Pepsi Globe
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The Pepsi Globe is the name of the logo for Pepsi, called as such because of the swirling "red, white, & blue" design in a sphere-like shape. It is considered one of the world's most recognizable corporate trademarks. Until the 2008 redesign, the Pepsi Globe resembled the Taegeuk symbol widely used in South Korea.
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[edit] History
The Pepsi Globe's roots date back to the 1940s, when the United States was in World War II. To show support of the war, Pepsi unveiled a new bottle cap that featured the Pepsi script surrounded by swirling red and blue colors on a white background. Since Pepsi was recognizable with its script logo in the same manner as its main rival Coca-Cola at the time, the cap logo was simply meant as a show of U.S. patriotism as opposed to a marketing scheme.
The cap logo, however, quickly caught on, and by the end of the war in 1945 became Pepsi's primary logo. With Pepsi gaining ground on Coke in the 1950s, the logo became so recognizable that by the time the Pepsi logo was redesigned in 1962, the swirling "red, white, & blue" bottle cap that would eventually evolve into the Pepsi Globe would remain while the script was retired in favor of a more-modern "Pepsi" typeface.
The logo was updated again in 1973, when the typeface was made smaller as to fit in the white section of the Pepsi Globe. Meanwhile, the bottle cap itself was dropped and 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. A vertical variation of this would also have the red bar coming in from the bottom and the light-blue bar either coming in from the top or would be omitted altogether.
In 1991, the logo was updated again, and for the first time in the half-century existence of the Pepsi Globe, no typeface of any kind would be in the white section of the Pepsi Globe on a regular Pepsi product. Instead, the red bar would be lengthened slightly (the light-blue bar was dropped altogether) and the Pepsi script was moved on top of the Pepsi Globe and red bar.
In 1998, the red bar was dropped altogether as Pepsi adopted blue packaging (replacing white), while enlarging the Pepsi Globe and making it three-dimensional. This was the first official use of the logo as the "Pepsi Globe". The design was refined in 2003 when the typeface was updated and the Pepsi Globe became more realistic-looking. This version of the logo essentially remained the same in 2007 when Pepsi redesigned the packaging once more to show different backgrounds on each can, though the color remained blue.
In 2009, cans started to have a background color (font color for Diet version) based on the type of version. Caffeine Free Pepsi is reverting back to its gold background, cherry to red and the light blue Diet Pepsi is returning to silver. But the regular Pepsi introduced in 1898 continues to acquire the blue background.
[edit] "New" Pepsi Globe
In October 2008, Pepsi announced they would be redesigning their logo and re-branding many of their products. Pepsi, Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Max use all lower-case fonts for name brands, Mountain Dew has been renamed "Mtn Dew," and Diet Pepsi Max has been re-branded as Pepsi Max, because the original 1993 version is no longer available in the United States. The new imagery has started to be used. The new lower-case font used on Pepsi's products are reminiscent of the font used in Diet Pepsi's logo from the 1960s to the mid-1980s.
With the new packaging saw the Pepsi Globe get its biggest redesign since 1991 when the "Pepsi" wording was removed from the white area of the logo. The white area became a series of "smiles", with the central white band arcing at different angles depending on the product. Regular Pepsi has a medium-sized "smile", while Diet Pepsi has a small "smile". Pepsi Max's variant is the most different, using a large "smile" and also uses black in the bottom half of the globe as opposed to the more standard royal blue.
As of July 2009, however, Pepsi ONE and Pepsi Wild Cherry still use the 2003 Pepsi design.
[edit] Diet Pepsi
Diet Pepsi was using 1960s-style script with light-blue waves below the script on a white background from the 70s to 80s.
When the product was reformulated with NutraSweet in 1984, Diet Pepsi received a jagged, multi-layered version of the Pepsi Globe. With the "Diet Pepsi" typeface positioned above the globe, it marked the first time no text was in the white section of the Pepsi Globe on any Pepsi product. The text being absent from the Pepsi Globe would carry over with regular Pepsi in 1991.
Diet Pepsi has used the Pepsi Globe since, though it became more standardized in 1991, along with Pepsi's other products.
