Hostess Brands, Inc., a sweet snacking company, announced as part of its recent successful Investor Day presentation that it has redesigned and modernized its corporate brand identity in collaboration with New York-based brand design agency CBX.
Since going public in 2016, Hostess Brands has emerged as a thriving company positioned for long-term sustainable growth in the fast-growing snacking segment. To reflect the new Hostess Brands and its differentiated position in the category, the company wanted to explore a new corporate identity that reflects its progressive, disciplined business model, agile spirit and growth mindset. So the Lenexa, Kansas-based snacking powerhouse called upon brand strategy and design house CBX to update its corporate brand mark to reflect the powerful transformation Hostess Brands has experienced over the last several years.
Announcing a new Hostess Brands corporate identity
CBX designers’ aim was to visually strengthen Hostess Brands’ position as a transformational, growth-oriented leading snacking company positioned to capitalize on consumer trends and deliver long-term sustainable growth.
In partnership with Hostess Brands’ marketing leadership, CBX reimagined the Hostess Brands corporate identity with color choices of deep, dark blue representing strength and quality, which was complemented by a rich red that signifies the heart, passion and excitement for the future of snacking. The letterforms for the new identity are customized with flourishes on the joyful, bold, sans serif Isidora font, bringing a subtle smile to the H, and a little kick to the D, R and A. The back half of the new Hostess Brands identity loops, connects and flows as a nod to the company’s speed and agility.
Finally, the Hostess Brands mark is capped with a new dual-tone red heart, a visual representation that honors its legacy while turning the page toward Hostess Brands’ bright future. The finishing touch was to modify the company's name with the new term “Brands,” ensuring that the new corporate identity is inclusive of both its iconic products, as well as new brands and products such as Voortman wafers and cookies in its portfolio.
“What CBX created for Hostess Brands was, at heart, a balancing act,” said CBX creative director Chris Cook, “combining the highly recognizable color palate with the spirit of integrity, grit and passion that sets the company apart from the category.”
Building a visual library from scratch
CBX also augmented the new Hostess Brands corporate identity by creating a library of thousands of new photographs shot in five locations across North America, along with presentation slides and visual style guidance. Among the new content assets: the “squiggle shot,” a close-up of the iconic Hostess CupCakes icing squiggle that captures its details through macro photography. That curvature and swirl motif was then carried throughout the rest of CBX’s visual system for Hostess Brands.
“Today’s Hostess Brands is a modern, innovative, disciplined and thriving snacking company,” said Andy Callahan, president and chief executive officer of Hostess Brands. “Over the past two years, our business has consistently achieved over 9 percent growth each quarter. We’re incredibly proud of the progress we’ve made, and we are just getting started. At the end of the day, you can’t just tell people we’re a different company. You have to show them too.”
There is no change to the Hostess consumer brand design mark, which appears across the company’s iconic packaging assortment of Twinkies, CupCakes, Ding Dongs, and other snack products.
