LogoShop Part 10: Pepsi

Continuing the brand evolution of America’s second favorite soft drink.

6 min readJul 14, 2019

This is part of a blog series on logo design. Read additional articles on DC Comics, the Justice League, Superman, LexCorp, Nightwing, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Punisher, Coca-Cola, and Adidas.

Pepsi. The other cola.

Created in 1893, a mere seven years after Coca-Cola, Pepsi became Coke’s younger, sweeter sibling in the blue can. The rivalry between the two companies, and their flagship soft drinks, has been a testament to the power of branding, given the similarity in flavors.

While Coca-Cola positioned itself as a classic brand with a long and reliable history, Pepsi stayed agile, focusing on niche audiences. To that end, their brand identity changed regularly, becoming simpler and more abstract over time. Great for staying current, but not so great for brand continuity.

In 2009, Pepsi unveiled their latest redesign, the new Pepsi Globe, in the shape of a smile. And it was ruined by a doodle.

Welcome back to LogoShop, where I dissect popular brands and come up with refinements to make them stronger.

Disclaimer: The LogoShop series is intended for educational purposes only, and has not been solicited or endorsed by any of the brands discussed herein.

The Background

Pepsi, originally known as Brad’s Drink, was first introduced in 1893 by American pharmacist Caleb Bradham. As with Coca-Cola, Pepsi was originally formulated as a tonic, which in this case was to aid in digestion and boost energy. The drink was later renamed Pepsi-Cola in 1898, derived from the Greek word for digestion.

After an initial surge in popularity, the Pepsi-Cola Company went bankrupt during the Great Depression. The company was eventually bought by Charles Guth of Loft, Inc., a candy manufacturer. Since Coca-Cola refused to give Guth a discount for use of their soda in his stores’ fountains, he aimed to use Pepsi-Cola as a substitute. He even had his chemists rework the Pepsi formula, making the two soft drinks even more similar.

And so the rivalry between Coke and Pepsi was born.

As a result, Coke and Pepsi were constantly trying to outmaneuver each other on the marketing stage. Coca-Cola went broad, appealing to their customer’s sense of nostalgia. Pepsi, on the other hand, niched down, focusing on different segments of the population, until eventually adopting a youth-focus. Due to these pivots, the Pepsi logo rapidly evolved over its lifetime.

Like Coca-Cola, Pepsi’s logo began as a scripted wordmark. In the 1940’s, they introduced a new version of the logo, appearing on a red, white, and blue bottle cap as a show of patriotism during World War II. The bottle cap would be the central focus of Pepsi’s visual identity, eventually losing its skeuomorphic details to become a flat, three-color circle.

The Pepsi Globe, as it would later be called, appeared in various lockups over its 60-year history. Even with the removal of the scripted logo from its center, the white wave would endure as a reference to the curved underline from the original text.

The Pepsi Globe from 1973 (left) and the 1992 redesign (right).

In 2008, the Arnell Group was hired to redesign the Pepsi logo, which was rolled out the following year. It’s hard to describe the philosophy behind the new design. The brand document is quite a read. Apparently, the shape is derived from the Golden Ratio, and has its own gravitational pull. No joke.

Eventually the Pepsi marketing team came up with their own take, and called it a smiley face. Despite all the spin, the bottom line is: Does it work?

The Problem

There’s a fundamental flaw in this blog series. Of all the logos I’ve discussed, I’m just an outsider looking in. While I’ve studied the context behind these brands, I’m painfully ignorant of the objectives each re-brand was trying to achieve. I just know what I see. I know when something looks off. And sometimes, I have ideas of my own.

Maybe the new Pepsi Globe is visually perfect, rooted in design principles extending back across human history. But what about Pepsi’s history? What about the rising wave that works as an homage to the shape of their first logo? Call me old-fashioned, but I believe in internal consistency, and in building on the strongest elements of our past.

Of course, the most glaring problem with the newest Pepsi logo was masterfully pointed out by artist Lawrence Yang. Quite simply, the mark looks disturbingly similar to an obese man’s exposed midriff. It’s the kind of thing that you can’t unsee.

The main reason the new Pepsi logo frustrates me is because a modern take on the classic Globe is so obvious.

The Solution

The Pepsi logo is a perfect example of brand evolution. Each design takes an element of the previous version, and advances it. From the ascending script to the wave on the bottle cap, and so on.

To modernize the Globe, it seemed obvious to me to go back to the 1992 version and pinch the outer edges, giving it depth and movement without adding gradients.

After a few early attempts, I saw an interesting opportunity. I exaggerated the central wave, creating a shape reminiscent of yin and yang, with the red and blue shapes reflecting each other and creating a sense of fluidity.

Should I say anymore about balance and ratios? I could, but I’ll let the result speak for itself. And I’m not pitching this to Pepsi anyway. I’m just sharing my ideas with you.