The Coca-Cola logo has become even more famous thanks to Christmas advertising, so the emblem is associated with a holiday, a good mood, and the expectation of a miracle. Red letters look like bright ribbons, and their color symbolizes love, the fullness of life, and beauty.
Coca Cola: Brand overview
Founded: | May 8, 1886 |
Founder: | The Coca-Cola Company |
Headquarters: | Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. |
Website: | coca-cola.com |
Meaning and History
All the manufacturer’s logos bear the inscription “Coca Cola.” This name was invented by accountant Frank Robinson, based on the original product’s main ingredients: coca bush leaves and cola nuts. John Pemberton entrusted him with branding issues. Mastering the art of beautiful writing, Robinson rendered the words Coca Cola in neat curly letters. The trademark he proposed is still in use, and time has not affected either the font or the proportions.
What is Coca-Cola?
Coca-Cola is the flagship brand of American corporation The Coca-Cola Company. It represents non-alcoholic drinks, which originally contained cocaine and caffeine, distributed in pharmacies as medicine. Now the recipe for carbonated water is a trade secret. The main producer concentrates using a secret formula and then sells it to bottlers.
1886 – 1887
In the first year after the launch of production, the brand did not have an individual style. Its emblem looked standard: strict black and the white inscription “Coca-Cola.” with serifs.
1887 – 1941
In 1887, a calligraphic version of the logo appeared. Frank Robinson worked on it, immortalizing his handwriting on the labels of the famous soft drink.
1890 – 1891
At the turn of the millennium, designers decided to experiment. They used a stylized font with lots of curls. The first letters “C” twisted like a spiral. Despite the originality, this design turned out to be unpopular and lasted only a year.
1891 – 1941
In 1891, a revised version of the 1887 logo was introduced. The lettering was red; the handwritten font was thin and accurate. The words are in a rectangular frame.
1941 – today
The new redesign brings historical changes. In 1941, the famous emblem appeared, which is still used today. The developers removed the red border and made the letters italic. This option looks more compact compared to the previous ones because the word “Coca” shortens the distance between “C” and “oca.”
1987 – 2009
In 1987, the soft drink manufacturer adopted a new brand name. The designers made minor changes to the typography: reduced the slope of the letters, increased the width of the lines, but kept the original proportions. The revised version was found on labels until 2003. Also, it was used from 2006 to 2009 as part of The Coke Side of Life campaign.
2003 – today
In 2003, the logo, introduced 60 years ago, returned. The recognizable Coca Cola mark, which has survived to this day, has become the brand’s main distinctive symbol.
Font and Colors
The brand name is written in large letters on cans and bottles of Coca Cola. This is the very famous emblem invented by accountant Frank Robinson back in 1887. Modern designers have slightly tweaked the font, changed the slant and color. But the edits did not touch upon the general concept: the curly lettering in calligraphic handwriting, as before, occupies the central place on the logo.
The developers paid special attention to typography because the brand name does not contain graphic images – it consists only of text elements. The font imitates handwriting, but the first “C” letters are distant from the rest and decorated with long decorative curls. This is a prime example of Spencer’s handwriting, which was created in the 1840s and was used in the United States for business correspondence before the invention of typewriters.
The style of writing presented on the emblem of 1890-1891 is radically different from it. At that time, the company’s name looked atmospheric: the letters had many large dots and unusual curls, creating the feeling of a fairy forest. But the owners of the company decided to return to the usual Spencerian Script, abandoning such experiments forever.
The color scheme is also not very diverse. Until 1891, only black and white emblems were in use. Then Coca Cola became associated with bright shades of red, and black became a thing of the past. White is still used as the background, although the palette can change depending on the visual context. For example, variants with a white lettering and a red backing are known. This color combination expresses excellence, purity, optimism, and youth, all the values of the brand that it aspires to.
Coca Cola color codes
Red | Hex color: | #f40009 |
---|---|---|
RGB: | 244 0 9 | |
CMYK: | 0 100 96 4 | |
Pantone: | PMS 172 C |
What does the Coca-Cola logo represent?
The logo represents the brand’s name and the vibrant mood that its drinks give off. And it is also a tribute to the past because the stylized lettering dates back to 1887, when Frank Robinson, an accountant, learned calligraphy and created a trademark for Coca Cola.
What makes the Coke logo unique?
The Coca-Cola logo has a non-standard Spencerian font, which makes it unique. The handwritten cursive with loops and elongated lines has become a recognizable brand feature. And the combination of two capital “C’s” as part of short four-letter words makes the lettering an effective advertising tool because the most important thing in marketing is simplicity and creativity. Red, of course, also matters.
Why did Coca-Cola use red in its logo?
The Coca-Cola Company made red its trademark color the century before last when its drinks were kept in barrels and sold in pharmacies as medicine. It used red containers so that no one would mistake them for regular barrels, which contained taxed alcohol, as opposed to non-alcoholic products.