7 Up branding (1975–1980)
In the mid 1970s, 7 Up (a.k.a. 7UP or Seven-Up) was one of the fastest-growing soft drink brands. Much of that success may be due to their extraordinary marketing campaigns featuring art from big names like John Alcorn, Charles White, III and Milton Glaser and the ambitious “United We Stand” series of cans featuring 50 different designs.
Thomas Miller at Morton Goldsholl designed the packaging for this period with the logo set in Futura Dot, a Photo-Lettering typeface that has been digitized by Harold Lohner as Fortuna Dot.
In a 2000 interview, Miller says his work at Morton Goldsholl was often a simple visual representation of a concept. His Motorola logo (still in use today) represented an oscillograph, while the 7 Up logo and packaging translated soda bubbles into dots.
7 Up letterhead with response to a request for the 1977 “Uncola Poster Offer” featuring designs from prominent artists like John Alcorn, Pat Dypold, Kim Whitesides, Milton Glaser, and Charles White, III.
Flat can label from the “United We Stand” promotion celebrating the US Bicentennial. 50 different cans were released featuring the states. When stacked, the pattern on the backside of the cans created an image of Uncle Sam (see below).
7UP ad from 1977.
A 7Up can from 1976. Some sources say this logo was used on cans from 1972–76, others dispute that.
Ad in July 1979 issue of Seventeen magazine. Clearface Gothic with an altered ‘R’ inspired by the ‘K’.
9 Comments on “7 Up branding (1975–1980)”
For what it’s worth, that’s the pre-ITC version of Bookman, the post-metal one that appeared in the sixties with all the crazy swashes.
Thank you, Mark, always appreciated! I fixed the attribution.
I have two photo albums called “Uncola Art” on my Facebook photo album page, if you’re interested. They cover the years 1968–72 and 1973–77.
Hi Paul, sounds interesting! Unfortunately, these albums are not publicly accessible.
I love the packaging design created with Futura Dot—so fun and evocative of its era.
[translated from German by moderator]
Looks wonderful: here. But from I see in the test drive it seems that many of the points are extremely out of round and deformed. How come? That’s why I don’t dare to buy the font. Take a look: www.fontbros.com/families/f… Is there a better version and where can I get it?
Curd, I can only comment on Fortuna Dot v1.0 from 2001. In that version, the dots aren’t round, but rather squarish, see the attached sample.
The current version is v1.5, which “includes an expanded character set, improved spacing and kerning”, and comes in 3 styles; Dot, Lighter, and Darker. You could write to Harold Lohner and ask for a pdf sample.
I’m not aware of a different digitization of Futura Dot.
Just a heads up, searching through newspaper archives, this logo started appearing as far back as the spring of 1975 and lasted until the total brand overhaul in early 1980.
Thank you, Ryan! I’ve adjusted the date in the title to “1975–1980” (was “1976–79”).