The bite-size cracker with the cheese flavor, Cheez-It, was introduced to the American market in 1921 and has gained incredible popularity in no time. Until today, you can find these salty snacks in various modifications almost in every store in the United States And other countries.
Cheez-It Crispy Crackers with a gourmet Cheddar flavor has been a favorite American treat for decades. Today, the brand is over a hundred years old, and its popularity is only growing. And this is proven by numerous market studies, confirming that Cheez-It is the best-selling brand of crackers in America.
The brand is owned by Kellogg’s, a large American company, the world’s leading manufacturer of prepared breakfast foods, including cookies, crackers, whole-grain and fruit-flavored bars, frozen waffles, and vegetarian products. It was founded in 1906 by William Keith Kellogg, who originally named it Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company. The company produced extremely popular cornflakes. Fourteen years later, William renamed it the Kellogg Company.
It’s hard to say what exactly is the main secret of Cheez-It’s popularity: in the recipe with an active predominance of real cheese, or the interesting size – one square inch. Or maybe in the colorful and eye-catching visual identity?
What is Cheez-It?
Cheez-It is the name of a salty snack brand, owned by the Kellogg’s company. The brand of cheesy crackers was introduced at the beginning of the 1920s, over a century ago, but its popularity in the United States and some other countries across the globe only grows.
In terms of visual identity, Cheez-It is a brand with quite a rich history. There have been many redesigns of its logo throughout the years, but the latest concept was first introduced already in the end of the 1980s, with just minor modifications leading to the current badge.
The original Cheez-It logo, created in 1921, has stayed with the brand for more than ten years and is the only badge in the brand’s history, executed in a fresh green and white color palette. It was classy for its time banner with elegant geometry and an oval medallion in the middle. The inscription was written in quite a brave rounded sans-serif typeface with thin green lines adding volume to it.
The redesign of 1932 introduced a completely different Cheez-It logo. It was as simple as possible: bold uppercase lettering on a plain background with no graphical additions. The inscription was set in a custom font with elongated and sharpened ends of the bars. But the main thing about the badge was its intense yellow and red color palette.
In 1954 the logo was changed again, keeping the red and yellow color palette as the basis. The lettering was rewritten in a modern and distinctive sans-serif typeface with medium-weight bars of slightly narrowed characters. The main wordmark was accompanied by the cursive “Sunshine” lettering, set above it.
The redesign of 1961 has intensified the yellow and red shades of the Cheez-It logo and slightly played with the typeface of the “Sunshine” part. Also, a small graphical element was added to the composition — a solid red square emblem with the white cook caricature on it. This badge stayed with the brand for a decade.
In 1973 the designers decided to play with the colors of the Cheez-It logo, to give it a new and fresh look without changing much. The lettering now turned white and was placed on a solid red background, while the “Sunshine” wordmark was still written in red over a yellow part of the logo.
The redesign of 1980 has modified the typeface of the main wordmark, making it stronger and more geometrical. The top part of the logo was also changed — the cursive gained longer and more curved lines, and the emblem was redrawn: the cook was now set in a solid yellow circle inside a red square.
The new concept was applied to the Cheez-It logo in 1989z the white uppercase lettering got its contours cleaned and refined and gained a thin black shadow, which made the whole image voluminous. Placed on a solid red background, the logotype was enclosed between two blurred yellow horizontal lines above and beyond it. The “Real Cheese Matters” tagline now decorates every pack of the Cheez-It crackers.
The redesign of 2015 has replaced the “-“ of the wordmark with a yellow square cracker image. Another change was made to the framing of the wordmark — the uneven and blurred lines became straight and distinctive, supporting the geometry of the lettering and emblem. The tagline for a little bigger too.
The bold uppercase lettering from the primary Cheez-It logo is set in a distinctive sans-serif typeface, which looks somewhat close to such commercial fonts as Nuno, Akwe Protrade, or Marble, with some minor modifications of the characters’ contours.
As for the color palette of the Cheez-It visual identity, it is based on the combination of white, red, and yellow, where red signifies warmth and passion, white — transparency and reliability, and yellow represents the intense cheese flavor of the crackers.