ICQ is the name of one of the first online messengers, which was created in 1996. Today the program is available for almost all the possible operating systems and has millions of users across the globe. The name “ICQ” was derived from “I seek you”, as its aim was to connect people from different corners of the world.
ICQ has been associated with the green flower for years, but the iconic emblem was only designed for the messenger in 1998, and for the first two years after its release the product has been using a completely different emblem.
The very first logo for the ICQ was composed of a stylized wordmark, consisting of three letters, separated by two solid black dots. The lettering in a custom typeface looked elegant and playful and had a distinct gray shadow, which made it look airier and light. A bit later the company adopted an additional emblem — a three-dimensional red flower, with a yellow middle and one of the petals slightly darker than others.
The iconic green flower emblem was introduced in 1998. It was a flower with seven green and one red petal and a yellow center, where each element featured a thick black outline. The emblem could be complemented by a rounded sans-serif lettering in the lowercase or even outlines in an oval frame.
In 2014 the flower gets a thinner black outline and gradient shades of the petals, which make it look three-dimensional. The composition remains the same, and even the black lowercase “ICQ” lettering keeps the same rounded sans-serif typeface.
The redesign of 2015 removed the black outline and adds some space between the petals. The contours of the image have been refined and cleaned and the “ICQ” wordmark was enlarged.
2020 brought another major redesign to the famous messenger’s visual identity. The green flower is now composed of only five petals, placed on a solid black circle. No yellow or red details are on the emblem anymore. As for the wordmark, it has also been removed, so the logo, designed in 2020 is the most minimalist and progressive among all the ICQ designs.