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Looks like there’s some typographical change happening with Ritter Sport’s chocolate. Packages used to look like this:
Using Futura for the SPORT as well as for the labeling on the sides but using Syntax for the chocolate’s type. A new pack looks like this
and uses Futura all over the place. And my fontophile brainwashing works well enough that even my flatmate noticed. Although I think that’s mostly because they went from a bold font to a thin one, added a line and put some braindead gibberisch beneath it.
I like the consistency. But I dislike the way they use lighter weights now. The package looked much more balanced to me with the text on the sides being bolder and all caps. And with the chocolate’s type being written in a bold typeface as well.
Unfortunately the images on the company’s history page aren’t good enough to get a full history of their typeface choices. It seems that the Ritter part is traditional and, following the brand history on another site, that Futura was introduced between 1969 and 1974 while something like a bold Franklin Gothic was used in the years before that.
December 17, 2007, 9:18
Comment by g: ¶
I like the consistency. But I dislike the way they use lighter weights now. The package looked much more balanced to me with the text on the sides being bolder and all caps. And with the chocolate’s type being written in a bold typeface as well.
Perhaps its a psychological ploy, to equate the lighter typeface with feelings of lightness, and thus one is convinced the chocolate will not make you fat or that it’s unhealthy. The brand name has to remain bold, because Ad-people like to hit brands on your head, hard.
December 17, 2007, 12:53
Comment by ssp: ¶
Of course nothing would be sinister or stupid enough to not suspect that ad people might do it. However, I don’t think that should be the issue here. The brand is well established, their chocolates are a bit thicker than everybody else’s anyway and they have sold well for decades in this way.
And I’d say that people usually go for less ‘static’ typefaces than Futura if they want to convey the a sense of lightness.
December 17, 2007, 16:34
