Rethink ALDI (fictional)

The architecture and design magazine ICON invited TwoPoints.Net to develop a fictitious project for the prestigious Rethink series. Previous contributors to this regular feature has been Rem Koolhaas’ studio OMA, Tony Brook’s studio Spin and Michael C Place’s studio Build.

When asked about the function of communication design, many will answer that its function is to improve communication. Communication design makes information legible and messages easier to understand, which in most cases should lead to more consumption and higher profits. Good design is efficient and effective. Anything else would be a waste of money for our clients and confusing for our target audience. Yes, of course, … but no, not really. This can not be everything. There is nothing wrong with making information easier to read and denying that one of the main functions of design is to increase consumption is naïv, but design can do much more than that. Design offers the opportunity to reach and educate a broad audience. People who will never visit a gallery or museum are confronted with design on a daily basis. Instead of serving them the algorithm approved, most efficient (but boring) design, we have the chance to challenge their visual literacy. Of course it is a risk to create friction, but do we really want to live in a frictionless world? Do we really want to see, read, hear or taste only what we already like, or an algorithm thinks we like? We do not and we should not. Our greatest pleasure in life is to learn. We want to be confronted with things we do not understand at first. We want to be challenged.

Because of their reach Aldi would be a suitable brand for a customer challenging flexible visual identity. With more than 10.000 supermarkets in 18 countries it reaches a broad spectrum of customers.

Client: ICON Magazine
Year: 2018
Fruit photography by Monica Figueras.