Design agency B&B Studio has partnered with bamboo pioneer The Cheeky Panda to overhaul its identity and packaging, supporting the brand’s move from cheeky challenger to bold bamboo icon in the household space.
Born in 2016 as a bamboo toilet roll brand, Cheeky Panda has grown into a certified B Corp, offering 16 different products across 25 countries worldwide. With its fun name, characterful identity and striking colour palette, the brand’s design was always recognisable, but with limited assets and low flexibility, it was struggling to cope with the brand’s growth ambitions. For B&B, helping this challenger brand scale was all about increasing its iconicity and irresistibility.
From Colin to icon
As the brand’s key asset, Colin the panda was being over-used, showing up in different guises across the brand. The new branding establishes his role as a true icon, locked up with a bolder, more meaningful logotype, and taking up space with confidence across all packaging design.
Emphasising softness
One of the key criticisms of the brand’s existing packaging design was its literal depiction of bamboo – an inherently spiky plant that contradicted the brand’s claims of silky soft textures. The new designs feature an illustrative interpretation of bamboo that prioritises softness and naturalness through depth of colour and texture. The placement of the new bamboo patterns differs across the ranges, creating white space for brand and product information. On the tissue box, they create a wraparound effect, cleverly mimicking the growth of bamboo when stacked on shelf.
Empowering a bamboo revolution
The new designs demonstrate a bolder and more confident tone of voice, inspired by the brand’s mission to create a bamboo revolution. Across the packs, the brand’s messages are simplified and emboldened, ensuring that key sustainability facts are highlighted without compromising the brand’s naturally playful personality.
“Our refresh of Cheeky Panda fixes all the problems the original packaging had,” said B&B Co-Founder and Creative Partner, Shaun Bowen. “Softness, naturalness and a genuine sense of bamboo expertise have all been added to great effect, resulting in a meaningful evolution that elevates the brand from cheeky challenger to bold bamboo icon.”
Cheeky Panda founder Julie Chen added: “We love the work B&B studio has done with our brand, retaining everything we loved, but adding in so much more warmth, personality and confidence. This is the boost the brand needed to make our bamboo revolution a reality!”
