AdvertisingSpring: Herzog - Rebrand Final

I made all of the re-branding materials (logos, packaging, products, and advertisements) for this assignment on Illustrator, although the copies visible here are unfortunately the JPEG translations. The primary intended subject of the materials is a re-brand of AJM Packaging Corporation’s current brand persona, which I evaluated to be too corporate and uptight for a company that sells brown paper bags and paper plates; there is potential to bring an emotive quality to this company, and I hope that I conveyed a nostalgic, sentimental association with these somewhat frivolous products. All of the re-brand materials are unified by geometric shapes through the use and inspiration of Bauhaus 93 typeface, as well as by a monochromatic color scheme in red, blue, and green.

I chose to re-brand AJM Packaging Corporation because I “worked” with them for a previous assignment in which I was asked to find a common packaged product and write a paragraph as though I was the primary target for that product. My paragraph came from the viewpoint of a mother who packs her children’s lunches every day with AJM brown paper bags, just as her mother did for her. I believe that for this brand, in a market where “brands” tend to not matter, nostalgia is a key selling point. Brown paper bags are ultimately wasteful (we have more efficient ways of transporting food), but those who use them perhaps do so because of the associations they carry with brown bag lunches. Therefore, I took AJM Packaging Corporation in a retro, nostalgia-infused direction. I was inspired by the geometric forms of logos from the 1950s and early 1960s, as well as the monochromatic color schemes. I also created an elephant “critter” for the brand, using the same forms as the traditional logo, and employed it in a separate logo and as a potential product, stamped onto the brown paper bags. Because I am marketing to parents, I want visible callbacks to brands of the past, but because it is a brand that sells products primarily used for children, I also want it to be “kid-friendly” and appropriately colorful.

My intent behind this re-brand was to give a personality to a brand that current lacks one. I could have taken AJM Packaging Corporation in any direction and it would have potentially worked, but because I feel that the products lend themselves well to retro/nostalgic associations, I chose to work in that direction. I think that the re-brand, with regards to the packaging and logos, will appear to the audience as a pop of life and personality in a market that is often viewed as boring. Brown paper bags are all about the same price, so given the choice between a stuffy, boring brand and a newly remodeled, colorful brand, I hope that customers will gravitate towards the latter. With regards to the advertising, I hope that it reinforces brown bag lunches as a sentimental connection between parent and child, while also injecting some humor via the stereotypical “embarrassing” phrases parents leave on lunch bags. I think that this re-brand is ultimately successful because it gives AJM Packaging Corporation a personality and different image, but does so with purpose; often re-brands seem unnecessary or done simply for aesthetics (which isn’t always a bad thing), but here, I did research and completed the stages necessary when thinking about a re-brand. I am most proud of the formal executions of the logo and critter. The area that needs the most work is the advertising, which I think could benefit from a tagline; I planned to include “embarrass them” for additional humor but thought it was unnecessary and now I regret it.