One of the more interesting brand parent companies out there—a phrase my delinquent teenage self would hit me with a skateboard for using unironically—over the past year has been The J.M Smucker Company.

While the name obviously conjures images of the jams and jellies under the Smucker's nameplate, the company actually owns a pretty huge swath of well-known brands such as Jif, Folgers, Crisco and Meow Mix.

So to highlight its evolution beyond jams, the company this week unveiled its new corporate logo and identity, created by design agency CBX.

As you can see above, the result is a minimalist and semi-abstract collection of colorful shapes that convey fruit while being a bit more corporate than the traditional illustrated strawberries.

So how are we feeling about this one?

Over on Twitter, Christina Garnett has started a thread debating the new J.M. Smucker Co. logo alongside some of the "most unpopular logo rebrands," if you want to wade into that discussion. (Surprisingly, I haven't seen anyone mention Instagram yet.)

I know it's easy to bag on minimalist logos, but in the big scheme of things, this one doesn't bother me. I don't love it, but I don't hate it.

That said, I think the yellow-green guitar pick shape is unnecessarily distracting. It doesn't seem to be a leaf, but I doubt it's an underripe strawberry either. So what does that leave? I'm sure it's not meant to be taken literally, but when it comes to food, our brains tend to be evolutionarily trained toward literalism.

Here's a look at the company's thinking behind some of the components, though the idea of "spark" doesn't really sell me on the green berry:

Corporations have been on a "streamlined logo" kick for quite a few years now, which makes sense given our mobile-first world, where ornate artistic flourishes don't always come across. The downside, of course, is that they're often intentionally bland and artistically neutral (with occasional exceptions like Instagram's dramatic and colorful shift in 2016).

Last year, Facebook went with a stark all-caps typeface, which is now found on load screens across its stable of apps. And Volkswagen this year stripped down its logo into its bare two-dimensional components.

Perhaps most notably (and, I would argue, effectively) King Arthur Flour ditched its highly detailed logo of a knight on horseback in favor of a crown subtly imbued with wheat.

So what's your take on the new J.M. Smucker Company identity? And which recent logo refreshes have been the most successful or wrongheaded? Drop me a line at the email below or hit me with your hot takes at @Griner on Twitter.

David Griner
Creative and Innovation Editor, Adweek
David.Griner@Adweek.com

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