By Johnathon Shaffer / Sports Editor
Cracker Barrel announced a redesign of its logo on Aug. 19. The company started from the classic logo with the iconic “Uncle Herschel” sitting on a chair, with his arm resting upon the iconic barrel. The company moved on to a logo of a modularly designed, minimalist hexagonal logo with just the words “Cracker Barrel” being the only recognizable feature. The hexagon was supposed to resemble a barrel, though the vast majority never even recognized it. After less than a couple weeks of public outrage, the logo change was repealed.
They also began work on remodeling the interiors of Cracker Barrel buildings, changing the colors from a rustic brown to a sterile, lab-feeling white, and also removing the unique wall decorations for more uniform, “aesthetically pleasing” decorations. After only a month of outrage, they have also started rolling back the remodeling.
This represents everything that people hate about modern brand design and its minimalism, from a design standpoint and an ideological standpoint.
Firstly, the redesign in itself was entirely ill advised. From a design aspect, for what reason would you get rid of what makes your business recognizable? Nobody recognizes Cracker Barrel as a profit margin business; they recognize it as a rustic feeling country store.
In the past, other companies have redesigned their logo for a minimalist perspective. Pringles, KIA, Jaguar, GAP, Pizza Hut, Kraft and Firefox have all had logo redesigns that have either failed financially, or received extreme backlash. Similar to Cracker Barrel, the GAP logo redesign lost the company $100 million and lasted less than a week.
The redesign for Kraft lasted for a few months, was redesigned again using the same concept, then was reverted back to the classic logo concept. The rest have received major backlash.
Why would Cracker Barrel go for a minimalist approach, when the precedent has been established that people hate it?
The idea for a logo redesign isn’t even the worst part; it’s the fact that they tried to modernize Cracker Barrel, and make it look like a sterile environment.
To stop beating around the bush, this whole redesign feels like Cracker Barrel lost its identity and character. To get rid of old man Herschel, the arm chair, and the clear image of the barrel, loses the entirety of why people went to Cracker Barrel: for a feel of older times.
This also goes for the interior. To get rid of the rustic feel of the old interiors for the sterile laboratory feel of the newer interiors, is also to get rid of the whole vibe of an old country store.
There is also the possibility they wanted to attract attention by pulling a “Sonic the Hedgehog” movie move, with the infamous model of Sonic being switched out for the more classic look after a few months for trailers. Cracker Barrel may also have done this for attention. However, if this were true, why would they also launch the marketing campaign along with a remodeling of the store/restaurant?
To put it simply, the reason why Cracker Barrel is so hated is because anyone else, even someone with the artistic skills of a six year old (like me), can create something with more creativity and expression than something that got approved by a board of directors that make more money than any of us will see in a lifetime.