7UP’S FIRST “MAJOR” BRAND OVERHAUL IN OVER SEVEN YEARS IS PUNCHY, BUT SIMPLE

The new identity aims to “better capture the brand essence”, while more minimal packaging reflects the growing trend of brands flattening and simplifying graphics.

7Up has undertaken its first refresh in over seven years, which includes a new international brand positioning and visual identity. The overhaul has been carried out by the PepsiCo Design and Innovation Team with the aim of getting closer to the “essence” of 7Up, in keeping with its international platform”, a release explains.

Since its launch in 1929, 7UP’s logo has been delightfully inconsistent. Whereas some mainstay brands focus on glacially paced evolutions and the occasional overhaul, 7UP seems to have long embraced change as its design ethos.

Over the years, that has resulted in Thomas Miller’s brilliant Futura Dot packaging, billboards by Milton Glaser, and the once ubiquitous ’90s “Cool Spot” mascot logo, to name just a few of the brand’s design dalliances.

The design moves towards a punchier, though more minimal execution; it will be visible on packaging for 7Up and 7Up Zero starting March 2023. 7Up’s well-known green palette has been maintained, though the brand says it has added “zesty citrus tones”. Meanwhile, the logo has been extended to appear three-dimensional with “high-contrast lines” which creates the illusion of the 7 moving upwards. This slanted presentation echoes across assets and is in line with the brand’s "UPliftment" positioning. The illustrated icons of citrus fruit that typically appear on packaging have been flattened to appear as abstracted shapes.

Across assets, there are added geometric elements, and a greater sense of energy and dynamism. Though the wider changes are minimal, reflecting a recent wave of rebrands utilising flattened logos and sticking to long-standing graphic elements, such as the rebrand Everton F.C., which maintained Everton’s beloved tower icon, and an overhaul for Branston Pickle.

According to Mauro Porcini, SVP, and chief design officer of PepsiCo, “Our new visual identity for 7Up was inspired first and foremost by the brand’s creation of moments of UPliftment throughout its history. The PepsiCo Design and Innovation Team created a bright and confident visual identity system that will echo across cultures, regions, and languages.”

While the brand has always oscillated between modern and retro, the refresh balances both.

When PepsiCo last overhauled the mark more than seven years ago, it introduced a look that paid typographic homage to the soda’s earliest days (after inventor Charles Leiper Grigg jettisoned his original brand name, “Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda,” which notably contained . . . lithium).

That refresh landed in design annuals, and the latest iteration builds on its strongest elements, retaining the red dot “up” placement while adding a definitive sense of motion and energy, thanks to the designers pushing the drop shadow of the ‘7’ to the seeming extreme.

The palette and overall composition, meanwhile, go all-in on the lemon and lime to great effect, yet somehow feel zen compared to its corporate cousin Mountain Dew’s sense of jagged chaos. Our favourite detail, though: The fruit slices on the top edge of the shadow, which playfully transition from lemons to limes.

Starting in March, PepsiCo’s latest iteration is set to roll out to Bangladesh, China, Egypt, India, Ireland, Latin America, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the U.K., and all European markets—which perhaps makes an effective design system all the more critical when covering so much ground across so many languages and cultures.

The redesign naturally comes with a brand story, too—a release noted that the concept “adds moments of ‘UPliftment’ to the everyday. 7UP is on a mission to offer light relief from the mundanities of daily life by bringing moments of UPliftment, positivity and surprise.”

But ultimately, it doesn’t need it. Sometimes, a refreshing refresh is good enough.

Adapted from copy by Liz Gorny and Fast Company