Behind the scenes at Burger King's juicy rebranding
In early 2021, Burger King unveiled its first rebranding in 20 years, showcasing a new flat logo, "desirable" custom font and fresh color palette directly inspired by the food it serves. Packaging, social media, staff uniforms and menu boards have also been updated and are currently being rolled out in more than 18,000 BK restaurants around the world.
It's a major visual makeover for the company, so it's surprising that JKR's original assignment wasn't actually a rebranding. According to Lisa Smith, Executive Creative Director, Burger King originally reached out to JKR to discuss how to improve perceptions of quality, sustainability and taste – an area that Smith said the company knew was among some of its peers and cut off competitors.
"Of course when you start thinking about quality it starts with food if you're a restaurant," explains Smith, who previously worked on the Chobani rebrand. "But it's a comprehensive brand experience. So what's it like to visit a restaurant? What are the restaurant designs? What is the packaging? What is the overall experience? And that wasn't a higher standard either, so we got the full range of Were able to re-evaluate food through to the entire brand experience.
According to Smith, Burger King's previous branding was inconsistent and broken, with hundreds of colors, types, elements and symbols vying for attention. In a way, the Whopper identity has become more recognizable than the Burger King identity itself.