Branding Milk, Chocolate, Candy and Pharmaceuticals

Established in 1916 and 1917 respectively — and shown top and bottom in the image above — Meiji Seika Kaisha and Meiji Dairies Corporation, have become one of the most well known brands in Japan. As the name of the latter implies, its specialty was processed milk products while the former focused on the (somewhat baffling) categories of confectionary and pharmaceuticals. This past April, the two organizations came together to form a single operation, Meiji Holdings Co., Ltd and along with it came a new logo, designed by the Tokyo office of Landor. The beloved Meiji Milk Chocolate packaging, before and after. Chris Palmieri of the Tokyo based AQ blog nicely summarized most of the details about the old logos: The candy and pill one designed by Yusaku Kamekura and the milk one by