New Walkers logo

Image credit: Walkers

Walkers unveils its biggest logo change in 80 years – but is it an improvement?

The new Walkers logo has landed, and as expected, it’s sparked plenty of debate. It’s the most significant change to the brand’s identity since the late 1990s. The familiar crisp icon has gone, replaced by a bold, sun-inspired design with radiating light beams and a simplified central mark.

Initially, it feels more modern, brighter and cleaner. But good branding lives in the details – and that’s where things get interesting.

On closer inspection, one of the first things I noticed was the spacing between the lettering, particularly between the W and A. It feels a little too open, which slightly disrupts the flow of an otherwise confident wordmark. The red ribbon is another key change. In the previous logo, it wrapped around the crisp icon, adding depth and joined it all together. In the new version, it sits more statically behind the wordmark, obviously that’s intentional, but it loses some of the energy the older design had.

Image credit: Walkers. The new logo on the left and the older one on the right

Modern logos have to work everywhere, from huge billboards to tiny mobile screens. While the sun rays add symbolism, there’s a real question over how visible they’ll be at smaller sizes. On a phone screen or app icon, those finer details may disappear entirely, leaving a simpler (and arguably less distinctive) shape. This isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker, but it’s something brands have to get right today.

So why did Walkers change their logo? Removing the crisp icon is a big statement, that single graphic instantly told consumers what the product was. But it also boxed the brand in, by stepping away from it, Walkers potentially opens the door to becoming a broader food or snack brand rather than being defined by one product type. Other major brands, such as Starbucks and Dunkin removed the ‘coffee and doughnuts’ when they want room to grow beyond their original category.

Image credit: Walkers. The logo on their new product

So which works better? If I had to choose between the two, I still slightly prefer the older logo. It had more movement, more character, although I’d happily give it a bit more breathing space around the lettering.

The new version isn’t a failure by any means. It’s confident, considered, and clearly strategic. I just think some of the warmth and energy of the previous design has been dialled back in favour of flexibility.

This feels less like a cosmetic refresh and more like a positioning shift (as mentioned above). Whether it pays off will depend on what Walkers does next, not just visually, but strategically.

Logos rarely exist in isolation. They’re signals, and this one suggests there may be more coming.