Cognizant is a technology company focusing on business consulting, IT, and outsourcing services. The corporate headquarters is located in Teaneck, New Jersey, US, while the number of locations is more than 160. In 2020, the company employed over 288,500 people.
In spite of its simplicity, the Cognizant logo does a good job representing the company. It is highly legible and works well in various visual contexts, irrespective of its size.
What is Cognizant
Cognizant is an IT company ranked No 185 on the Fortune 500 list. It was also ranked No 533 on Forbes Global 2000 for 2020. On its list of World’s Best Employers 2020, Forbes placed it on the 19th line.
The brand was started in 1994 under the name of Dun & Bradstreet Satyam Software (DBSS). Back then, it was an internal technology unit within Dun & Bradstreet. It was focused on implementing major IT projects for its parent company.
Two years later, though, the DBSS started to actively work with other customers. At the same time, it was spun off as a separate company. That’s when the name Cognizant Corporation was adopted. The new brand was based in Chennai, India. The company has gone through restructuring and took part in notable mergers and acquisitions during its history before it attained its current status.
Turning to the old Cognizant logo, it might be interesting to explore the meaning behind it. Firstly, the logo consisted of two parts: the emblem and the wordmark.
The emblem combined two large letters “C” in light blue and grass green. The blue one was positioned vertically, while the green one was tilted backward. As a result, there was an illusion of rotation, which brought about a dynamic touch. The letters were placed inside a black circle.
The blue “C” stands for the “Customer,” while the green letter stands for the “Company.” The fact that the green letter is tilted symbolizes the company’s willingness to act according to the customers’ needs.
The name of the brand, which could be seen to the right of the emblem, was set in a light sans serif typeface. The elongated glyphs looked elegant enough, yet didn’t have anything special about them. The color of the text was the same as that of the circle.
In a blog post on the corporate website published on August 8, 2018, the company representative Ingrid Finnson explained the meaning behind the updated logo. She claimed that the main reason behind the introduction of the new logo was the desire to reflect the following characteristics of the brand: “digitally transformative, thereby, ensuring that our clients remain ahead of, or at par with their competition”.
Another important point was to emphasize the name of the brand, and thus highlight its meaning – “be knowledgeable and aware of something, specifically through experience.”
While the message, as described above, might seem complicated, the result of the redesign is minimalist and sleek. The logo is just the name of the brand in a simple sans serif typeface. The letters have a clean shape providing adequate legibility. You can scale the wordmark up or scale it down without risking the readability.
The basic proportions of the letters like “c,” “o,” “g,” “a” are based on a circle. So, this type isn’t elongated, like the previous one.
A three-dimensional shape added to the left of the name gives the logo a high-tech, futuristic look. This hexagon shape is created by a twisted ribbon that has a blue and turquoise gradient. All lowercase letters of a very dark blue color make up the name. It is printed using a font similar to Mazzard H Regular but with the horizontal bar on the “t” cut on the left. It has straight, clean lines that give the emblem a professional, serious appearance.
The wordmark might have looked utterly generic because of the typeface, but the addition of color provides a unique touch. Had the color been more unusual, the Cognizant logo would have been more memorable.