Mailchimp has been known as a provider of products connected with marketing automation and email marketing. The history of the company started in 2001. The original co-founders were Ben Chestnut and Mark Armstrong, while Dan Kurzius joined later.
While the Mailchimp logo doesn’t explicitly tell you what industry the company is in, it does convey the playful mood that is an essential part of the brand identity.
What is Mailchimp
Mailchimp is a marketing automation platform and email marketing service. In other words, it’s an all-in-one marketing solution, typically used by small businesses. The brand belongs to Rocket Science Group.
The original Mailchimp logo showcased the name of the brand in a cursive type. The letters looked casual. They weren’t properly aligned, and even the tilt slightly varied from one letter to another.
Such a script conveyed playfulness, relaxed and optimistic tone. There was nothing serious about it, nothing that could be related to hard work. This perfectly fitted the “chimp” part of the name – after all, while monkeys can jump from tree to tree very fast, they are not exactly the hard-working type. The shape of the letters is yet another reference to the monkey theme – at least the “C” can be undoubtedly interpreted as the tail.
The next version might look the same, at first glance, but there are several modifications. The letters have been aligned, which makes the name of the brand better legible. All the glyphs look a tad different. This is especially obvious in the case of the “M.” The “C” has got a more pronounced curve at the top, the “a” has a longer top stroke, etc. What’s even more important is that the two parts of the name have a clearer border as there is no link between the “l” and the “c.”
We can’t but mention the company’s mascot, Freddie. Back then, it was given in full color. The color of the chimp was inspired by the way these creatures look in real life, although calling it realistic would be an exaggeration. To introduce the “mail” theme, the authors of the emblem used a blue cap similar to the one a postman would wear. There was even a large “M” on the cap.
One of the main drawbacks of the Mailchimp logo used in 2013–2018 was that the wordmark and mascot had “hierarchy issues and never appeared together,” according to the company’s website. This created a problem as the mascot wasn’t enough to recognize the brand, while the wordmark wasn’t enough to convey the brand’s playful spirit.
The new version resolved this issue. First, the designers slightly simplified the Freddie icon. The color vanished, as did some of the smaller details. As a result, the icon now doesn’t totally steal the limelight when placed next to the wordmark, not to mention that it now works at any size. Also, Freddie is giving a wink, which makes the design more interactive and eye-catching.
The wordmark has been customized to fit the lines and curves of the emblem positioned next to it. The brand has left the original handwritten style in the past and introduced a better-legible typeface. Placing the emblem next to the wordmark is no more a problem – quite the opposite, they are obligatory parts of the full lockup.
The fact that the “C” is lowercased is highly meaningful. As the company explained, they now do much more than what can be described by the word “mail.” To reflect the more diverse range of services available, they decided to use “Mailchimp” as a single word which stands for more than its component parts.
The appearance of the yellow color in the updated version enhanced the playful, friendly, and happy mood. it was used for the circular background behind the monkey face. The name was printed using a different font and was enlarged in comparison to the monkey icon. The font was now closer to Soleil Bold.
While the default color scheme of the logo is the combination of black and white, the company mentions Cavendish Yellow as its brand color. For instance, it is widely used on the website. The advantage of the black-and-white emblem is that it can be placed over a wide range of backgrounds.