The year of our Lord 2020 may have been a bit of a dumpster fire, but despite everything, Jones Knowles Ritchie (JKR) still delivered some of the most notable design work of the year. So noteworthy, in fact, they’ve snagged a total of seven awards in the Dieline Awards 2021 competition—more than any other agency in a single year before. Not only did they place in categories like food and body care, but they received some of the top recognitions: Best of Show, Studio of the Year, and Rebrand of the Year.
Their four winning projects for 2021 were redesigns for Bloom & Blossom, Jet-Puffed marshmallows, Heinz, and Burger King. For a client like Bloom & Blossom, JKR got to work closely with the founders to rethink what natural skincare can look like. Working on redesigns for iconic global brands, though, is a whole different beast—one that JKR loves to tackle.
“Rebranding and redesigns for big brands are really what gets us up in the morning,” said Tosh Hall, the global chief creative officer at JKR. “Doing work on a new brand is exciting and doing small design work is great and exciting, but one of the highest bars and most difficult challenges for us as an agency, and maybe for our industry, is giant brands that need rebranding.
“The bigger the brand, the longer it’s been around, the more people recognize it, the more salient it is in culture, then the harder it is to do something fresh and different and new while respecting the past.”
Every redesign is different, so a solution for Burger King wouldn’t work for other fast-food giants. The JKR team spends a lot of time and energy thinking about what makes a brand unique—what is it that only this brand can do, what kind of relationship consumers have with it, and how can they make it more relevant for today’s audience. That’s part of the “special sauce” of the people JKR hires. The agency digs and discovers the heart of a brand, so they have to hire employees who will bring their full, honest selves to the actual work itself. That’s how they end up with creative solutions like the adorable marshmallow people called The Puff Pals for Jet-Puffed or the simple yet impactful look for Heinz.
Tosh said one of his favorite quotes about JKR’s work came from social media, where someone called the Burger King redesign “intensely Burger Kingy” and “has the maximum possible Burger Kingosity.” Those might not be industry terms, but they’re also impossible to deny.
“That’s what we strive to do, whether it’s Burger King or Dunkin’ or Budweiser,” Tosh explained. “I think when we do our best, the fans recognize the brand, the people that don’t know the brand get connected to it, it reaches new audiences and tells new stories in a way that only that particular brand can do.”
JKR also wants their work to stand the test of time. While a brand requiring a redesign every few years might keep designers and agencies busy, Tosh argues it’s not ideal for the industry, and it means the work wasn’t that good to begin with. Technology, pop culture references, social media, and society at large may change at a rapid pace, but there’s a way for a brand to stay true to themselves and keep up with a fast-paced environment without having to get a complete makeover.
“Instead of changing your design, changing your packaging, and changing your logo all the time, connect with your audience in fresh ways,” Tosh said. “Whether it’s the uniforms for Burger King, the illustrations for Bloom & Blossom’s packaging, or promotions for Jet-Puffed flavors. There’s always a way to connect with audiences while remaining relevant to the brand. There’s no reason to redesign Heinz again for another couple of decades, but we can make it fresh all the time.
“Things like communications, mobile, seasonal campaigns, and anything that you can use to attach yourself to culture is good, and those things should be relevant—but through the filter and lens of what is unique about the brand.”
The team is overjoyed at every one of their wins, although Tosh said the win for Burger King especially means a lot since it was such a collaborative effort—both amongst the New York and London team, as well as external collaborators.
“The team really stretched their thinking, bringing the identity to life in all facets of the brand experience, and our extended JKR family grew both literally and figuratively,” said Tosh. “Lisa Smith, the lead executive creative director on the project, did an excellent job curating a menagerie of talent that was right for the brand. We had Bryce Barnes, an up-and-coming fashion designer from Washington D.C., helping design the new crew uniforms. Cachetejack, a Spanish design duo, contributed an entirely new illustration style to help the brand tell playful stories like never before; and Colophon Foundry, who is a regular partner to us, created our custom serif typeface, Burger King Flame.”
The wins also take on a more significant meaning for the agency since they worked on these projects in 2020, while Covid-19 was busy changing the world. Aside from the trauma of living through the year, the JKR team did all of this without getting together in a studio like they typically would, but remotely. Even with being forced to pivot to a work-from-home situation, they managed to generate award-winning creative work.
“It’s an honor to win in the Dieline Awards,” said Tosh. “It’s remarkable, and we’re very honored to be recognized.”
