The US tradition conflict is getting very bizarre. After the Sydney Sweeney American Eagle advert debacle, the newest controversy is…. unusual. On the face of it, the brand new Cracker Barrel brand is a routine fashionable rebranding, simplifying an out-dated identification to make it cleaner and extra versatile. However the transfer has incensed right-wing figures, together with president Donald Trump’s son.”WTF is unsuitable with Cracker Barrel?” Donald Trump the Youthful requested on X concerning the new brand. It is known as graphic design, Don. Learn Artistic Bloq, and you will study all about it.Should you’re not acquainted with Cracker Barrel (I can not say I’m, and I think Donald Trump Jnr may not be both), it is a chain of over 600 Southern-themed US eating places current in 44 states. And it is abruptly very controversial as a result of it is modernised its design.
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The barrel’s cracked. The outdated Cracker Barrel brand (left, however you most likely guessed that) and the brand new design (proper, however not favoured by the Republican Proper) (Picture credit score: Cracker Barrel)Cracker Barrel’s outdated brand featured a person sitting on a chair beside the corporate title, which was wrapped inside a form that was apparently speculated to resemble a pinto bean. Within the ’20 shocking information about Cracker Barrel’ on its web site, the model says the emblem was created by Nashville designer Invoice Holley on a serviette (it needed to be) in 1977 “with the aim of making a sense of nostalgia with an old-timer carrying overalls”.The design’s been tweaked just a few instances over time, however the brand new identification is the primary to drop the nameless ‘old-timer’. The brand new identification is a part of a broader rebrand. It takes the barrel and turns it into a flexible summary motif that can be utilized as a background for varied purposes, together with for a cleaner, modernised logotype. The color palette has additionally been refined, though it retains the basic mustard and brown.The brand new Cracker Barrel branding (Picture credit score: Cracker Barrel)In accordance with Cracker Barrel, the brand new identification is “now rooted much more intently to the long-lasting barrel form and phrase mark that began all of it.” In accordance with MAGA, it is anti-American. As a result of there is not any longer an outdated man sitting on a chair.Utah Republican Mike Lee took to X to ask “Which brand change is worse—(a) Cracker Barrel or (b) Land O Lakes?” (evidently, he is nonetheless not come to phrases with the latter’s resolution to take away a picture of a Native American girl from packs of butter 5 years in the past).Day by day design information, critiques, how-tos and extra, as picked by the editors.The Woke Battle Room X account had a surprisingly nuanced evaluation, saying the Cracker Barrel had “scrapped a beloved American aesthetic and changed it with sterile, soulless branding.” That may be argued, however what’s it must do with wokeness?Which brand change is worse—(a) Cracker Barrel or (b) Land O Lakes? pic.twitter.com/gXgFKyjzHwAugust 21, 2025The left desires us erased fully. pic.twitter.com/53CZncDVqvAugust 21, 2025The actuality is that the brand new Cracker Barrel brand follows a design development that we have seen dozens of manufacturers comply with within the final decade, together with many automobile brand redesigns and lots of extra style logos.Whereas some individuals complain that the simplification and flattening of brand designs makes manufacturers all look the identical, is fulfills a perform, making the model identification simpler to use in an array of various contexts, together with digital use as an app icon and social media avatar.I am not saying the development is all good or unhealthy. Typically a change is smart, and typically it would not. I consider Cracker Barrel historically aimed to faucet into nostalgia for southern consolation meals, so maybe a fussy old school illustrated brand spoke to its core demographic.I do not know as a result of, like Trump Jnr, I am not within the goal demographic, and I have never carried out the analysis. However I might wager that the choice to modernise the design was extra an try to refresh a legacy model that is shedding its attraction than a conspiracy to erase the American lifestyle.Certainly within the land of the free, an organization can do what it likes with its brand? Or is MAGA flip-flopping and now desires to impose obligatory DEI quotas requiring a sure proportion of brand designs to characteristic the underrepresented demographic of outdated males in overalls?If it ain’t woke, do not repair it, MAGA appears to be saying. And its definition of the phrase ‘woke’ now refers to something that does not look or really feel prefer it belongs within the nineteenth century. Is the Apple brand now “woke” as a result of it now not depicts Issac Newton sitting underneath a tree?As for Cracker Barrel, possibly its rebrand is working. I might by no means heard of it earlier than, however now I am going to remember to go to one if I ever discover myself in Tennessee.
