that was…

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MaxiHealth by M/OTG

Look, this logo is going to call to mind a few things, Australia's ABC logo, for example. But, as much as I am knee deep in logos, with both t…

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Say “lazy eating” and most people picture instant noodles, freezer crumbs and someone chewing in front of a laptop. In reality, most of us are not lazy, just tired. Long days, crowded trains, decision fatigue. By the time the fridge door opens, the idea of cooking a proper meal feels miles away.

That shift in how people actually eat has opened up an inte…

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One person’s imperfection is another’s luck– especially, it turns out, when it comes to teeth. The front-tooth-gap, as exemplified and celebrated by the likes of Madonna (and, it turns out, Chaucer’s famously, unabashedly lustful “gap-toothed” Wife of Bath) is known in more scientific or medical terms as a ‘diastema’.

Many see this aesthetic dental quirk…

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Pew Research Centre by Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv

Pew Research Center seeks to shed light on important social and political trends through data. A sun motif of …

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Pet food packaging has become a multi‑billion‑dollar category, growing fast as pet ownership rises and brands move further into premium territory.

That growth is changing how the aisle looks. With more brands competing for attention, packaging has to work harder. Stylised illustration has become one of the most distinctive tools in the category.

Illustrat…

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It’s always a joy when a project manages to do something that feels new, bold, refreshing and resolutely contemporary; all the while wearing its influences absolutely front and centre on its sleeve.

Treblasé is one such project, thanks to this superb brand design by Oslo-based multi-disciplinary design studio Olssøn Barbieri (Pursue Hard Seltzer, Stereos…

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Padelsmith by Thisaway

By expertly crafting high quality padel rackets Padelsmith has positioned itself as the antithesis of quick churn and mass production racke…

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