/ Bahlsen asked us for a revolution, a vision of the brand ten years on and, most of all, to help them become an icon through the restyling of the whole product portfolio.
The German family enterprise Bahlsen is an international sweet biscuit manufacturer. In Germany Bahlsen is the most successful manufacturer in this market and with the brands BAHLSEN and LEIBNIZ market leader. Also throughout Europe, Bahlsen is one of the most successful sweet biscuit companies. The company’s roots go back to 1889, when Hermann Bahlsen founded the “Hannoversche Cakes-Fabrik H. Bahlsen” and employed ten people. Today, more than 130 years later, the company has an international presence with its biscuits, waffles, chocolate bars and cake, employing 2,750 people, with a turnover of 540 million euros in 2019.
With a bold and innovative legacy from the past, the Brand realized that the current identity and packaging didn’t move with the time anymore having lost a defined personality. They asked us for a revolution, a vision of the Brand 10 years forward but, most of all, they wanted to become an icon.
To be an Icon means to become immediately recognizable, strong and distinctive, something not possible to copy, instead an example of boldness. We decided to emphasized the most crucial element, the blue signature, exploding it on the packaging and to combine it with a multicolor background system that changes with the flavors. Besides the photography of the products had to be iconic as much as the signature, the Bahlsen biscuits are like piece of Art, the result of a detailed work of craftsmanship – that’s the reason we placed them in a central position directly on the signature above a sort of graphic bronze pedestal and all around the packaging we insert a 360° vision of it, the sides on the SOP and the background on the BOP along with a meticulous work of copy and storytelling.
We had to build a complex architecture made of more than 80 products divided in 4 different ranges by keeping coherency regarding the usage of the signature and the Photography but at the same time conferring to each range a specific style and personality. The declination of those elements had also to consider many kind of formats and materials being as iconic and distinctive as flexible and functional.
Photographer: The Food Pirate
3d Artist: Williams Tattoli
D&AD Wood Pencil 2021
/ “Over the years many design agencies have trawled our archives looking at key assets like the Bahlsen signature and the TET logo, but Auge did a brilliant job in pulling these elements together into a design concept that we feel is beautifully balanced, and bold yet classic.”
Phil Rumbol
CEO Bahlsen