Funyuns’ whole idea is a playful illusion.

Funyuns is a lesson in a playful, literal product idea. Frito-Lay launched it in 1969: an onion-flavoured, corn-based ring snack, credited to Frito-Lay employee George Wade Bigner. Here’s the key fact — Funyuns are not made of real onion. They’re primarily extruded cornmeal, shaped into rings that mimic fried onion rings, then flavoured with a salt-and-onion seasoning. The entire product is a fun, affectionate illusion: a corn snack dressed up as an onion ring, which is exactly what makes it charming and distinctive on the shelf. (Honest caveats: no official brand hex or wordmark typeface is published, so the colours and type here are approximate.)

The name has a great trademark story. Funyuns is a portmanteau of “fun” + “onions,” but that wasn’t the first choice: the desired name “OnYums” was already a registered trademark (of Rudolph Foods), so copywriter Jim Albright coined the alternative “Funyuns” instead. It’s a small but perfect example of how trademark constraints can push a brand toward a better, more ownable name — “Funyuns” is far more distinctive and fun than “OnYums” would have been.

Funyuns has grown a genuine cult following, helped along by pop-culture cameos (famously the snack of choice for Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad and Marshall Eriksen in How I Met Your Mother). The line has spanned Original, Flamin’ Hot, Steakhouse Onion and various limited runs, and in Brazil it’s sold as “Cebolitos.” The identity is bold and playful — the golden onion-ring shape, a bright, colourful bag — and it’s owned by Frito-Lay, a division of PepsiCo. A corn ring with an onion’s name and a cult’s devotion.

Funyuns lives in onion gold and blue. Click a swatch to copy the hex.

Funyuns’ palette pairs a warm onion-ring gold and yellow — the colour of the golden fried ring — with a bold blue and cream. The gold reads as appetising and playful (and nods directly to the ring shape and the fried-onion illusion), while the blue adds a strong, high-contrast pop that makes the bag jump off the shelf. It’s a fun, bold, snack-aisle scheme that matches the brand’s cheeky, cult-favourite personality — golden and inviting, with a confident contrast. The honest caveat: Funyuns publishes no official public brand hex — the gold, yellow and blue here are observed approximations, not a confirmed spec.

The lesson is appetising gold plus a bold contrast. Funyuns’ onion-gold sells the fried-ring illusion, while the blue makes it pop. For designers, it’s a reminder that a warm, food-true primary plus a strong contrasting accent creates shelf appeal. The takeaways: draw a warm, appetising gold from the product’s look (the golden ring); add a bold contrasting colour for shelf pop (the blue); and treat specific hexes as approximate when no official spec is published.

The wordmark is a bold, rounded, playful sans — fun and cheeky.

Funyuns’ bold, rounded, playful wordmark is fun and cheeky — plump, rounded letters that feel lighthearted and irreverent, matching a snack whose whole personality is a wink (an onion ring that isn’t onion, with a made-up name). The type is energetic and approachable, the visual equivalent of the brand’s cult-favourite, don’t-take-it-too-seriously charm, and it sits naturally on the bold gold-and-blue bag. It reads as fun food, plain and simple. (Because the exact face is custom and undocumented, the honest description is “a bold, rounded, playful sans,” not a named font.) The type behaves like the brand: fun, cheeky and playful.

Funyuns leans all the way into playful.

Funyuns is a lesson in committing fully to fun. Nearly everything about it is a lighthearted wink — a corn snack shaped like an onion ring, a name literally built from “fun,” a bold and colourful bag — and that unapologetic playfulness is exactly why it earned a cult following. The brand never pretends to be premium or wholesome; it’s a fun, cheap, cheerful snack, and it owns that identity completely. Its pop-culture cameos only reinforced the charm. It’s proof that a clear, committed, fun personality can build genuine devotion, even for a simple corn snack.

For designers and brand-builders, Funyuns offers a clear takeaway: a fully committed, playful identity can build a cult following. The lessons: build the whole product and name around a fun idea (a corn “onion ring,” “fun” + “onions”); use bold, appetising, high-contrast design to match (gold and blue, rounded playful type); and lean into the personality rather than apologising for it. It’s also a reminder to keep the facts precise — Funyuns launched in 1969, is made of corn (not real onion), got its name because “OnYums” was already trademarked (coined by Jim Albright), has a cult following boosted by TV cameos, and is owned by Frito-Lay/PepsiCo. Funyuns made fun the whole point — proof that a committed, playful identity earns devotion.

Keep Funyuns’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.