Cardinal Health, Inc. focuses on distributing pharmaceuticals, as well as manufacturing and distributing medical and laboratory products. In addition to this, the company offers performance and data solutions for medical institutions. It was established in 1971.
The Cardinal Health logo is rather clean and it catches your attention. It is perfectly legible, dynamic, and meaningful. And yet, despite all the strengths, there is something sinister and disturbing about it. This hardly helps to attract customers.
Like the majority of other commercial logos, this one can be broken down into two basic parts: the wordmark and the emblem.
The wordmark is far from remarkable, but it does its job well. We can see a classic, highly legible sans serif typeface with pretty regular proportions. Maybe they tend to be just a bit narrower than average (note, for instance, the “H”). That’s because the name of the brand is pretty long, so it had to be slightly squeezed to make it easier to grasp at a single glance.
As the two words forming the name of the company are written without space in between, there is a need to create another type of visual border. The designers who worked on the project separated the words with the typeface – the word “Cardinal” is bold, while “Health” is light. This also helps to direct the viewer’s attention to the strategically more important part (“Cardinal”), while the explanatory text “Health” doesn’t overshadow it.
The emblem is the real visual center of the design. Firstly, it is red. So, when placed next to the dark wordmark, it inevitably captures the attention.
There is also some motion in the emblem. It somewhat resembles the iconic Nike swoosh. Yet, due to the fact that the line is “broken” in the middle (a combination of two separate strokes rather than a single element), the dynamic effect is substantially diluted.
What is Cardinal Health
Headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, Cardinal Health is a health care services company. It markets pharmaceuticals and medical products, serving over 100,000 locations in over 40 countries.
Red is the color of the blood and, as such, has a link with the health theme. Also, this particular shade, known as cardinal, is a literal representation of the name of the brand.
The designers have gone even further. They made the emblem slightly reminiscent of a bird in flight, to reflect the fact that “cardinal” is not only the name of the color but also the name of the bird.
In a nutshell, we can say that the Cardinal Health logo is meaningful and evocative and that it creates a link with the name of the brand.
That said, doesn’t the emblem look like scratches made with fingers covered in blood? You can imagine a victim who is too weak to write the name of the murderer but still makes an attempt to do it. Yet, he can only leave the traces of his nails and fingers covered with blood.
This is something you can’t unsee. Whatever the purpose of the designers was, it is obvious that these associations can’t appeal to an average person with a healthy psyche.
In terms of the palette, the Cardinal Health logo is the reflection of the company’s name. The only color, except black and white, is the shade of red known as cardinal.
The simple type is beneficial here as it doesn’t steal the limelight from the emblem, which is the most unique part of the design.