Iittala has abandoned the red logo designed by Timo Sarpaneva in 1956.
A consumer product company The rebranding of Fiskars-owned Iittala has been rejected by consumers on social media.
Iittala published its renewed logo at the beginning of the week, among other things, on its website and on its account in the image service Instagram.
In the reform, Iittala gave up the famous red round i-mark and replaced it with a yellow logo that reads Iittala in a stylized font.
Iittalan talking about the brand reform Instagram updates numerous comments have accumulated below criticizing the abandonment of the old logo.
The red i mark was designed by Timo Sarpaneva in 1956. The logo is familiar to many, especially as the round stickers on the side of Iittala's dishes.
Many commenters on Instagram equate the reform with the destruction of an iconic brand. Some of the commentators point out that the logo designed by Sarpaneva is well known around the world, and as a result of the new look, Iittala is abandoning its history. The yellow color scheme and the typography of the Iittala text are also criticized, among other things.
Iittala has also removed her old updates from her Instagram page. It has caused some commentators to ask, more or less jokingly, whether the company's social media profile has been hacked. Some also wondered if the reform is a premature April Fool's joke.
Iittalan creative director Janni Vepsäläinen the purpose of the brand renewal is not to abandon the company's history, on the contrary, the renewal draws inspiration from it.
“The brand and its continuum include renewal. Iittala has existed for a long time and has gone through many reforms. The brand is renewed at regular intervals, but that does not mean that history is being abandoned,” he says.
Vepsäläinen was hired as creative director of Iittala last year. The task was new and Vepsäläinen's task was to build a “more general creative vision” for Iittala, as he himself describes it. The ideas for the brand reform came from him.
According to Vepsäläinen, the new logo was inspired by Iittala's logo from 1892. In addition, it shows the tradition of glass manufacturing. For example, the yellow color reflects the molten glass in the glassblowing furnace, which is ready to be shaped. The typography of the Iittala text, on the other hand, embodies the surface of the glass, he says.
The previous logo designed by Sarpaneva also drew inspiration from glass manufacturing. The letter i on it symbolizes the glass blowing whistle and the glass bubble at the end.
You can't see the new yellow or old red logo on the side of the dishes. Iittala is completely giving up logo stickers on its products.
“It seemed like a natural solution, along with other reforms, also from the point of view of sustainable development, because the stickers are plastic,” says Vepsäläinen.
of HS in the past in the interview Vepsäläinen said that Iittala is now trying to target a younger customer base than before. However, according to him, the rebranding does not aim to appeal to any specific target groups, but to “strengthen storytelling, the message of Iittala's history and the communication of core competence”.
Vepsäläinen says he understands the criticism caused by the rebranding.
“We understand that it arouses emotions when it's an iconic brand, but under no circumstances do we want to destroy Iittala's history,” he says.
Vepsäläinen does not take a position on whether he believes that consumers will eventually accept the renewed brand.
“Of course, you can't know that, but I believe that the core messages will eventually get through.”
The brand renewal will also be visible in Iittala's stores. The first to be renovated is Iittala's store on Helsinki's Pohjoisesplanadi, the company's press release says.
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