Fresh Food. Fresh Logo?

As I teased in my social post, I have some thoughts on Aldi’s fresh logo.

First, let me tell you my impressions of Aldi and their old logo.

For a long time, I had driven by Aldi’s and had no idea what they were. It sounded and looked vaguely automotive. When I finally heard it was a grocery store chain, I was confused. Maybe it’s a “weird” European packaged goods store. That shopping guy is not me. My goal when grocery shopping is to beat my record shortest time spent in the store record. In a way, Aldi was an off-putting brand to me, just based on their logo. It kept me from exploring.

After hearing good things about Aldi, I’ve finally been to my local store. A pleasant experience, with good products and good prices. People were friendly. The place looked clean. It was… ok. I still don’t shop there regularly, and the brand just doesn’t connect with me. Is it still because of the logo? Maybe. While I am a designer and am hypersensitive to such things, I’m also a grocery shopper — with no allegiances to supermarket brands.

Now Aldi sports a new logo. From a consumer standpoint, it doesn’t make me feel any different about the brand. That automotive name and those colors don’t make me think about food.

A Missed Opportunity?

Seems to me this is a missed opportunity. Aldi stated that their new “modern” logo redesign is a reflection of major developments the company has undergone. Problem is, the brand feels updated but it doesn’t feel modern. Removing the lighter blue box, enlarging the A, allowing more air around the type and the A, and minimizing their bands of color are improvements. It does feel fresher and cleaner. The shapes that make up the A are actually more organic and give it more depth.

However, they took it too far with the gradients in the A and in the dark blue background. The typeface also feels dated, mostly because of the rounded L, which looks 70’s sci-fi. (Yes, one detail on one character can do that.) Both of these elements (typeface and gradients) keep this from logo from feeling modern. And I don’t get the odd balance created by the extra spacing under the name.

Ultimately, I like parts of Aldi’s newly fresh logo. It already contained lot of elements, and they cleaned those up. But I think they kind of missed the mark. They could have really made a statement.

~Chad

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