Insomnia Cookies hired Jessica Walsh's studio &Walsh to refresh the identity and packaging at its more than 375 bakeries.
The rebrand is the chain's first major overhaul since Verlinvest and Mistral Equity Partners bought a majority stake from Krispy Kreme in 2024.
The brand refresh replaces the illustrated cookie moon with a photograph of a half-eaten chocolate chunk cookie.
It also adds the tagline "Always Warm Since 2003" and a heated catering box that keeps cookies warm for up to three hours.
The agency appointment adds another specialist to a roster that includes Adjective & Co., which says it served as Insomnia Cookies' first agency of record.
Harmelin Media was named media agency of record in 2021, while UK communications agency Earnies won its account in 2024.
Insomnia founder Seth Berkowitz told DesignRush the refresh aims to preserve the brand's recognizable elements while creating room for its next chapter.
"From our new look to innovations like our self-heating catering box, we're finding new ways to bring warm cookies to more people, more occasions, and more moments throughout the day," Berkowitz said.
The agency appointment comes as Insomnia works to expand its business and reach new customer occasions.
Its latest roster also offers a useful example of how brands can assign distinct responsibilities to specialist agencies.
A New Cookie Logo Leads Insomnia's Rebrand
The most visible change is the replacement of Insomnia's illustrated moon with a photograph of a half-eaten chocolate chunk cookie.
The updated logo design features melted chocolate and an exposed bite. The image puts the product directly in the brand's identity.
Insomnia retains its signature purple while introducing cookie-inspired browns, warmer neutrals, and brighter accent colors.
The typography combines heavy display lettering with a warmer serif and a geometric sans serif for supporting copy.
(Old design on the left; refreshed design on the right)
Photography also plays a larger role.
Close-ups of gooey cookies appear alongside lifestyle images showing the brand in social and everyday settings.
The packaging receives a corresponding update across cookie boxes, ice cream cups, and larger formats.
"Always Warm Since 2003" also connects the visual changes to the company's founding year and its original product messaging.
Insomnia developed the refresh with &Walsh after qualitative consumer research conducted through dscout with Gen Z and millennials.
The findings suggested customers associated the brand with comfort, nostalgia, and social memories.
These associations informed the creative direction and the decision to give the cookie a more prominent visual role.
The heated catering box pairs Lava Gel heat technology with custom-engineered packaging to keep cookies warm and melty for up to three hours.
The product design uses a specialized insert to position heat packs throughout the box.
It activates through an exothermic mineral reaction when water contacts a dry powder pad.
Insomnia includes the heated packaging with its 50- and 100-cookie catering packs at no additional charge.
Berkowitz told Entrepreneur in January that daytime catering exposed a packaging problem, since office orders can sit for hours before serving.
The innovation gives the brand a product-specific reason to pursue office gatherings, birthday parties, holiday events, and other group occasions.
(Old design on the left; refreshed design on the right)
A photo logo puts the product at the center of the brand identity, which helps when one cookie has to sell across boxes, storefronts, and screens.
&Walsh has handled dessert before, rebuilding ice cream maker Coolhaus' identity with dedicated product photography and food styling.
It gave each Coolhaus flavor its own look inside one brand, something that Insomnia needs across classic, deluxe, vegan, and limited-edition cookies.
Insomnia's 75% Comfort Finding Informs Its Rebrand
Insomnia's consumer research offers a closer look at the customer behavior behind the identity changes.
The same dscout study found that 75% of respondents ordered its cookies for comfort.
In 2024, Verlinvest and Mistral Equity Partners acquired a majority stake in Insomnia from Krispy Kreme.
The announcement set a goal of more than 1,800 bakeries in the U.S. and beyond.
Research like this gives every agency on Insomnia Cookies' roster one shared brand positioning to work from.
Brands planning an agency roster strategy can take three lessons from Insomnia's appointments:
Give Specialist Agencies a Defined Brief
Brands should identify the specific business problem each agency needs to solve before assigning work across a roster.
Adjective & Co. says it shaped Insomnia's identity as the brand's first agency of record, and &Walsh now holds the latest identity assignment.
Match Creative Partners to the Brand Challenge
Brands should assess an agency's previous work against the emotional and commercial requirements of each assignment.
&Walsh's 2021 identity for indoor farm Plenty scored higher for warmth and accessibility than the previous brand work in audience testing, according to Jessica Walsh.
Keep Agency Responsibilities Visible
Brands should communicate each partner's role so internal teams and external agencies understand where their responsibilities begin and end.
Insomnia appointed Harmelin Media as its media AOR in 2021 and selected Earnies for UK earned communications in 2024 following a four-agency pitch.
Insomnia's agency strategy gives the company access to specialist capabilities while it connects these assignments to one recognizable brand promise.
Our Take: Does Insomnia Need Another Agency?
Insomnia Cookies has worked with at least six outside agencies since Adjective & Co. signed on as its first AOR.
We'd back the &Walsh hire, since a chain chasing 1,800 bakeries needs one design system that every other agency on its roster can follow.
Whoever runs Insomnia's next push will be working inside a system that &Walsh designed.
Insomnia needs nearly five times today's bakery count to reach 1,800, so every new storefront will put these guidelines to work.
Brands planning this kind of expansion should name one agency as keeper of the identity before the next campaign brief goes out.
Companies planning an identity refresh can explore these top branding agencies on DesignRush.
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