Pringles

  Along with the name, the company needed a logo for their potato crisps, so "Julius Pringles" was born. Originally, Julius represented a man's head in that he had a bushy black moustache, eyes, eyebrows, and parted black hair.

Everything went to hell around 2002:

1. They stopped keeping the parted hair inside the oval. That was part of the joy. A turn-of-the-century strongman who’d been out in the cold too long contained within a perfect round icon.

2. They took Pringles name out of the bow tie.

3. They gave Mr. Pringle pupils. Pupils!

  Although none of these decisions have curbed my Pringles consumption, they pain me as a lover of branding and design. Pringles are just one of the hundreds of corporate logos that have fallen pray to Skeumorphic Design.

  As design tools added more features, designers had the means to give more dimensions to these (intentionally) two-dimensional icons. Too often, logo designers have edicts to add more “air” or gradients to their styling. An easy way to “refresh” a brand is to give something more curve, or more fluff, or subtle colour changes. These decisions do little to elevate the brand.  The most endearing corporate logos are those that have changed the least over time. Think Mobil, IBM, CBS or General Electric.