Well well, another spy has shared secrets about Arnell’s “process” as it pertains to the Pepsi logo. Our source tells us that although this final PDF was not circulated during his/her time with the agency, parts of it were hung up for all to see — and more importantly, the logo came before the strategy Arnell used to sell it to Pepsi.
“…everyone who was there at the time saw it as well, because it was pinned to the wall. It doesn’t surprise me to see this. There’s a culture of God-ifying Peter Arnell nobody dares question him, so there’s a bubble of acceptance, and the man himself is pretty eccentric.”
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Our Spy goes on:
“(the logo design) nothing to do with any of that bullshit on the PDF, that was just a way to keep the client entertained (like we, viewers of this PDF were) and make them feel like their money (1.2B) was worth something. Like other designers at Arnell were brainstorming new marks for pepsi, this was one in hundreds. As a matter of fact, a quick one that was thrown in the pile to create volume (designers bullshit as well). Peter Arnell sees it and says: That’s it! It’s a smiling face. It was never intended as anything other than a generic mark, but what peter arnell did was to give it his POV and build from it. Hence, pearls that go unquestioned like the material on this PDF. Think of the 3 thousand pepsi workers laid off before Arnell spends $1.2B on exercises like this.”
