The Toledo Museum of Art built a design system around a new T-shaped logo.
As the recent Jaguar fiasco taught us yet again, rebranding is no easy task. Refreshing a brand without throwing out its existing equity is a delicate dance indeed.
Below, we look at five rebrands from 2024 that succeeded on those terms, introducing visual identities that were familiar yet surprising.
This wasn’t a permanent rebrand but a temporary stunt, yet an irresistible one we had to include. To emphasize that Goldfish aren’t just for kids (more than 50% of the Pepperidge Farm brand’s snacks are consumed by adults), Mischief rebranded them as Chilean Sea Bass, complete with a new version of the classic Goldfish logo.
The campaign, which included a comic video and a partnership with Dude With Sign, was a PR juggernaut, driving over 3,000 earned media stories, Mischief said—more 97% of which had the “Goldfish” brand name in the headline.
The candy brand’s new logo ditched the curved T’s in favor of bold, straight, thicker lettering that mimics the chocolate bars themselves.
Sterling Brands, the agency behind the rebrand, said the new design “celebrates the crispy, creamy taste of Kit Kat, activating the brand with the upbeat, kinetic energy of Kit Kat’s iconic ‘break.’”
The rebrand was done for Kit Kat in the U.S., where Hershey Co. sells the bars. (Nestlé owns Kit Kat elsewhere.)
Bose rebranded ahead of its 60th anniversary, aiming to evolve its image from a maker of audio equipment to a provider of immersive sound that heightens the emotions of any moment.
Bose’s wordmark logo, created in the 1960s, was altered only slightly to refine the bar in the “B” and “E.” However, Collins created a custom typeface, inspired by the wordmark, to embody the movement and flow of sound waves.
The rebrand also included vibrant color accents to bring a fresh energy to the brand’s visual identity and a raft of new partnerships with artists including Donald Glover, JamieXX, Maluma, PinkPantheress, Ice Spice and more.
Reddit’s impressive rebrand, launched at the end of 2023 (after Ad Age’s 2023 year-in-review stories were published), took the online community brand’s busy universe of visual iconography and streamlined it—positioning Reddit as “the heart of the internet.”
Pentagram evolved Reddit’s Snoo alien mascot into 3D form; made the conversation bubble a cornerstone of the new visual identity; created a Reddit Display font and a blueprint for motion design principles; and introduced a streamlined color palette.
The rebrand captures Reddit’s core DNA, described by Pentagram as “inherently eclectic, positively different, delightfully absurd and genuinely candid.”
Asked for a new design system and website that could help the Toledo Museum of Art engage a modern audience, Scorpion Rose Studio created a new T-shaped logo—taken from the shape of the building and stamped with TMA’s initials—and applied it in dynamic ways across environments.
From digital to real-life environments, from merchandising to AR filters, the logo gives the museum a fresh and inviting atmosphere. The rebrand also included new typography inspired by artwork in the museum’s archives, as well as an adaptive color palette.
After launch, TMA saw a 20% year-over-year increase in museum visits. Exhibition ticket sales grew 140% year over year.
