7up is the original lemon & lime soft drink from America. There were some prior and after this one was introduced, but this one popularized the formula that most similar non-alcoholic beverages use even now. Since the 90s, they’ve been a subsidiary to Dr. Pepper.

Meaning and History

The drink was first introduced in 1929 as a ‘lithium-containing’ soft drink. Basically, it was marketed as a simple means to improve one’s mood. The name ‘7up’, however, wasn’t adopted until 1936. The name likely refers to lithium that was still one of the major ingredients. Its atomic mass is 7, after all.

1936 – 1943

The first logo was usually a black-and-white brand name. It actually resembled a cartoonish episode, seeing how they took great care designing and drawing this emblem. They gave it a lot of volume and depth, which resulted in it looking very 3D for the time.

The ‘7’ in front had small wings closer to the top, and it actually looked as if the entire structure was flying down. The ‘up’ part was two capital yet small letters positioned on a shelf of sorts just behind and to the side of the main element.

1943 – 1972

The emblem adopted second was the first truly colored logo. It had a red square sandwiched between two rather thin black lines. The red space was also filled with many white bubbles, seeing how it contained some carbonated water now.

Lastly, the name part was still white with black shadows, except the letters were now lowercase and there were no additional elements, such as wings or a shelf.

1972 – 1980

By 1972, it was decided to simplify the design somewhat. What it meant for the logo is that only a red square and the white lettering now remained. They got rid of everything else.

1980 – 1987

In 1980, the lettering was rearranged. Notably, they rotated the whole thing slightly counter-clockwise and emboldened the letters. The lowercase became uppercase, and they generally became thicker. Between the digit and the ‘U’, they also put a little red circle surrounded by thin white. This was meant to symbolize a bubble.

1987 – 1993

In 1987, they basically just took the name part away from the square confines and colored the letters dark green. The bubble remained red, and everything on the logo now had a thin white outline.

1993 – 2003

The logo was still skewed after the 1987 redesign, and in 1993 they fixed it. The positioning of the letters didn’t change, except they straightened out. The name was now white with some grey outline, instead of previous green.

1995 – 2000

This one was mostly used as a label. They took the 1987 logo, removed the outlines, darkened the palette and tilted everything to the right, a lot. There was also a peculiar ‘The Uncola’ label below the main writing, which was probably supposed to signify their superiority to other soft drinks.

2000 – 2010

Another labeling material, this time they made the letters and the digit silver with some shading, while also adding thick white outline and some thin green line further away. The circle became a ball (they basically gave it volume), and there was also a yellow & green ‘100% natural flavors’ ribbon below.

2003 – 2007

In 2003, they decided to go 3D again and put the existing 1993 logo onto a green splash. Mind you, the splash wasn’t parallel to the screen – it had some perspective to it. Because of it, they also added perspective to the name element.

2007 – 2010

The 2007 logo was a bit different. It was now two overlapping circles: one yellow, the other – green. Over them, the designers put a bit number ‘7’ with the dark green outlines around it, as well as a tiny white ‘up’ in the middle of a red circle nestling near the big digit.

2010 – 2015

The 2010 logo was very much like the 1987 variant, except smoother, softer and white instead of green. The outline, comically, was now green instead of white. The red circle in-between also became a red ball this time.

2015 – today

The logo introduced in 2015 featured largely the same big ‘7’, except with more curves and with more depth. The white ‘up’ was once more inside the red circle (a circle once more).

Emblem and Symbol

There are actually a lot more minor emblems used for subtypes of the original 7up. For instance, the 7up Gold uses the same emblems, except with the golden circle in the middle. 7up Plus had its own array of logo, often featuring a lot of color pink. There were many variations, you get the gist.