The Ruffles brand was officially registered in 1948 by Bernhardt Stahmer, and bought out by Frito ten years later, in 1958. This is where the brand’s international fame began, which only increased after Frito merged with H.W. Lay & Co. in 1961. Today the ruffled chips are sold internationally under different brand names (f.e. Lays Max or Walkers Max).
There are many chip and snack companies in the world today, but some of them are leading the global market. One of the largest chip manufacturing companies is PepsiCo, which produces many brands of chips including Lay’s, Ruffles, Cheetos, and Tostitos.
Ruffles chips are known for their distinctive cut with uniform ridges or waves, and a proprietary seasoning blend that gives them a unique flavor and crunchy texture.
The brand was first introduced by chip maker Bernhardt Stahmer in the early 1940s but was later sold to Frito-Lay in 1958. In 1961, Frito-Lay launched Ruffles as a nationally distributed brand and began marketing it as an upscale alternative to traditional premium potato chips.
In the 1990s, Ruffles chips were much more popular than Lays and Estrella, but today the brand isn’t seen as often as many would like. In fact, in many markets, Ruffles has simply changed its name to Lays Max. And in the same UK, these chips are produced under the brand name “Walkers Max”. And in the US and other countries, they continue to be produced under the Ruffles brand to this day. All of these chips are made by one company, Frito Lay, which is part of PepsiCo Inc.
What is Ruffles?
Ruffles is the name of a chip brand, introduced in 1948, and today owned by PepsiCo through its Frito-Lay subsidiary. The main peculiarity of the product is the crinkle cut of the chips. Today the product has several different names depending on the country.
In terms of visual identity, the Ruffles brand has been pretty loyal to its original concept, even though its logo was changed several times throughout the years. But most of the redesigns were about refinement and slight modernization.
The Ruffles logo, introduced in 1974, featured a bold red lettering in a custom font with interesting details of the “R” and the “F”s. The elongated bars of the lines are complemented by curved emboldened tails, which add playfulness to the simple composition.
The redesign of 1986 has refined the contours of the title case characters in the Ruffles inscription, cutting off the curls and softened elements, and making up a sharp geometric image. The color remained untouched.
Another version of the Ruffles logo was introduced in 1995. The style of the lettering remained the same, but the characters got slightly expanded and the whole inscription was now more arched relative to the overall composition.
In 1997 the Ruffles logo was redesigned by the famous Landor Associates bureaux. John Burns, the designer, has worked with the typeface of the lettering, making it more modern and edgy, and added a double white and blue outline to the logo. The shade of red became a bit lighter and calmer.
The version of the Ruffles logo, introduced in 2003, is still in use by the international markets. The badge is based on the previous Landor variant but with the emboldened characters redrawn in a three-dimensional style, with two shades of red. Another rethought thing here is the thickness of the blue outline, which was significantly reduced.
For the American market, the visual identity of the Ruffles chips brand was completely changed in 2015. The typeface of the new logo was dramatically different from all the previous ones. The rounded square serif font looks more elegant and confident, and the dark red gradients of the uppercase characters only elevate this feeling.
The redesign of 2022 has flatly redrawn the Ruffles logo, with the weight red capitals gaining back the double white and blue outline. The blue got thicker at the bottom of the badge, bringing in some volume.
The bold uppercase lettering from the American version of the Ruffles logo is set in a smooth geometric serif font with square shapes of the slightly narrowed characters. Even though, it is a custom designer font, it has somewhat in common with such commercial types as Sport JNL, and Blackberry, but with significant modifications of the characters’ contours.
As for the color palette of the Ruffles’ visual identity, it is composed of bright and vivid shapes of red and blue, with an addition of white. This combination always works great, regardless of time or overall design concept.