Ask Tosh Hall, Jones Knowles Ritchie's chief creative officer, what was he remembers about 2021 and you’ll get a lot of 1990 and a little bit of 2027.

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Like much of the design and branding work his firm was responsible for last year, Hall’s response is at once rooted in history and positioned for the future. Jones Knowles Ritchie presented brands through a kind of wide-angle perspective meant to communicate their vitality in a moment where it is no longer enough to merely stand out on a shelf or impress with a TV commercial. This is advertising in what Hall calls the “age of distinction.”

“We stole our tagline from a poet, Oscar Wilde, who said ‘Be yourself, because everyone else is taken.’ And in some ways, the world has come around to that way of seeing things,” said Hall. “We believe brands should be distinct and that’s because the world has changed. You don't just go through one door of communication. That changed so rapidly, and it’s a really fragmented world in which brands have to stand up today.

“So in some ways, 2021 was the culmination of 32 years of work for us. We’ve done a lot of iconic work over the agency’s history, but I think we’re coming into a space where brands are more important than ever and being distinctive is the most important thing. In our world, distinctive branding is now everywhere. Being distinctive was important to us in 1990, but it was important to be distinctive on television. Now you have to be distinctive everywhere.”

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Said differently, 2021 was a conspicuously terrific year for the global design and branding agency, which worked with a stable of established brands to reemphasize what they stand for and where they are going in a connected world. JKR's work included a comprehensive design reset at Burger King and a creative reimagining of the M&Ms candy brand, whose mascot redesign everyone had an opinion about. JKR also produced a sharp new logo for Velveeta, a product of Ad Age’s No. 4 Marketer of the Year, Kraft Heinz. Other JKR clients include Anheuser-Busch InBev, Dunkin', Domino’s Pizza and a stable of younger brands.

Burger King’s revamped logo—mistaken by some to have been merely a return to the mark it used before the circular design of the last 20 years—captures the brand’s history and accompanied refreshed restaurants, packaging, worker uniforms, décor, a new font called “flame” and a menu that reflects the changing appetite of its customers. That the Restaurant Brands International-owned chain—long known for creative advertising stunts—is now hunting for a new creative agency doesn’t diminish but emphasizes this new platform, which JKR CEO North America Sara Hyman describes as the brand’s “connective tissue.”

“Burger King’s marketing has been lauded for good reason, but the question has been what is distinctive about the foundation?” Hyman said. “Given a firmer foundation to stand on, they can still take these risks in culture and make sure they are making people feel good about their food and keep people thinking about flame-grilling. From what I’ve seen, that’s why they’re out in the market.”

Of all the reactions to the new look, Hall says his favorite came not from peers or the press but a Twitter user who remarked that it captured “maximum Burger King-osity.”

“It wasn’t the identity, or typography or the color palette or the photographs—all those things we talk about to ourselves in the industry—it’s what an actual consumer said, and it was the truth. Our job is to make things the ‘maximum x-osity’ they can be.”

The M&M’s refresh, bound for late-night television monologues and erupting into debate over “wokeness” on Twitter, sought a similar foundation for the established Mars Wrigley candy brand, encompassing its array of colors, varieties and shapes into a message about diversity crystallized in the brand’s ampersand, a carryback to the vision of founders Forrest Mars and William Murrie. “To understand where we’re going with them, you have to go back to the beginning,” Hall said. “Watch this space.”

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JKR saw its revenue increase by double digits last year as it overcame a pandemic-depleted 2020 in which it made no new hires. Its dedication to “being yourself” drew diverse new artistic and creative talent in 2021, said Chief Talent Officer Sedef Onar, and helped to raise its profile in a crowded branding and design industry.

“As we think about the next five years, I imagine a world in which JKR is just as renowned as the Burger Kings, the Dunkins and the Heinzes,” said Hyman.