You don’t have to like Coca-Cola – the drink, the company or what it stands for – to regard its branding as a design classic. Now synonymous with sweet effervescence the familiar script and curvy bottle have undergone several transformations, shaping the very essence of the brand.
On May 8 1886, pharmacist Dr John S Pemberton nailed the drink’s formula – which originally contained coca leaves – but it was his business partner Frank Mason Robinson, responsible for the financial side of their business, who came up with the name; believing that “the two Cs would look well in advertising”.
Robinson later created the script logo – quite when is unclear, but it was first used in 1877. Drawn in flowing handwriting, he experimented with an elaborate, Spencerian script, a form of penmanship common to accountants of the time. According to design historian Jane Matthews, “The early logo captured the essence of the beverage’s allure – a sense of sophistication and indulgence.”
Coca-Cola originally came in straight-sided bottles but in November 1915 these took on a contoured look – the result of a company-wide drive to define a look that would protect the business from imitators. Derived from the shape of a cocoa bean, elongated with distinct ribs, the bottle was nicknamed the “hobbleskirt” as it supposedly resembled a skirt style popular in the early 1910s. Later described by the famed industrial designer Raymond Loewy as the “perfect liquid wrapper”, it has become as a design classic on a par with the logo itself.
The power of using that logo in red was noted even in the early days, and that gradually evolved into the use of a white script on a red background, starting with a circular logo that began appearing in the early 1930s. By the mid-1950s, with advertising embracing a post-war modernisation wave, red-and-white came even further to the fore, aligning with the brand’s cheerful and vibrant image.
These colours made the logo’s visual impact even more powerful – red and white are simple and appeal across age groups because they suggest motion, energy and passion. Branding expert Sarah Walker has said: “The strategic colour choice solidified the logo’s association with happiness and celebration.”
Another piece in the branding jigsaw was introduced in 1969 when design studio Lippincott & Margulies were employed to strengthen impressions of four key elements of the Coca-Cola brand – the Coca-Cola script, the ‘standard red’ colour, the shape of the bottle and the shortcut word ‘Coke’, first introduced in advertising in 1945. Not only were uses of all these elements codified to remove inconsistency, but a fifth was added – ‘the Bottle Contour Curve’, later known as the ‘ribbon’, a graphic device derived from the shape of Coke’s iconic bottle.
As branding consultant Mark Roberts aptly puts it, the story of Coca-Cola’s branding “is one of reinvention and resilience, a testament to the power of iconic design in capturing hearts across generations.”