Although the Dr Pepper logo has undergone several modifications, it has preserved its basic structure. It has been built around the wordmark since 1885 and has featured red since the 1920s.
The red line, coming through all 15 redesigns of the Dr. Pepper logo is, of course, its iconic cherry color, which was adopted with the first emblem, introduced in 1885, and never left the brand, is a color of the lettering, or framing, or background.
What is Dr. Pepper?
Dr. Pepper is an American brand of soft drink, which was established in 1885. Today the dark red cans of the drink with a secret recipe are sold in the supermarkets all over the globe. The range of Dr. Pepper includes several types of drinks, but all of them have a recognizable unique flavor.
The very first logo of Dr. Pepper appeared at the end of the 19th century and was composed of a white script wordmark with the elongated tail of the last letter, underlining the inscription from right to the left. The logotype was placed on a cherry-red background, and this color combination became inevitable for the brand.
Another Dr. Pepper logo, used in the 1890s — 1900s, featured a minimalistic yellow and blue color palette, with the detailed drawing in blue lines set against a plain yellow background and accompanied by an arched bold lettering in a fancy and sophisticated font, where some bars were flared, and the others — elongated.
The redesign of 1906 has refined the original version of the Dr. Pepper logo, redrawing it in a black and white color palette and removing the bold wavy underline from the composition. Now it was just the designer wordmark with the “TradeMark” tagline in all capitals.
The contours of the logo were refined in 1911. Some additional lettering was also added to the main wordmark, and the color palette had been switched to black and white for the next two decades. It was a clean and bold emblem, with the composition based on the previous version.
The version, used by Dr Pepper in the 1920s got its contours refined, with the characters redrawn in fuller shapes. The tagline in the “tail” of the “R” was changed to “Good For Life!”, set in white capital characters in a geometric sans-serif typeface.
The redesign of 1926 has cleaned up the contours of all elements on the Dr Pepper logo, and switched the color of the inscription to white, placing it on a dark solid background. The “Good For Life” tagline was also cleaned up and emboldened, looking more stable and confident now.
With the redesign of 1930, the contours of the Dr. Pepper characters got even more distinctive and strong, with the composition remaining absolutely the same, but the overall badge looks more professional and modern. The tagline got even golden and is better readable now.
The redesign of 1941 modernized the contours of the scrip logotype, making them neater and more geometric, with bold black outlines around the white inscription placed on a stylized brick background executed in gradient red and black. This version of the logo stayed with the brand for another twenty years.
The first redesign of the logo happened only seventy years after, in 1954, and the new logo was just a more delicate interpretation of the previous version. The white lettering changed its typeface to an italicized sans-serif and got placed inside a wide horizontal rectangle in cherry-red. The cherry line was placed on a white background and sometimes was complemented by a “Drink” lowercase lettering above it.
In 1958 the colors of the logo were switched between each other and now the lettering became cherry, and the background — white. The sans-serif typeface was replaced by a fancy and playful serif with rounded ends of the letters and thin elongated serifs. Two letters “P” in the middle were placed above the line, and evokes a sense of dancing and jumping, making the inscription fun and friendly.
The logo from 1958 came back in 1960, but with a white inscription on a cherry background. All the other details were kept untouched.
The iconic cherry color became redder in 1960, and the white lettering was now placed on a red horizontally oriented oval. The logo looked like a Royal wax seal and reflected the quality of the product and confidence of the brand.
The cherry shade came back in 1967, and the oval badge was now complemented by a sleek silver outline. The letters of the wordmark have been refined and cleaned, looking more professional and elegant.
The new typeface for the Dr. Pepper logo was introduced in 1971 and boasted a bold italicized serif font with an extra thick line and delicate serifs. The white wordmark was placed inside a solid red oval.
The redesign of 1984 combined two shades of red — the scarlet and the cherry. A white custom inscription was diagonally placed on a cherry background and underlined with a thick red line, coming from the bottom of the badge upright. In the upper left corner of the emblem, there was a red peak with the horizontally placed wordmark set. The same logo was also used in monochrome, but mainly for official documents.
The red oval was removed from the emblem in 1990, and the main element was now placed in the center of the rectangle, being enlarged. Now the logo looked cooler and more stylish thane ever before, making the branded products stand out on the shelves of the supermarkets all over the globe.
The redesign of 1997 changed the typeface of the wordmark to a more distinct one and added a delicate black shadow in order to create some volume and layered structure. The red underline was redrawn in a blurred and uneven manner and for complemented by several red spots all over the cherry background. The logo looked modern and dynamic.
This emblem still can be seen on the Dr. Pepper bottles in some countries, including England.
The new concept was introduced in 2005. It is a white diagonal wordmark set in two levels on a cherry-red oval with three smooth arched lines creating a frame around it. The tail of the first “P” is elongated and curved, repeating the contours of the oval frame. The “EST. 1885” date mark in white is added to the inscription replacing the red underline.
The colors of the previous version got switched in 2015, and the logo we all can see today is composed of a cherry-red wordmark enclosed in an oval frame, consisting of an arched line on the right and an elongated “P”-tail on the left. The logotype is placed on a white background and looks professional and powerful, keeping all the traditional elements of the Dr. Pepper visual identity, but showing them in a new way.
In the 1950s the full stop was removed from the Dr Pepper logo, while the curvy script was replaced by a bold italic sans serif font.
The 1956 version experimented with a new color (yellow), but the designers got rid of it as soon as in 1958. Throughout the following decades, there was some playing with the typeface and the shades of red.
In 2006, the company adopted a symbol resembling a seal (or an enlarged bubble). The white letters appeared against the dark red background. In 2015, the colors were reversed, due to which the “bubble” effect became less noticeable.
The custom typeface looks unique due to the somewhat unusual curves, especially in the letters “r” and “d”. The most recognizable letter is probably the first one, with its distinctive upper part forming an oval around the wordmark.
Since 1920s, red has been the king for the Dr Pepper logo. And yet, it has not been the same shade of red. The company has experimented quite a bit, until it came to the rather discreet and dark red the wordmark features now.
Did Dr. Pepper change their logo?
Dr. Pepper is the legendary brand with a long and intense history, and the visual identity of the brand is its essential part. The logo of the famous soda drink was changed more than a dozen times throughout the years, with the latest redesign held in 2015.
Why is there a 10 2 and 4 on Dr Pepper?
All three digits stand not for a price or percentage, but for time: 10 AM, 2 PM and 4 PM are the times when the brand recommended people drink its beverage for an energy lift, or to drink it “When Hungry, Thirsty or Tired”. It was also a thing for people with the low sugar level. This was in the 1920s, when the company was running the “Good For Life” campaign.
What is the original Dr Pepper logo?
The very first Dr Pepper logo was introduced in 1885, and featured a bright red script lettering with the tagline set in white uppercase along the bold slightly curved tail of the letter “R”, underlining the wordmark from right to left.
What color is Dr Pepper bottle?
The bottle itself it transparent, but both the logo and the drink feature a dark and warm cherry-brown color, which brilliantly represents the taste of the beverage and creates a very warming and cozy feeling by only looking at it.