A Smile from L to L

A Smile from L to L:


Established in 1905, Carulla is a chain of grocery stores across Colombia with 76 locations and 6,000 employees. This past Friday, it introduced a revised identity designed by Bogotá, Colombia-based SmartBrands that will roll out in a dozen stores first.


Logo evolution, showing the oval as part of the equity.

The new logo combines a friendly and gourmet style. The double "ll" becomes the focal point to evoke a smile, which represents the satisfaction they want to offer more than 6,000 employees working for the brand to customers. Recovered the oval as a valuable source of identity that has been on the brand since 1905.
— SmartBrands Case Study

Logo animation.

When you see the logos used throughout the years, the newest version is a great fusion of all of them, finding a successful balance between the straight-forwardness of the early sans serif logos and the exaggerated script last used. As I have expressed before, I will always give a thumbs up to a nicely executed, custom, mono weight script and this one makes me smile — a little less awkwardly, though, than the slightly forced smile they have tried to embed in the "ll". It's a good idea and it almost works but the space in between the two "l"s creates a large gap in the word and more than a smile it starts to look like bunny ears. As a standalone icon, the "ll" works better, as seen in the bag below, but even then the smile expression is not quite well captured. I don't think it's necessary to have a perfectly readable smile but this one feels slightly forced. Nonetheless, as a mark, it's catchy and recognizable.





Sub-brand logos.







Sample brochures and recipe book.



Packaging for its private label.

The rest of the identity and packaging uses a colorful and comfortable visual device of overlaying the logo on other bold food shapes and product photography against white backgrounds. It's a formula that, as usual, works very well. The supporting typography is a combination of the increasingly ubiquitous Archer, Gill Sans — which they have managed to use as poorly as possible — and a script that kinda looks like the logo but isn't. Overall, everything has a welcome, joyful flair.

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