The Design Evolution Of Your Favorite Soda Cans From 1948 Until Today

I live in Atlanta, which is home to Coca-Cola. A popular tourist attraction here is the ‘World of Coca-Cola,’ which is basically a museum dedicated to the soda we all love. Well, at least I love it. There’s nothing like a cold Coke in a bottle. Coke soda cans have evolved a lot over the years. Actually, all popular soda cans have gone through changes. The images below show you how those popular cans evolved into what they are today.

Most of the time when the changes are made, they’re subtle, so we don’t notice them much. But when you look at the timeline like this, the changes seem obvious. If you like soda, seeing the changes in these soda cans might even trigger memories from the past. I remember seeing my Dad with the Pepsi cans from the ’80s. I also like Dr. Pepper, and that Dr. Pepper can from 1956 looks so antique. I’d love to have one of those.

We’ve written a lot about the evolution of different brand logos over the years, but there is just something about these soda cans that hits closer to home than other logos. They mark special moments in time, and it’s fun to look at them this way.

The website that gets credit for researching all these soda cans and putting all this together is boldpost, a strategic branding and packaging design company. What I would like to know more about is why some of these changes were made, and what the psychology or branding strategies were that initiated the changes. Can you imagine being the designer who created the latest can for any of these brands? What an interesting claim to fame that would be. I hope you enjoy these as much as I did.