Logo design to stand the test of time
Posted July 17th, 2009.
If you follow logo design you’ve probably seen more than 1 blog about Pepsi’s latest branding ( 11 rebrands so far… ) receiving a lot of flak, while Coca-Cola manages to regularly produce something fresh time and time again while maintaining their one and only logotype.
The below time line shows Pepsi’s 11 re-brands over the last century, while excluding a few tweaks, Coca-Cola’s logotype has served them for over 100 years.
Personally i think 1991 was about perfect, and Pepsi should have stopped there. Below are their classic cans which anyone would recognize, while their latest rebrand is quite a swing and will take some time to sink in.
Will your logo stand the test of time?
I doubt I’ll be here in 100 years to see if my personal logo design still works, but I’m confident it will serve me to the end. How about yours?
P.S. You might have seen a similar time-line floating around with out the earliest Coca Cola logotypes, this wasn’t quite correct. Thanks to Brand New for the compiling all the facts.
Coke is classic, it is like Ford – hasn’t needed to change.
It would be interesting to see how many of those classic brands have stayed with the same logo.
Great post. I like some of the Pepsi logos, but Coke needs nothing else.
I landed here while scrolling through Jim Morris’ twitter followers and was struck by YOUR logo.
I want a logo designed and am struggling with what I want. I love the new bold colors that I see now on websites,but also want something that will stand the test of time like Coke.
You have a fun and interesting blog here and clearly practice what you preach because I LOVE your logo – that’s what got me here.
So – good on ya’.
Esti
Caitlin, that’s an interesting thought regarding how long other brands have stayed with their current logo design. Sounds like an idea for my next blog post.
Esti, thank you for your praise. If you’re interested in having a logo designed you’re welcome to submit your enquiry to me, I’d love to work with you on your project.
I’m with you Andrew, 1991 was about perfect for Pepsi i think, the early ones tried to include too much information, the later ones are trying to be more like a three dimensional addition to a video game or movie, i think anyways…
I love to see the history of Logos, thanks for the nice post!
Ewan, thanks for your feedback.
Hesham, there’s an idea for some future posts, I’ll see if I can dig up some information on the development of some major brands.
Never liked any of the Pepsi logos post the script — of my youth, btw. I always see reference to yin-yang symbol and/or the korean flag.
Jmundstuk,
I too am not a fan of any of the Pepsi logos in particular, I do think the 1991 cans themselves though are hard to beat.
What are Pepsi doing?!
Their first few logos look like blatant rip offs, then when they finally made something their own they can’t stop changing it, and now this horribly boring one.
Not to mention the rest of their brands. The Tropicana flop and changing Mountain Dew to “Mtn DEW”. What the hell?
Jackee,
Tropicana was a disaster wasn’t it. It only lasted a few weeks from memory before the branding was recalled?
I have only just stumbled upon this post. I love to read history of logo re-designs and well done for getting the data together to write this. I too like the 1991 can but suspect it’s more to do with nostalgia than anything else!
The thing is that Pepsi is such a massive successful brand that whether they change their logo or not, they’ll still have huge sales.
Coca-Cola has to be one of the huge classics of logo design though. It is lovely that a logo designed in the early 1900′s still stands today.
My logo is in the process of being design at the moment, here’s hoping it lasts this long.