Diet soft drinks have always been about less. The new Diet Coke can is about more.
The new packaging is more fun, more sophisticated and a much more sensitive link to the brand’s unique and historic character.
Two trends are evident with this new packaging. First, iconic brands are beginning to recognize and celebrate their heritage. Some brands have done it with simplistic solutions like “throwback” replicas of old packaging. Some like Coke, have begun to genuinely identify and distill the most basic visual foundations of their brand heritage, and reintroduce packaging that is historically sensitive but transformational.
Second, brand identities are getting simpler. In all categories, and with both branded and private label products, savvy marketers have begun to apply their heritage on the shelf with simpler, cleaner, and more compelling package design solutions.
Acknowledgments
Shown above is a photo of the new can, sent to me today, with the new look as it will be launched this Fall.
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About Richard Shear
Richard Shear is a Founding Principal and Creative Director of The Shear Partnership. He founded the firm, in 1993, to establish a design organization focused on strategic design excellence and the hands on interaction and management of the creative process.
He brings over 25 years of international consumer brand identity experience, with a wide range of clients such as Ahold, Coca-Cola, Hasbro, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Pernod Ricard and Procter & Gamble. He began his career with Lois/Chajet Design Group, a joint venture of the legendary advertising art director George Lois and the British design manager Clive Chajet. In his next design management position at Lippincott & Margulies, he learned the complex skills of international corporate identity.
During the late eighties he was a Creative Director and Partner at Peterson & Blyth, one of the premier package design firms of the time. Richard is a current Board member of the American Institute of Graphic Arts’ MetroNorth Chapter, past President of AIGA‘s Brand Design Association, President of the Package Design Council and a member of its Board of Directors. He is a graduate of Temple University’s Tyler School of Art, has written widely on the vital role of design and the creative process in the retail marketplace, and has been a guest lecturer at colleges including FIT, Trinity College and Tyler School of Art. He is a nationally ranked masters bicycle racer.
Diet soft drinks have always been about less. The new Diet Coke can is about more.
I must simply agree with Richard keen observations. This is to “audience” in a way that
actually compliments and rewards the consumption of the product itself. Most Diet Coke junkies
I know reach for a can at least twice, if not three times a day. This design not only flerts with modern culture, it wraps around design history and gives it a hug.
I’m getting a can today just to spin it around and see how it changes view and mood.
Thanks for this worthy “signature moment” in pakage design Richard.
really, it brings design driven by retro marketing to the whole new level.
Simple and clean: great!
I love this design; simple, modern and effective!
Ether the worlds IQ has risen over the past 20 years or we have sold out to the big brands in such a way that logos have become abstract art. Andy Warhole would be very happy.
Great work