Pepsi

NT: “Looking at the history of Pepsi’s logo evolution, the brand’s newest design excites me. I was never a fan of the 2008-2022 logo. Shifting the stylizing of the Pepsi wordmark to lowercase rounded letters never made sense to me, as it was such a departure from years prior where the brand name was bold, all caps, and attention grabbing. To put it simply, the 2008-2022 logo always felt wrong, and as over a decade of time went by, it never grew to be right.

It’s easy to see that today’s redesign references stylistic qualities and characteristics of the earlier 1950-1997 logos, which I feel is an immediate step (back) in the right direction. One aspect I love is that the new logo becomes a complete unit again by integrating the wordmark with the globe icon. By joining the two emblems together, the logo can be maximized across various brand touchpoints to reignite its impact. The Pepsi ‘Pulse’ and animated graphics are also a nice, modernized way to make the static logo appear more dynamic. Electrifying the blues, brightening the red, and embracing black and white within the color palette brings new excitement to the brand’s classic scheme, too. Throughout the various application examples, it’s clear that the logo translates effectively across areas as small as a soda can to as large as a truck-side graphic. I’m not completely sold on the advertising graphics where the can silhouette is overlayed on top of food images, such as french fries and burgers, but I understand the ‘pairs-well-with’ concept. With so many possibilities and potential to expand the new branding, I wonder if Pepsi is thinking, “Why didn’t we do this before?!” The thought certainly crossed my mind!”

DN: “My first thought was the Pepsi redesign was…lackluster. I expected something nicer from such a big brand! It feels very generic, like it could be a private-label brand beverage, but if you told me it was a logo for a gas station I would also believe you.

As a millennial, I associate Pepsi with the asymmetrical icon some people viewed as a big belly (the red slice being a shirt and the blue slice jeans) so to see a new icon threw me off. However, I see how historically it calls back to earlier logomarks.

It’s definitely a cleaner and more impactful logo which works nicely on the packaging, but the rest of the branding falls flat for me.”

AA: “While the overall style of Pepsi’s refreshed identity feels modern with a retro flair, my initial reaction was that I didn’t like it. The black stroke around the circle feels harsh and slightly disconnected, but I appreciate that the logo is a nod to their identity from the late 80s/early 90s. Maintaining the red, white, and blue PEPSI color palette was a good choice given that it is classic and recognizable. Utilizing a flat, simple sans serif was also the way to go – I’m just not sure that this exact typeface was the correct choice. The angular elements reinforce the harsh feeling I was getting from the black stroke and I feel that it could be more approachable.

In some of the previous iterations, the wordmark was not centered in the logomark, creating an odd overall shape. Choosing the circle as the holding shape with the wordmark in the center draws your eye to it and lets the identity feel sharper and more focused & cohesive. Even though I’m not loving everything about the new design, I think it is an improvement from where they were!”

Designers’ Ratings

Inspired by Under Consideration