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The branding and packaging for Targets beloved Up&Up brand is now more colorful than ever.Over the course of three years, design agency Collins reimagined the wide-ranging private-label brand, which has more than 2,000 products spanning aluminum foil and copy paper to pet grooming products and a wrist blood pressure monitor. The Up&Up brand does nearly $3 billion in annual sales for Target. The retailer wanted to relaunch it with reformulated products, reduced plastic usage, and hundreds of new items, which began rolling out in stores last year and will continue through early 2025.[Image: Target]New private-label packaging elevates bargain shoppingThis comes at a time when competitors like Walmart and CVS have invested in relaunching their own private-label brands to appeal to premium shoppers who traded down to beat rising prices. The packaging overhauls had a similar approach. Theyre personality-driven and expressive, using color-on-color type or flat graphics that might be familiar to those who shop pricier direct-to-consumer brands. Together, they offer a new design-forward look to generic brands. But Target has long been a category leader, and the retailer sees its more than 45 private labels as key to clawing back market share from competitors.From left: Before and after [Image: Target]Targets previous Up&Up packaging used matching colors for the typography and arrow logo against a white background. The new packaging dials up the color use. Collins says that during two months of face-to-face research with Target customers, one said, My life is filled with color, why shouldnt my products be the same? That resonated with the design team and gave them permission to be more colorful.[Image: Target]More color and an improved experience This time around, the team designed the packaging for better clarity, with vivid color blocking, a larger logo, and type thats easier to read, whether on store shelves or while scrolling on a smartphone to shop online. Its a lot of work, right? the design firms founder, Brian Collins, says. But its not a complicated thing. The system is incredibly simple.[Image: Target]The agency also worked with occupational therapists to improve the utility and ergonomics of Up&Ups product packaging so you dont have to feel like youre cracking a safe to open up items like a household cleaner or toothpaste, Collins says. The overhaul includes product design improvements throughout the Up&Up line. The team redesigned toothbrushes to last longer, and made the walls of food storage containers thicker so that theyre more durable, Target says.[Image: Target]The key to designing a line with such varied items is to understand what consumers are looking for with each product category and reflect that, according to Collins. You have to know when to be charming, whimsical, serious, funny, purposeful, lighthearted . . . and you have to learn that each of these categories has a certain personality, he says.I remember the caliber of the private-label brands that I grew up with in terms of their quality, Collins continues, noting that they were bland, and the packaging design was just terrible.Targets approach is all about quality. The goal for Up&Up is similar to that of other private labels: to make a bargain brand feel more valuable by elevating its packaging. Theres a sense of optimism about this brand, Collins says. Theres a sense of joyfulness about it. I think it feels fun.
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E-Commerce
Fifty years ago, McDonalds purple mascot, Grimace, introduced his uncle in an extremely 70s ad promoting the Shamrock Shake. Uncle OGrimacey was a bumbling, fuzzy, top-hat wearing creature hailing from Ireland, who would go on to rep the Shamrock Shake for a few years before ultimately disappearing into the ether of early McDonalds mascot lore. But now, for the first time since 1975, McDonalds is giving Uncle OGrimacey another shot at the limelight. The green mascots reappearance is promoting the return of the Shamrock Shake, which is set to land at McDonalds stores on February 10. Its also celebrating the 50th anniversary of Ronald McDonald House Charities, which will receive a portion of the proceeds from this years Shamrock Shake sales and Uncle OGrimacey-themed merch. Uncle OGrimaceys unexpected return comes in the wake of McDonalds 2023 birthday campaign for the unsettling-yet-beloved mascot Grimace, which gave the world the oft-memed purple Grimace Shake. In comparison, the Uncle OGrimacey play is a much bigger swing for McDonalds, relying on less character recognition and fewer nostalgia points from customers. And it shows that goofy mascots might just be having an American renaissance. [Photo: McDonald’s] Whoor whatis Uncle OGrimacey? Uncle OGrimaceys stint repping McDonalds in the mid-70s included a few seriously dated ads showing the Irish mascot visiting his nephew. Oddly enough, it also yielded the creation of a hand puppet toy in 1978. When asked what kind of creature Uncle OGrimacey is meant to represent, a McDonalds spokesperson didnt respond directly, instead sharing the following: While the rest of the Grimace family lives in McDonaldland, Uncle OGrimacey resides on a small island off the coast of Ireland called Sham Rock. Back home in Sham Rock, Uncle OGrimacey spends his time going on nature walks, bowling in his local league, and attending the Sham Rock Street Fair and Music Festival (he plays the bagpipe!). They added that his favorite color is green, his nickname is Uncle O, and, for all those who are wondering, hes a Pisces. (Yes, mascot lore is a thing: Hi-Chew’s new mascot, Chewbie, supposedly loves skateboarding and Chapell Roan.) Its unclear whether Uncle O will appear on packaging or in stores, but he has already made his debut on McDonalds socials. Hes also the star of a questionable line of merch from the company, which includes a crewneck, ringer tee, and sweatshirt with the phrase Whos your uncle? next to a graphic of the uncle in question. [Photo: McDonald’s] Why revive Uncle OGrimacey in 2025? McDonald’s sudden investment in a little-known character might seem like a strange move, but it actually makes a lot of sense. Mascotsespecially goofy onesare having a moment right now, spurred on by what Fast Company has termed DGAF branding: a form of indirect social media marketing that leans into all things weird and nonsensical, rather than explicitly hawking a product’s value. The goal is awareness, engagement, and building and tapping into a fan community, as Fast Companys Jeff Beer noted last October. Duolingo was one of the first companies to embrace this strategy with its lovable but occasionally homicidal owl, Duo. Brands like Pop-Tarts and Nutter Butter (if you can call its peanut a mascot) have followed suit. Out in the real world, sports mascots like the 2024 Summer Olympics’ Phryge, the New York Libertys Ellie the Elephant, and the Philadelphia Flyers Gritty are embodying wackier personas that appear curated to go viral. McDonald’s new mascot of DGAF branding McDonalds got in on this trend with the Grimace Birthday Meal in 2023, which inspired a bout of feel-good articles about the mascot and spawned the Grimace Shake trend, wherein dozens of TikTok users put a deadly spin on the purple beverage. (Grimace then acknowledged the trend from McDonalds X account.) While McDonalds didnt respond to Fast Companys request for specific data on the Grimace activations success, its been enough for the company to keep the purple creature around. Grimace experienced another bout of fame over the summer, after his opening pitch at a New York Mets game was credited with saving the teams postseason run. Now it seems that the company is trusting the internet to do what it does best and run with this new character. Of course, the trick that will determine the success of McDonald’s 2025 Shamrock Shake campaign is whether it can get its fan base to engage with a lesser-knownif similarly shapedmascot. Would any fan be as happy if a celebrity’s similar-looking relative showed up instead? The people want Britney, not Jamie Lynn. O’Grimacey’s ability to win hearts will come down to whether he can sell the lore as a strong personality hireand if McDonald’s new DGAF mascot can make fans give an F about Shamrock Shakes.
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E-Commerce
President Donald Trumps return to office has inspired hats north of the border, while Republicans have turned his expansionist foreign policy pronouncements into shirts for fundraising. The campaign might be over, but the merch has just begun. After Ontario Premier Doug Ford wore a Canada Is Not for Sale hat earlier this month at a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other premiers (the Canadian equivalent of a U.S. governor), the hats maker, Ottawa-based Jackpine Dynamic Branding, was overwhelmed with orders. Trumps statements about tariffs and annexation have struck a nerve with our neighbors to the north. Nothing is more important than the country, Premier Ford said during a press conference while wearing the hat. President Trump wants to devastate Canada. He wants to devastate Canada through economic sanctions and tariffs. Thats unacceptable. [Image: Jackpine Dynamic Branding] The $45 hats spell out the slogan in Times New Roman, the same font as used for Trumps original Make America Great Again hatsand because this is Canada, theres also a version in French: Le Canada nest pas vendre. Jackpine founder Liam Mooney told Reuters he was inspired to create the hats as a response to Trumps unseemly rhetoric toward Canada and as a statement about nationalism and unity. It’s an opportunity to bring people together from all of civil society, regardless of political persuasion, he said. Our sovereignty is threatened when our dignity is disrespected. Meanwhile, Republicans are fundraising off Trumps second-term priorities for the U.S. sphere of influence in the Americas. The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is out with $35 tees showing an illustrated bald eagle with Trump hair relaxing on a beach chair with a beer, featuring the words, Greetings from the Gulf of America to celebrate Trumps executive order unofficially renaming the Gulf of Mexico. To sell the Trump National Committee joint fundraising committees own $35 Gulf of America! tee, a recent Trump campaign fundraising email asked recipients if they live near the Gulf of Mexico? followed by, Well, now you dont! It’s also selling Make Greenland Great Again tees. No word yet on official Panama Canal merch, but a third party is selling Make Panama Canal American Again shirts on Amazon. A promotional graphic for the NRCCs Greetings from the Gulf of America tee (top) and two Trump National Committee JFCs tees The Canada Is Not for Sale hat is a statement of nationalism and sovereignty, and apparently, the Gulf of America and Make Greenland Great Again tees are meant to communicate much the same thing. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum responded to Trump earlier this month by joking that North America should be renamed América Mexicana. (Nothing of this ilk has been printed yet as merch, but, um, give it time. . . . ) Most contemporary political merch tends toward sloganeering over policy proposals (although a No Tax on Tips decal sold by the Trump campaign during the 2024 race was a rare exception). Still, its not as if the Republicans new foreign-policy-themed merch is focused on, say, bringing peace to the Middle East or remaining competitive with China. What is Gulf of America, really, but sloganeering? This story originally appeared in Yello, a newsletter about politics, art, branding, and design.
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E-Commerce
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