Fox’s Glacier Mints update Peppy the polar bear in “retro-progressive” rebrand

Derek&Eric has put Peppy the polar bear front and centre of the new identity, with details inspired by the brand’s 100-year-old design history.

Design studio Derek&Eric has crafted a new identity and packaging for British hard boiled sweet Fox’s Glacier Mints.

As part of the overhaul, the consultancy has designed a minimalist and forward-facing polar bear as well as new wrappers for the individual sweets.

Fox’s Glacier Mints are a boiled mint sweet established in the UK in 1918. Originally developed by confectioner Eric Fox, the brand now sells a range of flavours.

The mint is perhaps most well known for its mascot, Peppy the polar bear, who was introduced into packaging in the 1920s. In its early days, Fox’s even commissioned a taxidermist to shoot and stuff a real polar which was used for promotion.


Redesigning Peppy

Previous branding for Fox’s with the latest version on the right

The rebrand aims to bring the sweet to new audiences, according to Derek&Eric co-founder Adam Swan. Hard sweets like Fox’s are a “declining category” amid the popularity of soft sweets like Haribo and the new branding hopes to “sway it to a younger consumer”, he adds.

There was also consideration for the brand’s slow-paced appeal “in such a fast-paced world”, Swan says. He adds: “In a category where soft sweets that you can chew and swallow quickly are prevalent, it’s a nice brand to be able to say, ‘Okay, take a step back, put your phone down and take it slow for a little while.’”

“In the past, they’ve almost been seen as travellers’ sweets,” Swan adds. “If it’s a long journey, you eat a long sweet.” In reference to this, the caption at the top of the redesigned pack reads: ‘100 years of taking it slow’.

Peppy – who Swan calls “a slow, lethargic bear” – is a primary focus of the new identity. The studio has now made the bear mascot face right instead of left “which seemed logical for a brand that wanted to be progressive and moving forward”, Swan adds.

The bear has now also been rendered in a “retro-progressive” aesthetic. Previously three-dimensional, Peppy now appears as a more “modern-styled, flattened” graphic, Swan says.

The mascot has been drawn according to the golden ratio and aims to depict a “happier and healthier” bear, Swan says.

There is also a hidden design detail in the redesigned Peppy. In past promotional material, Fox’s used a cheeky fox character to contrast with the wise, grown-up bear, Swan explains. As a reference to this, the designers have added a fox’s tail behind the polar bear’s legs.

“We wanted to bring the sense of a fox back,” he adds. Swan points out that this hidden detail is also a nod to the founder’s name. The logo’s mint is translucent, which is a reference to the actual sweet’s appearance, explains Swan.


Inspired by the past

While it’s a departure from previous branding, the new identity fits within Fox’s design history, explains Swan. “If you dig far enough into the past of Fox’s, this aesthetic is what Fox’s used to be,” he says. “It was very flat, very graphic, what I would consider now to be very modern.”

Another detail inspired by the past is the green shade used on the classic flavour’s packaging. “They used to have green packs for Glacier mints and green copy,” Swan says.

The new “more vibrant” blue used on packaging is a move away from a darker version but this shade was also found in previous branding for Fox’s, according to Swan.

A line from the brand’s history, ‘Beware of imitations’, now appears on the logo lock-up. “The phrase jumped out at us – Fox’s is the hard boiled sweet in a British consumer’s mind,” he says. “It sat really well with the idea of ‘beware of the polar bear’ and ‘beware of Fox’s imitators’.”

Individual sweet wrappers have been redesigned in line with the new visuals. Swan calls this new pattern a “field of bears and sweets”.

Derek&Eric has also designed packaging for the extended line of Fox’s, which includes the “more refined” Glacier Moments. These depict two polar bears “sharing a moment”, Swan says, and their noses form a subtle heart shape.

The studio has worked with type designer Alec Tear on a typeface for the Moments line, inspired by a Fox’s poster from the past. “It’s a bit like the Coca-Cola mark,” Swan says. “It feels quite retro but at the same time very modern.”

The main wordmark is based on the previous typeface but has been made sans serif.


What do you think of the new look for Fox’s Glacier Mints? Let us know in the comments below.

Hide Comments (10)Show Comments (10)
Comments
  • Karen May 20, 2021 at 8:19 am

    Great work Derek&Eric … as always!

  • Malini Rao May 20, 2021 at 10:06 am

    Love it!

  • Alan Bingle May 21, 2021 at 9:48 am

    Type and packaging are great but the logo feels strange. The mint appears to be three dimensional while the bear is rendered in 2D. It looks like 2021 standing on 1970. Maybe thats what retro-progressive means but visually it jars to me. I also think the “fox tail” only works if someone tells you what it is. Looks like the bear has only three legs and one of them is deformed

  • Joshua Wallis May 21, 2021 at 5:07 pm

    I agree with what Alan Bingle said, especially about how “it looks like 2021 standing on 1970s”. You call it retro-progressive, I call it hauntology…

  • Andy May 23, 2021 at 10:41 am

    Its a great new look for the Fox’s, putting the bear back, front & centre where it belongs. It connects consumers back with the icon that the brand is famous for, in a clean and modern way. It’s no a million miles away from the clichéd roundels, crests and old sweet-shop grand-dad Werthers originals look it previously had.

    There’s been some quite vitriolic and bitchy comments from the one of the founders of the design agency (STB) who previously worked on the moments line on LinkedIn which is just sour grapes and jealousy really.

  • C. J. July 12, 2021 at 1:49 pm

    I am sure a lot of hard work has gone into this new design. however I don’t find the bag is particularly attractive, albeit the bear has a sweet face. Sadly the wrappers of the individual sweets inside are ghastly. very cheap looking. I always put these Glacier fruits in a bowl in my very busy Air bnb, I will not be doing so now. will sadly have to find an alternative with a more ‘toned down’ wrapper! sorry Fox’s!

  • Alex August 2, 2021 at 10:09 pm

    I met the guy who designed the original.

  • Howard October 26, 2021 at 4:01 pm

    Nicely simplified, apart from that last flick! Which turns out to be a tail! Im glad I read the description to explain to me what my eyes couldn’t see! (a pointless detail too far perhaps?)

  • Joanna Fox May 11, 2022 at 5:18 pm

    My middle school students, who love Fox’s mints, are so disappointed with the new design. The former design was classy and classic. They have declared this new logo as “juvenile.” Of course, they still love the taste and happily receive one for their work in our typewriter poetry class, but they no longer collect the wrappers.

  • Kerry Wells June 20, 2023 at 6:25 pm

    Sorry…looks naff!
    Oh and btw…being drawn according to the golden ratio and aims to depict a “happier and healthier” bear is tosh!
    They eat whale and seal blubber..the chonkier they are…the better!

  • Post a comment

Latest articles