.png)
“Call it Coca-Cola”
—Frank Mason Robinson
In 1886 Atlanta, pharmacist John Pemberton created Coca-Cola.
His bookkeeper, Frank Mason Robinson, named the drink and designed its flowing script logo.
Robinson's logo and name for Coca-Cola captured the moment when the South was reinventing itself and a new beverage industry was taking shape.
Frank Mason Robinson was hired as Coca-Cola’s first employee and bookkeeper.
However, Robinson would soon go beyond the numbers.
He watched customers' faces light up when they tasted the drink at Jacobs' Pharmacy, where Pemberton first sold Coca-Cola for 5 cents a glass.
While Pemberton mixed ingredients in his kettle—experimenting with coca leaves, kola nuts, and other flavorings—Robinson designed the business strategy.
He suggested the name "Coca-Cola" and crafted its distinctive script logo in flowing Spencerian handwriting, the same style he used for business letters.
Robinson transformed Pemberton's medicine into a refreshing drink for everyone.
He wrote the first advertisements, handed out the first coupons, and painted the first storefront signs.
Frank Robinson got the idea for Coca-Cola by combining its two main ingredients: extract from coca leaves and caffeine from kola nuts.
He deliberately chose matching 'C' sounds to make the name stick in customers' minds.
At the time, American shopkeepers' shelves were filling with new products, and a memorable name could mean the difference between success and failure.
The name worked.
And it’s been iconic to the brand ever since.
.webp)
In the late 1800s, American businesses still relied on handwritten letters and documents for daily operations.
The Spencerian script dominated business correspondence, taught in schools across the country.
Its creator, Platt Rogers Spencer, designed the script with precise rules: slanting letters, controlled loops, and sweeping curves that allowed writers to move their pens smoothly across the page.
Frank Robinson, was a very skilled writer in Spencerian script.
Using Spencerian script to create the Coca-Cola logo was a logical choice in an era before modern graphic design.
His design choice linked the new beverage to the familiar, trusted look of established businesses.
The logo's precise strokes and flowing lines gave Coca-Cola an instant visual identity.
Frank Robinson gave Coca-Cola its red and white colors in 1886.
The red (Pantone 484) blazes from store shelves and billboards, while crisp white letters cut through the brightness.
This pairing worked like a stop sign—commanding attention in any language.
Walk into a store in Tokyo, Cairo, or São Paulo, and that red will still catch your eye, triggering an instant connection to Coca-Cola.
.webp)
Most businesses in 1895 still advertised simply—a newspaper notice might read "Johnson's Dry Goods—Best Prices in Town" or "Fresh Bread Daily at Miller's Bakery."
They counted on word-of-mouth to sell their services.
Robinson gave Coca-Cola a different approach.
He put Coca-Cola clocks in drugstores, where customers checked the time while waiting for prescriptions.
He distributed calendars showing the Coca-Cola logo in homes, offices, and workshops.
He placed ceramic urns branded with Coca-Cola's distinctive script on store counters across Atlanta.
To get people to try Coca-Cola, Robinson distributed paper tickets good for one free glass at any soda fountain.
A skeptical customer risked nothing by trading the ticket for a cold drink on a hot day.
It was a creative marketing strategy for its time.
.webp)
Frank Robinson also crafted Coca-Cola's first slogan: "Delicious and Refreshing" for Coca-Cola.
His slogan stood alongside other direct product claims from the era: Campbell Soup's "M'm! M'm! Good!" (1898) promised taste, while Wrigley's "The Flavor Lasts" (1892) guaranteed longevity.
Robinson's five words helped transform Coca-Cola from a local Atlanta drink into a national brand, proving that precise language could shape buying habits.
His slogan appealed to straightforward advertising that defined late 19th-century American marketing.
.webp)
Frank Mason Robinson worked at Coca-Cola from 1886 to 1906.
When Asa Candler bought Coca-Cola from Dr. Pemberton in 1888, he kept Robinson as both treasurer and secretary.
In these roles, Robinson handled contracts, managed bottling agreements, and oversaw the company's financial growth from a small Atlanta business into a regional beverage distributor.
He was a jack of all trades.
.webp)
Frank Mason Robinson died on July 8, 1923, in Atlanta.
As a businessman and community leader, he shaped both commerce and civic life through specific actions.
At First Christian Church of Atlanta, Robinson taught a weekly Bible class of 200 students.
He translated his religious principles into tangible support by donating money and resources to the Atlanta Orphan Asylum and the Atlanta Free Kindergarten Association
In business, Robinson created the distinctive Coca-Cola logo in Spencerian script and developed the company's first print advertisements in the Atlanta Journal.
These marketing innovations helped transform Coca-Cola from a local soda fountain drink selling 9 glasses per day in 1886 to a national brand selling 8,000 gallons of syrup by 1892.
The logo Robinson designed in 1886 remains essentially unchanged on billions of Coca-Cola bottles and cans produced today.
.png){kind=logo}
.webp)
.webp)
.webp)