Pepsi Logo Redesign: A Before-and-After Evaluation
A practical look at Pepsi’s redesigned globe and wordmark: what changed, how to judge vector artwork, and what that means for using the files.
Contents
What this redesign is
The subject is Pepsi’s redesigned brand mark: the circular red-white-blue globe locked up with the Pepsi wordmark, compared with the previous generation of that same identity. Searches for a new Pepsi logo are asking which artwork is current, how it differs from the last globe, and what that difference means when you need real vector files rather than a picture of the mark.
This is a brand-identity change, not a drawing tool, a stock template, or a generic “vector logo” pack. The globe and the lettering are a paired system. A useful before-and-after evaluation treats them together: the disc, the white band or wave that divides the red and blue fields, and the custom Pepsi lettering that sits with that disc in approved lockups.
Before and after as artwork, not as a poster
Pepsi’s globe has been redrawn more than once in public use. For this evaluation, “before” means the immediately prior globe-and-wordmark system and “after” means the currently published Pepsi identity. Historic marks from earlier decades are background, not the comparison pair, unless you are specifically rebuilding a period piece.
On the older system, the white division through the globe reads as a soft, smile-like band, and the wordmark is a custom sans that sits apart from a more illustrative disc. On the newer system, the globe returns to a cleaner circular split, the white wave is a simpler dividing shape, and the wordmark is heavier and more tightly related to the disc. That is an editorial reading of the public marks. Exact geometry, point counts, and official color recipes are not documented in the materials behind this article.
A side-by-side poster can hide the only differences that matter in production. Vector work cares about closed paths, overlapping shapes, live type versus outlines, and whether the “logo” is drawing instructions or a flattened picture placed inside a vector wrapper.
What to inspect in each version
When you have both files, judge them as constructed artwork. Do not infer editable paths from a filename or an .ai, .eps, or .svg extension. Those containers can hold true outlines, embedded rasters, or a mix of both.
- Globe: confirm the outer circle and the red and blue fields are closed vector shapes, not a photograph or a traced bitmap with thousands of stray nodes.
- White band or wave: check whether it is a single path (or a small set of paths) that knocks out or sits above the fields, rather than pixels painted to look like a wave.
- Wordmark: determine whether the letters are outlined paths or live type. Outlines travel; live type needs the licensed font. A custom Pepsi wordmark is usually outlines in a brand master, but a downloaded file may substitute a lookalike face.
- Lockups: note horizontal versus stacked arrangements and whether globe and type are grouped with a defined relationship, or merely dropped near each other.
- Color: look for named spot or process builds and for one-color and reversed versions. A full-color RGB preview is not a production master.
- Scale test: enlarge the art. True vectors stay sharp. An embedded raster globe, or a raster preview exported as a “vector,” will pixelate or blur.
| Checkpoint | Older globe system | Current globe system | What it means in use |
| Disc construction | More modeled, smile-like white band | Simpler circular split and wave | Fewer illustrative nodes are easier to cut, embroider, and recode in one and two colors |
| Wordmark weight | Lighter custom sans, looser from the disc | Heavier lettering, tighter to the mark | Minimum size and clear space change; do not mix lettering from one era with the globe from the other |
| Likely file risk | Many public copies are flattened or auto-traced | Many public copies are still previews or unofficial redraws | A downloadable picture is not a master; ask for current authorized vectors |
| Color roles | Full-color globe as the default look | Full-color globe plus stronger black, white, and navy uses in public rollout | You still need official builds; guessing palettes from a screenshot is not specification |
The table describes how the two public identities tend to behave as marks. It is not a lab measurement of official files, and it is not a substitute for current Pepsi brand guidelines.
Vector masters, previews, and mixed files
Three different things get called a logo file. Vector artwork is a set of paths and fills you can scale, recolor (when permitted), and send to print, sign, and cut workflows. A raster preview is a PNG or JPEG picture of the mark; it is fine for a slide or a mock, and it fails as a master. A mixed file is a vector page that contains an embedded bitmap of the globe or wordmark. It may open in a vector app and still be unusable for vinyl, embroidery, or large-format print.
Auto-trace of a Pepsi screenshot produces something that looks like the globe at a glance and falls apart at the wave, the circle, and the lettering. That is a drawing of a picture, not Pepsi’s artwork. If you cannot select the red field, the blue field, the wave, and each letter as clean shapes, you do not have a production vector of either the old or the new mark.
Permission is separate from the file
Ability to download a Pepsi logo is not permission to modify it, recolor it, combine it with other brands, or use it on products, sites, or packaging. Pepsi and related word and design marks are trademarks. Fonts used to set or reconstruct the wordmark, if they are still live type, need their own license. Official use belongs in authorized brand channels and licensed asset packages.
For a legitimate job, request the current vector lockups—the globe, the wordmark, and the approved combinations—from the brand owner or an authorized portal. Match the era: do not pair the new lettering with the previous globe, or the previous smile-band disc with the new wordmark, unless a current guide explicitly allows a transitional exception.
What this article cannot confirm
No official Pepsi artwork, brand guide, color listing, or licensed file set was supplied for this evaluation. This article therefore cannot state spot or process values, minimum sizes, clear-space units, path structure, font names, or which formats Pepsi distributes to partners. Those details have to come from current authorized materials. Until you have those files, treat public images of the new mark as identification aids, not as editable masters.