Spyderco Forums

Fair warning, I don’t like change.

On boxes, I’d rather see plain brown cardboard and black ink, made of recycled material, recyclable, simple folding boxes.

I too prefer the old cuddly bug I’ve known and loved since the late 80s. It’s familiar!

great job on the project. that’s pretty cool.


that said, i prefer the “cute” bug. partially for nostalgia and partially because it’s part of what sets spyderco apart from the rest of the knife world. lots of companies have those more angular and sharp lines to their logos and knives. spyderco is very different in every way and it’s part of why most of us are here.

it’s crazy how much effect branding can have...

Welcome aboard and nice work!

I really like your package design

Technically it looks good but I don't think it's right for Spyderco. Looks too aggressive and the first thing the font reminds me of is rgb mechanical keyboard brands lol.

Thank you so much for your replies, feedback, and kind welcoming. I am so honored for all of the attention that you guys have shown and I'd like to thank you Sal for taking the time to reply and forward my information!

The commentary on the original logo being friendly, and as a member described it a 'caricature, is really interesting and helpful insight. Both of which make complete sense and warrant some further work on my behalf in exploring this hypothetical rebrand.

Compacting my redesign of the box is a great idea! When I made the model to shoot I realized how much space was being wasted.

Welcome to the forum! :)

This is honestly great work, if I would know nothing about Spyderco and stumble over your adds and designs, I´d absolutely gravitate to the knives. It is kind of hard for me to explain in English (not my mother tongue obviously) what it is that I exactly find really attracting about your ideas... somehow "strong and self confident" but not TOO aggressive and not too screaming "we´re the best"... if you know what I mean.

But like most others here: Spydercos knives, designs, adds, the bug and so on feel so familiar and like "home" for me, that I just would not want them to be changed (and they are great as they are anyway)

Again: Very nice work! And "your" bug is a really cool design, if one would want to go a step closer towards more "aggressive" design!

sal wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 01, 2020 4:37 pm

When we first started using the "Bug". we needed a "cute" logo as our knives were suspect because they looked so strange and performed so well. Legality was also a question. The "Bug" was right at the time.

Years later when we were thinking of changing the name and the logo, we ultimately decided that to change midstream could be the death of a brand, which we'd see before.

So we are Spyderco and we have a cute logo.

sal

I couldn't have said it better. I doubt that anyone could. Still, nice work! Just not the right redesign for this great company.

I am gonna be the odd man out. I haven’t really shared this but I don’t love Spyderco’s logo much. I live in the heart of Lyme disease country. I know more people who have had Lyme around here than who haven’t. If you spend time in the woods, and i spend a lot of time in the woods, you hate ticks. The Spyderco logo looks way more like a tick than it does a spider.

Maybe I am just being silly or maybe it is my annual 4 weeks of antibiotics to kick one of the many diseases ticks share with me but I have so far passed on all of the Spyderco branded clothing because of the tick logo. Had a round bug sticker on my car and had to explain why I had a tick on my truck to a few people.

I love my Spydies and carry and use piles of them. I just don’t love the logo. I would welcome the change.

Overall this all looks professional and I think you have a future in graphic design. I took one graphic design class in college as an elective and enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing.

Wartstein wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 02, 2020 1:24 am

Welcome to the forum! :)

This is honestly great work, if I would know nothing about Spyderco and stumble over your adds and designs, I´d absolutely gravitate to the knives. It is kind of hard for me to explain in English (not my mother tongue obviously) what it is that I exactly find really attracting about your ideas... somehow "strong and self confident" but not TOO aggressive and not too screaming "we´re the best"... if you know what I mean.

This is pretty much what I thought. ^

If I were to run across a new brand with that packaging and logo I would feel like it was representing a quality brand. Like most everyone on this forum I am a die hard Spyderco fanatic so it should be expected that many here will favor the old logo which they have come to associate with the brand that they love so much. As for me? Meh, I think the Spyderco bug logo is cool but it wouldn’t bother me to see it change. I think if I knew nothing about the brand and someone were showing me the current logo and your logo and asking which I thought would be better received in the knife world I would probably choose yours. The current Spyderco logo however has become so iconic that it might be silly to mess with it.

— For the record, I know this is just a hypothetical rebrand project, I’m just thinking out loud to participate in the discussion. :)

p.s. If you ever want to do another school project for CRKAYAKFISHING let me know! :p I’m trying to design some tshirts hats and fishing shirts now!

I love the effort that you put into this. There really is a lot to like here. The packaging is awesome! The ads are fantastic. Even the clothing looks good!

I like what you did to the spider. The S you put in it was really clever.
But i have to agree with a lot of people here that it's a bit too tactical for the company. Spyderco makes more products for working folk then they do for self defense.

Rebranding is something companies should do when they want to remove a blemish from their past and look friendlier. Think of companies like Chiquita and Volkswagen.

I think this logo would do the opposite for spyderco.
That's a problem when so many people and governments already have a problem with pocket knives.

Honda started out with motorcycles and brought themselves into America aat a time when everyone was scared of motorcycle gangs. So they had an ad campaign implying that they're products were for friendly folk. It worked for them.

I deal with a lot of folks who treat these tools as taboo or look at them as scary. I'll be the first to tell you that I'm not a fighter and wouldn't survive the first day of prison, but i also want the right tool for a task. Id rather get these folk to understand that a knife is way more useful than just for fighting. And i think that the old bug logo helps with that

I like it. Great job.

The rebrand looks great, well done.

bearfacedkiller wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 02, 2020 4:50 am

I am gonna be the odd man out. I haven’t really shared this but I don’t love Spyderco’s logo much. I live in the heart of Lyme disease country. I know more people who have had Lyme around here than who haven’t. If you spend time in the woods, and i spend a lot of time in the woods, you hate ticks. The Spyderco logo looks way more like a tick than it does a spider.

Maybe I am just being silly or maybe it is my annual 4 weeks of antibiotics to kick one of the many diseases ticks share with me but I have so far passed on all of the Spyderco branded clothing because of the tick logo. Had a round bug sticker on my car and had to explain why I had a tick on my truck to a few people.

I love my Spydies and carry and use piles of them. I just don’t love the logo. I would welcome the change.

Overall this all looks professional and I think you have a future in graphic design. I took one graphic design class in college as an elective and enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing.

I used to live in a Lyme disease area myself and I agree, the lovable bug looks more tick-like than spider-like. I know people who suffer the effects of Lyme disease, it's bad JuJu.
That said, I find I like both the old and this new (if only for a project) rebranding.

Dazen wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 01, 2020 4:32 pm

Nice work! I like how the line that comes through the body looks like an “S”. Obviously I prefer the more rounded original, as this instantly reminded me of Spyder Ski Apparel.

Agree on both counts. As a design exercise, it's excellent, but in the real world it would cause confusion. Not only because of that similarity with Spyder Ski Apparel, but also because so many people associate the current :spyder: logo with Spyderco knives.

Awesome work! I love the new proposed logo, while I've always been Meh about the current one. On the other hand the current one is almost universally recognized in the knife world, if I was Spyderco I would be extremely cautious about changing.

I had another thought, Hemp Rope? Do younger people even know what that is? How many people under thirty have used it and those that have, have they ever needed to cut it? Paracord would have been better but that would have seemed too military maybe? Shown to open boxes and clamshell packaging maybe?

While we all love knives, their utility in the modern world is not the same as fifty or a hundred years ago when butchers wrapped purchases in paper and string.

Grizz

Excellent work!!! The box does look good. But, I'm kind of hooked on Spyderco's current designs. The LOGO harkens back to another age, and is not in any way out of date.

[+1]

Excellent work indeed!

Great job on the Consept! I assume you got an A+ on the project?

It's very neat, well done!
I don't like the logo personally, but that's really beside the point.