Revisit

If you read my other grocery store design articles, you’ll see that I pay attention when I’m at the grocery store.  When the grocery chain Bloom opened, I went shopping and took my camera and documented some of my observations.

The first thing I noticed was the logo, it was new and fresh and plastered just about everywhere. Some of the pluses included the ability for the logo to be reproduced well in scale from small to large.  Additionally, I like the amount of different applications for which they use it. The problem I think they have is the overuse by repetition.  Repetition certainly has it’s place in good design, but doing so with the logo has to be done carefully.  In this case, I think the repetition choices take the good out and throws in some bad taste.

After looking at the pictures, I invite you to weigh in with your opinion.

Here’s a number of print pieces I’ve scrounged together…

Bloom, Graphic Design, Grocery Store

In May 2004, Food Lion unveiled “Bloom”, a new brand that focuses on convenience and service through an easy-to-shop Bloom, A Food Lion Market store layout, a broad range of fresh products and home meal replacement products, and technology features that expedite the shopping experience. The Bloom experiment is the result of extensive consumer research, studies of best practices from retailers throughout the world and an intensive cooperation between different operating companies within Delhaize Group.

I selected Bloom for analysis because of the recent openings of several Bloom stores in my area. In my town alone there were three Food Lions, two of which have all recently been converted into Bloom stores. With this big influx and sightings of this brand popping-up everywhere, I decided to check the store out. In future articles, I will chronicle the full brand experience.

The Bloom logo is a successful mark. The symbol is perpetual and shows motion, while using white space effectively pulling your gaze inward. This white space shape makes a spiral, sun-like form. I believe it has a very organic quality which can be coupled with the border, which has flower-like edges. The two forms meld a very organic and conceptual symbol which portray a flower in bloom, which is directly linkable to agricultural growth, hence groceries.

The Bloom slogan is “a different kind of grocery store,” and the logo certainly has an abstract modern quality which aptly portrays this concept. The type also lends to this modern approach.

I identified the font to be Futura Medium Boldtype. This is an appropriate selection, as the clean lines convey the modern appearance. The selection also possesses a nice thick to thin stroke and dips below the baseline creating an organic flow for the letterform (see illustration).

The lowercase setting of the font helps the type to adjoin properly to the symbol, creating a unified logo. I also liked the fact that each character was kerned indiviudally and properly set to convey an even appearance.

Bloom, Grocery Store, Logo