Pepsi’s New Logo: Before-and-After Evaluation

What Pepsi’s current logo is

Pepsi’s current logo is the identity PepsiCo introduced in March 2023: a flat, face-on circular globe with a blue upper field, a red lower field, and a white wave between them, locked up with a heavy black all-caps PEPSI wordmark. That system replaced the 2008 “smile” globe and was rolled through packaging and brand applications during 2023 and 2024. In ordinary use the globe sits to the left of the wordmark; stacked, globe-only, and large wraparound-globe treatments also appear, especially on cans.

The core colors in public presentations are Pepsi blue, Pepsi red, white, and black. Exact spot, process, and digital values belong in current brand guidelines and are not confirmed here. Circulating PNG, JPG, and web previews of this mark are raster pictures of the logo. They are not the same thing as editable vector artwork, and a file named .svg, .ai, or .eps is not by itself proof that the globe and type exist as native paths.

Before and after: 2008 smile globe versus the 2023 mark

The practical question for anyone preparing logo files is which identity is in force, and how the two marks differ when you have to draw, scale, or deliver them. The comparison below is a design reading of the published marks. It is not a laboratory measurement and not a report from opened official artwork.

Aspect	2008 smile globe	2023 current logo
Geometry	Tilted, more dimensional disc; white band is asymmetric and often read as a smile	Upright circular disc; white band is more even and badge-like
Wordmark	Lighter or white type in many applications, sitting in a more dimensional system	Bold black all-caps PEPSI, usually beside or below the globe
Color and finish	Blue, red, and white, with stronger modeled shading in many executions	Flatter blue, white, and red globe plus black type
Small-size behavior	Fine smile curve and shading can collapse when the mark is tiny	Simpler disc and heavy type hold as a graphic more readily
Typical vector construction	More curves, highlights, or effects to suggest a sphere	Closer to classic badge construction: circle, band, outlined type
Correct use window	Period work for roughly 2008 through early 2023	Current brand, packaging, and digital work from the 2023 rollout onward

For live commercial and digital brand work, the 2023 logo is the one to use. For advertising, packaging recreations, or editorial that must match 2008–2022 material, the smile globe is the correct mark. Work set in the 1990s needs still-earlier globes, including lockups that placed the wordmark in the white band. Do not mix those systems: a 2023 wordmark on a 2008 disc, or a smile globe on current packaging, is the wrong identity.

How the current mark developed, and how it is constructed

The 2008 globe was developed by Arnell Group and stayed in market until the 2023 refresh. It pushed the Pepsi disc toward a three-dimensional, slightly rotated sphere and a white band that reads as a grin. PepsiCo presented the 2023 work as a return toward the company’s late-twentieth-century circular globe, simplified for digital screens and for packaging. Mauro Porcini, then PepsiCo’s chief design officer, was publicly associated with that refresh. A single outside studio is not named as author of record in the same consistent way Arnell Group is for 2008; treat that as the public credit picture, not a full production roster.

As a visual reading, not a quoted design brief: the 2023 globe behaves as a graphic badge more than as a rendered sphere. The white band has a more even stroke, modeled highlights are largely gone, and the type sits as a separate bold word rather than riding inside the wave. That is why the new lockup looks closer to a 1990s disc than to the 2008 smile, even though the wordmark itself is a contemporary heavy sans, not a period-revival script.

As a vector-construction principle drawn from that published geometry, not from an inspected file: a production globe of this kind is typically a circle, or a circular clip of two color fields, plus a white band bounded by two curves. That structure is simpler to keep clean than the 2008 disc’s foreshortening and highlights. Official files may still use extra points, expanded strokes, or outlined type. Those internals cannot be verified from photographs of cans or from web PNGs.

Suitability for vector artwork, editing, and delivery

Path quality, point economy, compound-path structure, live versus outlined type, and whether a download is a true vector or a raster wrapped in a vector file all depend on the actual artwork. Those properties were not inspected for this evaluation. Suitability below is therefore split in two: what the published design implies for production, and what remains unknown until official files are opened in a vector editor.

• The circular globe maps to ordinary vector primitives, which is a better starting point for clean paths than a foreshortened sphere.
• Flat color fields reduce the need for meshes, raster highlights, or transparency tricks that the 2008 dimensional globe often invited.
• The heavy wordmark stays readable in small published digital uses, which is the usual reason brands flatten a mark.
• A short core palette (blue, red, white, black) is easier to specify across spot, process, and screen work once official values are in hand.

• Pepsi, the globe, and the wordmark are trademarks. Permission to download a preview is not permission to modify, apply, or resell the art, the letterforms, or the brand.
• The wordmark is custom. Without the official font, matching type means using outlined artwork from the brand, not substituting a lookalike sans.
• Unofficial “SVG logo” packs are often auto-traces: the wave becomes ragged, the disc is no longer a true circle, and a placed PNG may sit inside the file.
• Older smile-globe vectors, even high-quality ones, are the wrong identity for current brand delivery.

The 2023 artwork suits in-house brand teams, packaging vendors, and licensed partners who have been given official files. It does not suit anyone treating a marketplace download as editable source. Designers who only have a raster preview should request the current vector master rather than tracing the globe; a trace can look acceptable at one size and fail as soon as the mark is scaled, recolored, or cut for print.

Which version to prepare, and how to confirm it is a real vector

Choose the 2023 globe and black wordmark when the job represents Pepsi as it is now. Choose the 2008 smile globe only when the job must match that period. If the brief is “Pepsi’s new logo” for a current layout, icon, deck, or package, the 2023 system is the correct alternative; the older dimensional globe is not a stylistic option inside the current identity.

When a file arrives, separate three cases. Native vector: the globe and type are paths or live type you can select, recolor, and scale. Embedded raster: a PNG or similar sits in an image frame inside an .ai, .eps, or .svg wrapper and will pixelate. Raster preview: a .png or .jpg that never was a vector. Only the first case is suitable for logo delivery. Filename and extension do not decide which case you have.

Verify the file in a vector editor before it goes to production. At high zoom a true circle stays smooth and the white band is a small number of curves; a trace shows point chatter along the wave. Confirm the wordmark is live type with the supplied font, or a clean outline, not a bitmap. Confirm blue, red, white, and black are solid fills. If any of those checks fail, the asset is not ready, regardless of how closely the preview resembles Pepsi’s current logo.