Pepsi is undoubtedly one of the biggest drinks known to pretty much everyone in the entire world. Partnered with record-breaking shows and events, you have most likely seen their logo plastered somewhere. But it’s not just the fact you see the logo everywhere which makes the company so appealing to the customer.

The logo has gone through a lot of changes throughout the history of Pepsi, and it’s not only just an image on the front of a can but it is the company’s brand identity that has come a long way, and even still may not be considered the “perfect logo”. After all, it has changed 10 times in over 100 years.

The early days of Pepsi

In 1898 is when Pepsi was a small business. The logo was very complicated and although it doesn’t look very appealing, it was a start. This logo was designed by a pharmacy owner called Caleb Bradham. He invented this brand to sell his so-called “Brad’s Drink”. 

This drink included 2 main ingredients – pepsin and cola nuts. This is where Bradham came up with his first logo, It was the word “Pepsi Cola” in red font with the letters P and C linked.

Then in 1906, the logo went through some changes. They made the font thicker but kept the same concept of the flicks and links on all of the letters. They then decided to add that logo onto a bottlecap in an effort to make the company logo more drink-orientated.

This was a big feat saying that the only design tools they had access to at the time were simple printing machines and basic illustration gear. In a time where there were no computers available, this logo was an outlier among all the other professional logos which were professionally designed at the time.

Although this logo could be created in the present at a high resolution with a simple logo generator, logo creation took a lot of creativity and effort to create a logo of that caliber with limited resources. This logo was the first logo where the iconic red/blue/white logo was introduced.

This logo did not last long though as in 1962 they decided to do a redesign on the logo to make the same bottle cap two-dimensional with the name “PEPSI” printed in black, bold font.

Pepsi then decided to switch ideas from what they had and instead of using a bottle cap as a background, they switched to the blue/white/red logo alone with the lettering in the middle. This change was likely made due to the boom of television and if there was one thing Pepsi was good at, it was marketing.

This logo then changed once more, this time professional logo designers separated the logo from the text and made it look like a comet with a red line. This was so the logo looked suitable on a can.

Then from 1990, they changed the logo design once again. This time it was the iconic circle design on a blue background and the word “PEPSI” on top of the logo. Arguably, this logo suited its time period and it kind of served as a template for the next logo which was the same image and text but it was made “realistic” with shadows, reflections, and depth.

Finally, we have the current design. This logo design has become very simple and has been reduced to just the “Pepsi circle”. This is likely due to the popularity of social media and the logo very easily fits in as a profile picture for a social media platform.

The Hidden Meanings of the Pepsi Logo Design

In the modern world, there will always be conspiracies on logos and why they are designed a certain way. This is also the case with Pepsi.

isded:

In the Pepsi logo from 1962 onwards, it was discovered that if you turn the Pepsi logo upside down it spelled the word “isded” which sounds very similar to “isdead.” This news spread quickly and people began making internet memes to mock this.

“the hidden message”:

In 2008 Pepsi slightly tweaked its logo, which was very similar to the old one which looked like a globe. But there was more to it. It claimed that the new logo represents Earth’s magnetic field, feng shui, Pythagoras, geodynamics, renaissance, and more.