Hutch is a Sri Lankan telecommunication service provider and mobile operator. By 2019, it was the country’s third-largest mobile operator boasting 5.3 million subscribers and a market share of 27%.
The company was established in 2004. Hutchinson Telecommunications went through at least three different emblems. In spite of all the modifications, the Hutch logo has always been consistent in its palette (orange as the corporate color) and structure (the name of the brand has always dominated the design).
This version already has both the distinctive features listed above. The word “Hutch” in black is paired with an orange emblem consisting of three elements. All the elements have an identical shape. They look like parts of some swirling mechanism. They show motion very well making the logo dynamic.
Also, due to the gradient, they look light, so they don’t add much weight to the solid black letters. The tagline widely used by the brand in that era was: “Wherever you go, the network follows.” The orange swirling shapes on the logo represented the network, so the emblem was in fact a visual metaphor representing the network that follows your steps.
The wordmark was set in a comparatively light sans serif typeface. Despite its minimalist style, it had an elegant touch due to the varying widths of the strokes. While the initial was capitalized, its size was almost the same as that of the other letters.
This emblem was the same as the one used as the Hutch emblem in India until 2005.
The “network” symbol was gone leaving only the name of the brand. While the type looked pretty much the same, there was a couple of notable modifications. The “H” grew smaller and was now of almost the same height as the other glyphs. The letters became slightly wider and bolder, which was probably necessary to ensure they are legible in spite of the less contrastive palette (the white letters on the orange background).
This version was introduced not long before the company completed the acquisition of Etisalat, a mobile telecommunications network in Sri Lanka. The typeface on the Hutch logo looks by far simpler and heavier than its predecessor.