Logo Evolution - The Pepsi Story

When we are born, we are given an identity and that identity is our name. This isn’t something we are not aware of, nor were the people in the early days. However, they were not aware of the fact that creating identities for their businesses is exactly the same as naming a person and hold similar benefits. Later in the 13th century, people realized the need for creating different ciphers which they carved on the coins to do trade. They felt that there should be something they could do trade with, other than the exchange of goods with other men. They wanted to differentiate their goods with others. How could they do it?

They started by creating coins with carved in ciphers. All were different from one another to avoid confusion. Besides, they started creating different stamps to use as their trademark. They used to have simple designs on their currencies and stamps which benefitted them a lot. From there onwards they realized the significance of creating identities for their businesses. People expanded their trades and converted them into industries. This is how industries started evolving and with that, the need to give them recognition was felt.

However, with the advancement of time and technology, those trademarks started to convert into proper logo designs and amongst those logo designs, evolved brands…Remarkable brands!

With time many companies gained popularity and recognition partly because of their brand identities, which proved to be unique and creative. Today, professional logo for any business organization is considered a must.

There is a mushroom growth of businesses now a days. Every other person starts his/ her business on a small level but no matter how small your business is, you need to have a logo for it. And with time you further have to evolve your logo by modifying it to take your business to the next level.

Have a look at how Pepsi worked on its logo from 1898 till date:

Let’s get on with an example of one of the biggest soft drinks company, Pepsi and see how this company has adopted the idea of creating an identity for itself and to what extent it has been modified over time.

In 1980’s, Pharmacist Celeb Bradham started this company by the name of ‘Brad’s drink in New Bern, North Carolina. He had no company logo by that time, which proved good for him since he soon realized that there should be some other name for his company, so he changed it to ‘Pepsi-Cola’ and decided to have a registered logo for it which is visible in the 1898 logo.

The new name Pepsi-Cola became so popular among the masses that it was trademarked in 1903 and hasn’t been changed till date. In 1905, Bradham decided to modify the font type of the logo to make it more readable. However, there were no design changes as such.

One year later, he thought to add the word ‘Drink’ in the logo and made the fonts bolder than before.

In 1933, the company was bought by Loft, Inc. The company changed the bottle size from 6 to 12 oz. and came up with the ‘Refreshing and Healthful’ logo. The word ‘Drink’ was again removed from the new Pepsi-Cola logo.

However, the major breakthrough in the Pepsi logo design came in 1940’s. Walter Mack, the CEO of Pepsi came up with the idea of a new bottle design, with a crown having the Pepsi logo. The ‘Pepsi Globe’ emerged when USA was in WWII, and to support the country’s war efforts, Pepsi had a blue, red and white logo. This logo became hugely popular, and went on to be the identifier for the company.

As a result, in 1950 and 1962, this bottle cap with the swirling blue and red became prominent in the company logo. During the 1960’s when it became even more popular, the script was changed from the curly red, and the main attraction was on the bottle cap in the logo.

We see the first appearance of the Pepsi Globe instead of the bottle cap in 1973. The typeface was made smaller so as to fit in the globe. The Pepsi Globe was “boxed in”, with a red bar coming in from the left and a light-blue bar coming in from the right.

Later in 1991, the typeface was moved from inside the globe. The red bar was lengthened and the typeface came on the top of the globe.

The white background in the logo was replaced by the blue color, which also resulted in dropping the red horizontal band in 1988. The globe now had 3D graphic and larger than earlier versions. The name ‘the Pepsi Globe’ was given to the logo since both Pepsi and the globe were touching each other.

After 1998, Pepsi changed its logo and gave the globe more prominence than the script itself. So, the globe came on top of the script in 2003.

And now in their current logo they have removed the script altogether. The logo has a central white band arcing at different angles with red and blue parts on either side.
This is how Pepsi has modified its logo overtime. Though the transitions were subtle but they kept giving their logo a fresher look to keep the brand alive. Do write in the comments section if there is anything you can add to it or give your examples of how other company logos evolved with time.

Author’s bio:
This is guest post from Ben Johnson of Logoinn, custom logo design service provider based in UK.

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