Just Right

Just Right cereal boxes

I’ve been reading up on graphic design and typography recently, so I couldn’t help noticing that Kellogg’s recently revamped the carton of their Just Right breakfast cereal.

  • call-outs and badges have gone or have been toned down
  • the outline and drop shadow of the ‘Just Right’ logo have gone
  • the emerald green gradient in the background has been replaced with a solid background of leaf green
  • the product shot has gone from oblique to plan view
  • splash of milk omitted
  • the ‘Kellogg’s’ logo is less legible, as it’s red on the a similar tone of green, but it’s much larger, so much that it gets cropped off the front of the pack

I thought that the shape of the pack had changed too, because its got a calmer, less cluttered look, but it’s exactly the same size. There’s been a similar revamp of some of the other Kellogg’s cereals, so they make a distinctive group on the supermarket shelf. I think they’ve pitched it ‘Just Right’ . . . in the Goldilocks Zone. Although she preferred porridge.

‘Less is more’

Busy cover of one of my walks booklets.

In my book design, I like to pack my pages with illustrations, comic strips and maps but there’s a lot of truth in the phrase ‘sometimes less is more’. If I’m reading through a book, rather than dipping into it for reference, I appreciate calm, clear design.