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This document is insane. It feels like everyone involved in the production of it is so utterly disconnected from reality. That first page “Trajectory of innova

This document is insane. It feels like everyone involved in the production of it is so utterly disconnected from reality. That first page “Trajectory of innovation” with the pseudograph is an utterly hilarious distillation of the madness yet to come. The deeper I read into the document the worse it got. Golden ratio, Patterns being found where there were none to begin with (“perimeter oscillations”), Pepsi Energy fields, Pepsi Universe. This reads like a pamphlet buckling under the excited and emphatic pointing of a disheveled man with a tinfoil hat on saying “SEE, SEE THE TRUTH IS ALL IN HERE!” What learning can be taken from this? Is it a case of the train of thought being very poorly explained? Or is it a case of self absorbed people surrounded by “yes-men” basking in the glory of their own brilliance?

Lammy 5y ago
> What learning can be taken from this? That being stupidly outrageous is a great marketing strategy considering we're still all discussing a branding document from 2009. The gravitational pull of Pepsi is real! :)
- TchoBeer 5y ago
  Holy shit, I think you're right.
- antihipocrat 5y ago
  I doubt the C-suit bought into the gravity argument. However there is a smile like quality to the new design, as is pointed out in the design docs, and this is probably what resonated with the executives during the pitch. I also wonder about whether this document is actually the real one as presented to the company. For example am I the only one that sees the hint of a 'P' shape in the new whitespace between the red and blue colored elements? Wouldn't this have been a more convincing feature of the design to highlight than the pages about DNA, gravity and special relativity?
munificent 5y ago
> What learning can be taken from this? If a giant corporation offers up millions of dollars to have a design agency blow smoke up their ass, they will find an agency willing to generate as much smoke as needed to separate them from their cash.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
Rastonbury 5y ago
The pepsi universe and magnetic fields parts are utter bs but there's some stuff in there that I feel matters, the shelf angles and golden ratio basis. Rebranding and changing such an iconic logo would go all the way to the top, quite doubt such BS would fly with execs. I'm not a designer and I don't work at pepsi so who knows though. This seems to have been created by a design company Arnell group for Pepsi. I wonder how much Pepsi paid them
- nradov 5y ago
  Do we have any data to show a correlation between golden ratio basis in branding and higher sales?
Barrin92 5y ago
>What learning can be taken from this? Is it a case of the train of thought being very poorly explained? My first question would be if the rebranding was a success? I generally think people are too dismissive of seemingly insane approaches to work. If this guy or girl needed to channel ancient Indian traditions, golden ratios and numerology to get inspired and make the best pepsi logo they could make, who are we to judge In particular for creative work, there's certainly a lot of good stuff that's born out of sheer insanity, maybe bullshitting too.
- jfengel 5y ago
  In my own art form (theater), there's a fair bit of effort spent being deliberately stupid in order to get us out of our existing patterns. A lot of famously idiotic acting exercises aren't really about the work you're doing, but about breaking your habits and being un-self-conscious about it. The whole theory is that you can't think your way into a natural performance, unless what you want is exactly the same as the actor's own habits. There are things that make you instantly recognizeable even at a distance: how you walk, how much of a gap you place at the end of a sentence, how high you pitch your voice. A 3D model has the kind of control they need to walk in character, stand in character, raise their eyebrows in character, etc., but you don't. You have to first break your existing habits, then start from blank. It's not the only way to act; you can get great performances without that. But it's a valid tool that works for some people. I don't particularly like that new Pepsi logo, but it's still in use. They use it all over the place. So it sounds like it was moderately successful. It didn't become truly iconic (the way the Coca-Cola or Disney logos are), but that kind of success is rare.

Lammy 5y ago

> What learning can be taken from this? That being stupidly outrageous is a great marketing strategy considering we're still all discussing a branding document from 2009. The gravitational pull of Pepsi is real! :)

TchoBeer 5y ago
Holy shit, I think you're right.
antihipocrat 5y ago
I doubt the C-suit bought into the gravity argument. However there is a smile like quality to the new design, as is pointed out in the design docs, and this is probably what resonated with the executives during the pitch. I also wonder about whether this document is actually the real one as presented to the company. For example am I the only one that sees the hint of a 'P' shape in the new whitespace between the red and blue colored elements? Wouldn't this have been a more convincing feature of the design to highlight than the pages about DNA, gravity and special relativity?

munificent 5y ago

> What learning can be taken from this? If a giant corporation offers up millions of dollars to have a design agency blow smoke up their ass, they will find an agency willing to generate as much smoke as needed to separate them from their cash.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

Rastonbury 5y ago

The pepsi universe and magnetic fields parts are utter bs but there's some stuff in there that I feel matters, the shelf angles and golden ratio basis. Rebranding and changing such an iconic logo would go all the way to the top, quite doubt such BS would fly with execs. I'm not a designer and I don't work at pepsi so who knows though. This seems to have been created by a design company Arnell group for Pepsi. I wonder how much Pepsi paid them

nradov 5y ago
Do we have any data to show a correlation between golden ratio basis in branding and higher sales?

Barrin92 5y ago

>What learning can be taken from this? Is it a case of the train of thought being very poorly explained? My first question would be if the rebranding was a success? I generally think people are too dismissive of seemingly insane approaches to work. If this guy or girl needed to channel ancient Indian traditions, golden ratios and numerology to get inspired and make the best pepsi logo they could make, who are we to judge In particular for creative work, there's certainly a lot of good stuff that's born out of sheer insanity, maybe bullshitting too.

jfengel 5y ago
In my own art form (theater), there's a fair bit of effort spent being deliberately stupid in order to get us out of our existing patterns. A lot of famously idiotic acting exercises aren't really about the work you're doing, but about breaking your habits and being un-self-conscious about it. The whole theory is that you can't think your way into a natural performance, unless what you want is exactly the same as the actor's own habits. There are things that make you instantly recognizeable even at a distance: how you walk, how much of a gap you place at the end of a sentence, how high you pitch your voice. A 3D model has the kind of control they need to walk in character, stand in character, raise their eyebrows in character, etc., but you don't. You have to first break your existing habits, then start from blank. It's not the only way to act; you can get great performances without that. But it's a valid tool that works for some people. I don't particularly like that new Pepsi logo, but it's still in use. They use it all over the place. So it sounds like it was moderately successful. It didn't become truly iconic (the way the Coca-Cola or Disney logos are), but that kind of success is rare.