Worship Media Arts

A month or so ago, I was in a supermarket when I noticed Pepsi had a new logo. I’ve seen Pepsi do various refreshes on their logo over the years, but to this designer, the new incarnation is seriously bad. To me, it makes no visual sense as it sort of resembles a multi-colored smiling Pacman, or worse, some kind of new paint scheme for a Pokemon ball. (For a strange trip into the world of lofty over-the-top marketing reasons for the new design, check out Pepsi Breathtaking Design Strategy). The new design is almost as bad as the current US currency which abandoned the mostly symmetrical centered design of the past, for something that is unbalanced and fairly cluttered. But I digress…

I noticed on a facebook status update that of one of my former art school classmates shares my distain for Pepsi’s new design. As people were reacting to his update where he asked if the logo was a joke, one commenter posted an interesting article about the negative effects one redesign had on its product’s sales.

It seems Tropicana orange juice (a Pepsi brand) used the same artist, Peter Arnell, to rebrand the Tropicana Pure Premium logo and packaging. The old design (pictured above) featured a more typographically complex logo, with a shot of a straw poking out of an orange. The new, more simplistic design (also above) features large blocky type and a close-up of a glass of juice. Now, this design isn’t nearly as offensive to me as the Pepsi logo, in fact I kind of like it, but it has had a dramatic negative impact on sales.

Tropicana’s sales have plunged 20% since the new design was introduced. What’s worse is that Tropicana’s competitors have seen an increase in sales over the period of time since the rebranding took place. The drastic decline in sales resulted in the decision to drop the new design and return to the old one. This must have cost the company millions in unused marketing and packaging materials.

Maybe the new design looks too simple, almost as if it’s a generic brand, or maybe the other more creative metaphorical approach said more about the freshness of the brand.¬?Either way, there is much to learn here.

If customers have changed their buying habits based strictly on design, what does that mean for those of us who use visuals in worship? Are we at risk of losing people when we use bad design? Are our visuals repelling people from the Gospel message rather than drawing them in?

I think you know how I would answer that question. How about you? Do you think design has an effect on attendance, discipleship and so on, or does it really not make much of a difference?

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