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Contents Introduction 01—Brand Background History................................................................ 08 Who We Are........................................................ 12 Logo History....................................................... 16 New Logo Concepts............................................ 20
02—Logo Sketches Healthy is Beautiful.............................................. 24 Tried and True..................................................... 28 Elements of Life................................................... 30
03—Refinement Refined Sketches................................................. 34 Digital Sketches................................................... 38 Logotype Development........................................ 40 Similar Logos....................................................... 42
04—The New Logo, Revealed The Reveal.......................................................... 46 Logo Anatomy..................................................... 54 Moving Forward.................................................. 58
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Introduction
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As the Pond’s brand is evolving, we will need a fresh logo that symbolizes the new incarnation of the brand, one that speaks to the soul of what Pond’s does and honors its long history.
About the Logo Redesign Pond’s is one of the very first skin care brands, beginning in 1846, when pharmacist Theron R. Pond developed a healing tea from witch hazel extract. Since that time, Pond’s has had over 150 years of experience developing innovative, firstto-market products for healing, protecting, and nurturing radiant skin. While the Pond’s brand has enjoyed past success as a market leader, it is now firmly situated in the lower end of the cosmetic market, and brand recognitions is low. With this in mind, we have concluded that the time is right to revitalize the true potential of this time-tested brand as an expert in innovative skin care—and beyond skin care, the new Pond’s will provide holistic wellness care for the whole body.
At its core, Pond’s understands that when people look and feel their best, they are better prepared to take on the world with confidence. The current Pond’s logo, a feminine tulip, limits the idea of looking your best to a traditional feminine beauty. In this volume, we will develop a new logo that symbolizes a more inclusive view of what it means to be at your best.
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01 Brand Background
1.1–1.4 History + Who we are + Logo History + New Logo Concepts
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“To help you look the woman you want to be—the world’s most famous beauty aids. You can gain new power over yourself, be more vital, more lovely. Remember: the you that others see first is in your face. To develop the beauty of your own face is not vanity—it makes you a more worthwhile, distinctive person, brings the real you closer to other people.” —Pond’s advertisement, 1947
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1.1—HISTORY
History
Pond’s is the original skin care brand, with over 150 years of experience developing products to nurture healthy, radiant skin. Now we are reframing Pond’s focus on skin care as one element of a holistic approach to total body wellness. Pond’s began in 1846, when New York pharmacist Theron R. Pond developed a healing tea from witch hazel extract, which he sold as ‘Golden Treasure’, later called Pond’s Extract. The product was a cure-all marketed to families under the brand name Pond’s Healing. However, as the burgeoning skin care business expanded, Pond’s began to lose sales to its higher priced competitors because, as one market researcher noted, “women thought that higher priced creams must be better.” The brand lacked a sense of exclusivity. Pond’s fought back with an extensive advertising campaign beginning in 1923, based on testimonials from prominent figures, including Queen Marie of Romania, which did indeed improve sales at the time. As time went one, Pond’s continued to develop skin care products, and in 1940 expanded into makeup lines with its Pond’s Face Powder and Pond’s Angel Face products. But by the 1950’s, Pond’s
was stuck in the middle to lower end of the cosmetic market. In 1955, Pond’s was combined with the Chesebrough Manufacturing Company, the makers of Vaseline, as a strategy to keep Pond’s company alive. This was successful until the mid 1980’s when revenues began to flag, and the company was acquired by Unilever in 1986. Soon after, under its new ownership, the Pond’s Institute was opened in an attempt to position the brand as a leading expert in science-based skin care. Yet while it retains a devoted cult following, Pond’s still occupies the bottom shelf of drug stores and pharmacies, and many consumers are unaware or dismissive of the brand. This tells us the time is right for a new, more powerful take on Pond’s identity, so consumers can really see what Pond’s has to offer today.
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Who We Are Our mission: distilling solutions for taking care of your body, so you can be your best self. The new mission statement honors Pond's beginnings as a manufacturer of healing pharmaceutical products, as well as their continued efforts to promote healthy skin. We are now reframing Pond's current focus on skin care as just one element of a holistic approach to total body health. With this refreshed mission, Pond's will be able to expand its offerings and provide more types of self-care opportunities, products, and services.
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Trusted
Fundamental
Pond’s has been around forever, making it a brand you can trust. Pond’s products have been effective for over 100 years.
Pond’s offers a short range of products designed to simplify your beauty routine to the essential products for healthy skin.
"Pond’s is a true heritage brand, and I love that about them. I have fond memories of sitting on the floor in my granny’s bedroom watching her carefully remove the day’s make-up with her beloved Pond’s Cold Cream." —Candice-Lee Kannemeyer, beauty blogger
"Less is more. Simplify your skincare routine with one product that does both: Pond’s Cold Cream Cleanser, a makeup remover and a moisturizer all in one." —Pond’s, 2015
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Our Three Key Words
Healing Fundamental Trusted
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“The bloom of the iconic tulip: Pond’s introduced its iconic Tulip logo in the 1960’s, a symbol of feminine beauty that has since then epitomized the brand’s promise of radiant skin, no matter what your skin is facing.” —Pond’s, 2018
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Pond’s Logo History
1894
1956
1930
1911
1947
1.3—LOGO HISTORY
1960
2015
2004
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2007
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New Logo Concepts
2018
We developed three concepts for the new Pond’s logo. Each one expresses one of the brand key words.
01 Healthy is Beautiful Key word: Healing This first logo concept reflects the idea that health is the new beauty. Health and wellness is increasingly important in modern society, and at the same time people, especially women, are pushing back against traditional beauty standards. Health, rather than beauty, is what the new modern Pond’s user aspires to achieve.
1.4—NE W LOGO CONCEPTS
02 Tried and True
03 Elements of Life
Key Word: Trusted The second logo concept is meant to show that Pond’s is a brand with history, with products that have been time tested. In a world in which chemical solutions are increasingly being proven to be harmful, people value and trust purely natural products. The new Pond’s will exist in the realm of the natural.
Key Word: Fundamental Finally, the third concept reflects the simplicity of Pond’s product line, and in its new incarnation, Pond’s will provide additional offerings designed to provide essential elements for self-care and wellness that fit easily into customers’ daily lives.
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02 Logo Sketches
2.1–2.3 Healthy is Beautiful + Tried and True + Elements of Life
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01 Healthy is Beautiful The use of water motifs in these logo concepts stems from the idea of water as a healing and purifying element. Water droplets, waves, and oceanic shapes are paired with organic or flowing type to give a sense of calm and beauty. Of these selected sketches, the nautilus shell became an idea we moved forward with and continued to explore. The nautilus shell, with the golden ratio naturally occurring in its form, expresses the beauty of nature and also relates to the idea of the healing element, water. These concepts symbolize the new direction for the Pond’s brand, in which natural ingredients, health, and beauty, are equal elements of a holistic approach to being your best self.
2.1—HE ALTHY IS BE AUTIFUL
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2.2—TRIED AND TRUE
02 Tried and True Here, the visual elements are drawn from nature, and meant to suggest natural remedies. Plant and even bee motifs appear in this round to create a sense of warmth and fluidity. Organic shapes rather than purely geometric or mechanical, suggest a brand with a human touch. The idea of a hexagon came from exploration of bee motifs, but also served as a general symbol for elements of life. As you will see, the hexagon symbol was explored extensively in the logo development process. Plant elements, reflecting the brand’s connection to nature, and a warm serif type also served to express the brand and play a role in the development of the visual language.
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03 Elements of Life This concept plays with both scientific and natural elements, suggesting the idea of atoms and molecules, the fundamental building blocks of life.
In sketches for the third logo concept, the hexagon symbol is also used as a symbol for the elements. The concept of enclosing the brand name in brackets, suggesting a wholeness that speaks to Pond’s new mission to support total wellness, was developed here and we continued to explore the idea visually moving ahead. The simplicity of the brackets also reflects the brand’s focus on uncomplicated solutions.
2.3—ELEMENTS OF LIFE
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03 Refinement
3.1–3.4 Refined Sketches + Digital Sketches + Logotype Development + Similar Logos
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Refined Sketches At the refinement stage, the three initial concepts evolved into a final concept for the logo design—Elemental. The word suggests the power and beauty of nature, but also encompasses the idea of simplicity and essence. Here, we combined and refined ideas from the initial round of sketching. The hexagon shapes, combined with organic forms, continued to play a central role. More detail was added to the nautilus shell, and we considered type forms.
3.1—REFINED SKE TCHES
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Digital Sketches At the refinement stage, the three initial concepts evolved into a final concept for the logo design—Elemental. The word suggests the power and beauty of nature, but also encompasses the idea of simplicity and essence.
Here, we combined and refined ideas from the initial round of sketching. The hexagon shapes, combined with organic forms, continued to play a central role. More detail was added to the nautilus shell, and we considered type forms.
3.2—DIGITAL SKE TCHES
Final logomark concept
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3.3—LOGOT YPE DE VELOPMENT
Logotype Development At this point it became clear that a unique logotype would be needed to express the Pond’s brand. After some additional sketching we developed a unicase serif type to express a sense of warmth and wholeness.
The rounded forms and humanist slant to the letter ‘o’ help make the logotype feel friendly and give the type a sense of history befitting a venerable brand like Pond’s, as humanist typefaces were the earliest developed. We experimented with a capital letter ‘N,’ but the round shape of the lower case felt more inviting and appropriate to the brand, leading to the unicase style seen below.
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Similar Logos Before finalizing our new logo, we researched similar logos to ensure that the Pond’s logo stands out from the rest. We found that while there are some formal similarities, most logos featuring the nautilus shell have a different look and feel than the logo we developed, and significantly, we found no nautilus shell logos in the wellness market place.
3.4—SIMIL AR LOGOS
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04 The New Logo, Revealed
4.1–4.3 The Reveal + Logo Anatomy + Moving Forward
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“Beauty surrounds us, but usually we need to be walking in a garden to know it.” —Rumi, 13th century poet
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The Reveal The new Pond’s logo embodies ideas from each key word concept to holistically express the nature of the brand. Pond’s golden nautilus shell expresses healing in its relation to water and beauty in its expression of the golden ratio, a naturally occurring mathematical ratio that is widely considered to create harmonious proportions. The nautilus is also an ancient species, relating Pond’s back to its roots in the realm of tried and true natural remedies, where the brand will focus its future expansion. The custom logotype creates a sense of warmth that ties back to the idea of Pond’s as a trusted brand. Finally, the nautilus as a living animal relates it also to the idea of the fundamental elements of life.
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4.1—THE RE VE AL
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Horizontal Logo
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Logotype Only
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Logo Anatomy The Pond’s logo is composed of round and organic shapes to reflect the nature of the brand. As such, the forms fit the grid, but do not strictly adhere to it.
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4.2—LOGO ANATOMY
2x clear space
2x
2x clear space
1x
2x clear space
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4.2—LOGO ANATOMY
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Moving Forward Based on the new logo direction, next we will develop a full visual system to express the new incarnation of the brand.
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4.3—MOVING FORWARD
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Sources Information
Cosmeticsandskin.com NYTimes.com Unileverusa.com Ponds.com
Photography Unsplash.com Cosmeticsandskin.com
This is a student project and is in no way supported by Pond’s. Student work by Tavi Haberman.
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