Thursday, April 9, 2009

Bad design



When I first saw the new Tropicana juice carton design I said to myself this is different. I did like the clean look but there was something "generic brand" looking about them and that wasn't my biggest complaint. What I hated was not being able to distinguish the diffrent types of juice (some pulp, no pulp etc). The shadow from the shelf above would hide the color indicator at the top and I would have to bend down and take a closer look. I guess I wasn't the only one who got upset, Tropicana's sales went down by 20%! Tropicana has now decided to bring their old look back.

13 comments:

Anna @ D16 said...

You should have heard us RIOTING in the art department at work the day we all saw the new package. HORRIBLE!!! It looks like generic hospital orange juice.

It's not like the old package was cutting-edge beautiful design, but at least you knew it was Tropicana and not some off-market gas station brand.

There was good article in the NYTimes about it:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/business/media/23adcol.html

Amanda said...

That's funny coz I actually like the newer design. I'm a graphic designer and my style is definitely cleaner and more grid-like. Maybe it's because I'm not from the U.S. and can look at two designs without the familiarity of the original one (I rarely like new packaging when I see it on a shlef). Packaging in Australia seems to be heading towards the newer design style shown here though, maybe it would work here.

Juliette said...

you know, had they put the big green TROPICANA where the 100% Juice is - it wouldn't have been so bad. But still, aren't you supposed to phase in a switch that's so different?

i have to say I love the little leaves that make the orange cap look like an orange. =)

Tikimama said...

I wondered why they changed it! I thought it looked generic too. I don't get why companies think they need to update logos and packaging - if it ain't broke....

trevor said...

There was a couple good posts about this on one of my favorite packaging sites. http://www.thedieline.com/

Im still out on the new Pepsi designs too, as they also have a generic store brand feel to them.

Im glad they are going back to sticking the straw into the orange!

Scotty C said...

Ok, Ski. Doesn't it remind you of one of KR's projects where someone "attempted" to rebrand a bad packaging design? I read an article at: http://www.brandengine.com/blog/2009/03/our-perspective-the-tropicana-package-design-by-arnell-group/

Soooo UML.

aidan said...

First time I saw it, I thought they had sold out of Tropicana and only had the generic store brand left. The new design reminds a lot of food packaging in England.

Eric McGrew said...

Even though though I would saw the new design is good... My wife and I don't find it has that I want to drink this product. I'm glad they returned to old design. It makes me want to buy it.

Hanna and Daniel said...

Wow, wonder how the designer sold that to Tropicana. "You got about the strongest brand worldwide for up-market juice. So we thought we'd make you look like cheap juice. You know? To make you more accessible".
Haven't noticed that they tried this in Sweden though.
Unbelievable anyway!

She Can't Decide said...

that is SO interesting! The onyl part I liked was the cap, its kinda of cute.

I think they should try again...

robert said...

I so toatlly agree with you on this. I thought it was the target brand or something and when they changed it I actually bought no pul instead of some pulp. What a lousy move on their part.

Joe S said...

I was very frustrated when I saw the new packaging. I'm ambivalent about the design, but the challenge in determining the difference between pulp/no pulp was unnerving.

The new design has grown on me... and it's just orange juice. Not the end of the world.

Jen said...

I too liked the cap part of the design.