Bob’s Red Mill has a plan to win grocery store shelves: a better logo
When Bob’s Red Mill began in 1978, it was a flour company operated out of a literal red mill by one dedicated married couple. Since then, it’s grown into a grocery store staple with more than 200 products—and, along the way, its fascinating brand story has gotten lost amidst a sea of colorful, overwhelming packaging. To fix that, the company has spent three years on a full branding overhaul to bring all of its products back under one mill roof. Bob’s Red Mill began as the passion project of the late Bob and Charlee Moore, a husband and wife duo who started their own flour milling business as a way to introduce more whole grains into their family’s diet. And, according to Margret Brown, Bob’s Red Mill’s creative director, that core goal of seeking out high-quality base ingredients is a mission that’s become even more relevant today, when many shoppers are seeking healthier alternatives to ultra-processed foods. The company had the backstory and the products it needed to meet consumers—but its branding was holding it back. As dozens of new Bob’s Red Mill products were introduced over time, many were given their own packaging treatments, making product lines like cereal and beans look divorced from oats or breakfast items. And the company’s core SKU—its five-pound flour bag—sported a design that, while quaint, looked more like a bottle of Dr. Bronner’s soap than a baking ingredient. In totality, the designs were cluttered, difficult to read, and hard to see on grocery shelves. “People weren’t remembering our name,” Brown says. “They might say that our name was Bob’s Red Mill Road, or Barb’s Red Mill, for example.” The new branding includes a more modern, legible logo; a streamlined color palette; a custom font family; and a new hero image of the mill itself, which has not previously featured on the brand’s packaging. While in recent years countless brands have simplified their identities to fit a minimalist aesthetic trend, Bob’s Red Mill’s rebrand is