The dog brand Earth Rated has teamed up with experience design agency LAYER to create a comprehensive brand refresh for Earth Rated. The playful new identity has repositioned and empowered the dog brand by giving it a reimagined look and propelling it to enter new segments of the pet market. The extensive, two-year project includes a new brandmark, holistic branding system and design language, a collection of products made from durable materials, and nearly 50 pieces of packaging and point-of-sale displays.
A Fresh Identity
Earth Rated was founded in 2009 and quickly dominated the dog poop bag market with their dependability and consumer-focused approach. As the Canadian brand and its ambitions evolved, it undertook an extensive two-year branding project in collaboration with LAYER that launched in March 2023.
The LAYER branding and product teams conducted in-depth workshops with the Earth Rated team to determine their vision for the future, and intensive user research into the experience of pet ownership to gain valuable insights. These insights were then translated into a holistic branding system that celebrates the joys of pet ownership with an identity that is thoughtful, uplifting, and progressive.
This holistic branding system is centred around a simple yet effective brandmark that captures the playful nature of Earth Rated. In the new execution, the brand name is expressed in a minimalistic, san serif font with a characterful dog silhouette integrated into the negative space of the “T” and “H” letterforms. This subtle representation of a dog is an evolution of the more overt cartoon canine mascot that dates back to Earth Rated’s beginnings.
The new identity is defined by fresh greens and vibrant yellow accents. This creates a distinctive, ownable signature that, like the logo, is a logical evolution from the previous brand identity. Importantly, yellow is one of the few colours visible to dogs, who see the world differently from humans.
A Forward-Thinking Approach
Earth Rated is proudly B Corp Certified, a designation that measures a company’s entire social and environmental impact—and these core values are at the heart of the brand’s new identity – and supported by LAYER.
With this brand refresh, Earth Rated launched a new generation of poop bags made from 65% certified post-consumer recycled plastic. By using 65% certified post-consumer recycled plastic, at the volume they produce, they’re able to give a second life to more than 5 million pounds of landfill-bound plastic every year*
The Earth Rated brand refresh was also about making great design accessible and affordable for a wide range of dog owners. The poop bag dispenser, for example, retails for just $5.99, and a pack of 270 scented or unscented poop bags retails for $13.99.
The Messy Stuff
Earth Rated is known around the world for their distinctive poop bags and dispensers – both of which have been reimagined in collaboration with LAYER. The new poop bag dispenser is an intuitive and identifiable design that features a clip to hold used bags while walking and a textured strap that can be attached to a leash. The bags – available in lavender-scented, and unscented versions – are dispensed through a slot in the side, offering easy access and the opportunity to create a “billboard” for the Earth Rated brand as the bags unroll.
Playful Products
LAYER also collaborated with the talented Earth Rated team to design a new collection of innovative and durable dog toys that offer dogs and their humans a better way to play. Joyful geometric forms are combined to create objects that invite interaction, while textured surfaces offer tactile touchpoints that encourage an intuitive user experience for both dogs and humans. All toys are dishwasher-safe for ease of cleaning and have even been tested against many of the same safety standards as those applicable to children’s toys.*
The five toys offer a variety of interactions for dogs and their humans – Fly, Tug, Fetch, Treat, and Chew – and subtly reimagine classic typologies for added functionality. The Fly Toy, for example, features a raised rim that allows easy pick-up by a dog; the Chew Toy has a twisted form that allows the dog to effectively hold the toy in their paws while chewing; and the Fetch Toy is made up of two intersecting forms to create an unpredictable bounce that adds excitement during play.
The Complete Package
The new Earth Rated packaging is just as thoughtfully unexpected as the products themselves. The minimalist packaging is complemented by restrained graphic design, and typographical treatments and balanced by an expressive use of colour. The generous volumes of green evoke the legacy of the brand and stand out on often crowded shelves. The high-contrast brand name and product information is legible, accessible and informative, with a clear hierarchy of information.
