On conclusion of the third quarter of the year, the Latvian Patent Office has selected the next eight candidates for the main award of the Trademark of the Year 2024 competition. During the next week, we will introduce a series of publications about the companies – owners of creative, expressive and witty trademarks, candidates for the main award of the competition selected in various nominations.
Nomination: Trademark of the Year for Latvia
Category: Figurative Marks
Vēsma - refreshment ever since 1975
In 1975, the newspaper Rīgas Balss reported that Rīgas piena kombināts, a dairy produce factory, started producing five new ice creams, including Vēsma - a refreshing lemon-flavoured ice cream that children ate faster than it could be melted by the sun. Vēsma is originally made not from milk and sweet cream, like traditional ice creams, but from whey, a by-product of milk production. Made that way, the ice cream has a much lower fat content and is nutritionally lighter.
"When we were children, we ran to an ice cream kiosk near the bus stop in Smiltene, because ice creams had just been delivered from Riga. If Vēsma - a yellow lemon-flavoured and fast-melting wonder in a thin cardboard cup with a round piece of paper on top -, was among them, I was totally happy!" remembers Ģirts Liniņš who is now the brand manager of the Food Union company.
In 2024, Vēsma was given new strength within the Tio brand. Now this retro ice cream has been reborn with four new flavours and a “juicy” slogan – “The hotter the summer, the cooler Vēsma”. Developing the new design, there was a desire to keep the reference to the original packaging - the round piece of paper that covered the ice cream, hence the new trademark contains a circle. Also, the chosen typeface and colour range refer to the aesthetics of the 1970s, which is on trend again.
Nomination: Trademark of the Year for the European Union
Category: Word Marks
Mindful Willow time planner as self-awareness and adaptation tool
Today, time planners have become an integral part of everyday life, because our century is characterized by haste, the desire to do all things at once and, on the other hand, the awareness that there are not enough hours in the day to do everything you need. Egita Vītola, the owner of the Penguin Stories company and of the Mindful Willow brand, believes that time planners can not only assist in organizing everyday life, but can also help with self-discovery and goal setting.
The Penguin Stories company was established when Egita's first daughter was born, and the name of the company comes from the girl’s nickname. The company’s first product was a wall planner made of organic glass, it could be used for a long time, and inscriptions could be easily erased. With the arrival of her second daughter, Egita began to ask herself what it was that she really wanted from life, and what other roles she could take besides of being a mother and a wife. That's how the idea of a product that would help plan not only time, but also yourself and your life, or the Mindful Willow Vision Board Kit, was born.
“It might seem that Mindful - awareness, being here and now - is about peace, slowness and boredom, but, to my mind, it is not - a conscious and present in the moment person can also be loud and energetic, happy and full of pleasure. Mindful can be different – it depends on what you have found and is experiencing in yourself. On the other hand, Willow is my surname in English, and the Willow tree symbolizes strength, adaptability and flexibility in the storms of life,” explains Egita Vītola.
Mindful Willow offers products that help people not only with time planning, but also with self-discovery and life planning, motivating them to live exactly the way they want, not the way others expect them to. The range of products is planned to be supplemented with items with inspiring slogans, gifts, and others. Currently, the main market is domestic, but the first steps have also been taken in the direction of export - there is an intention to enter the Baltic and European markets. The Vision Board Kit in English has already been sent to Amazon.