foodpanda is an online food and grocery delivery platform owned by Berlin-based Delivery Hero, operating across Asia and parts of Europe. The brand is best known for its pink panda mascot, which has been the centerpiece of its visual identity through two major redesigns since the company was founded in Singapore in 2012.
Design and History
foodpanda was founded in 2012 by Lukas Nagel and Rico Wyder in Singapore. In December 2016, the company was fully acquired by Delivery Hero, a Berlin-based food delivery group. The acquisition triggered a complete brand overhaul that was rolled out in late 2017 across 190 cities in 12 countries, including Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand. The rebrand changed the company’s color from orange to pink, updated its wordmark to a slimmer, more contemporary font, and redesigned the panda mascot with a rounder, simpler face. According to Laura Kantor, foodpanda’s head of marketing at the time, the pink color was chosen as a strong differentiator in markets where orange was already widely used, and it also matched the signature color of sister company foodora. The company stated that the new logo was designed to be more memorable. The rollout required replacing orange branding across more than 1,500 restaurant partners in Singapore alone, as well as new uniforms and delivery bags for its rider fleet. [1] [2] [3]
In April 2021, foodpanda unveiled another brand refresh across all of its visual designs, rolling out progressively in more than 400 cities across 12 markets. The refresh came as the platform expanded beyond food delivery into quick commerce, including grocery delivery through its pandamart cloud stores. The company described the new identity as retaining its “fun pink” color scheme while expanding the palette to include more complementary colors. The smiling panda mascot remained prominent but was given new treatments, appearing in additional designs such as stickers, patterns and shapes across the brand’s touchpoints. Reinald Chee, head of creative at foodpanda, explained the approach: “Pink is king. We keep the fun pink that is instantly recognisable to millions of people across Asia. At the same time, we highlight different aspects of our brand personality, to show that foodpanda is also friendly, caring, smart, and that little bit rebellious.” [4] [5]
Meaning and Symbolism
The panda mascot has been the brand’s central symbol since its founding. The 2017 redesign simplified the panda into a rounder, duotone face with small dot eyes, moving away from the earlier illustrated character. The 2021 refresh kept the panda as the “iconic symbol” of foodpanda while increasing its prominence across the brand’s visual designs. The company has not publicly documented a deeper symbolic meaning for the panda beyond its role as the brand’s recognizable mascot. [3] [4]
Typography and Design
The 2017 rebrand introduced a thinner, more geometric wordmark described as more contemporary than its predecessor. The 2021 refresh did not publicly document a change to the wordmark itself, focusing instead on the expanded color palette and new treatments of the panda mascot across applications. Specific typeface names have not been publicly disclosed by the company. [3] [4]
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