Established by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, in cooperation with Jim McKelvey, in 2009, Square is a company offering financial transaction and digital payment services. A few days ago, the company announced it would rename itself to Block. Aiming to “create room for further growth”, the rebranding also includes a new visual identity.
The company reported its upcoming rebranding in its Twitter account, saying “Not to go all meta on you… but we’re going to!”. While it was, for sure, a playful nod to the recent renaming of Facebook to Meta, the renewing of Square itself is likely connected with the fact that Dorsey lately resigned as CEO of Twitter, probably having great plans for his other invention.
As Block, besides financial brands, runs some other businesses in the entertainment and cryptocurrency sectors, the new name has to reflect the company’s new positioning as an overarching ecosystem. The word block, the company states, has several meanings like neighborhood block or building block, and the new umbrella brand can be visualized as a block of different enterprises.
And this idea was shown in a video presenting the Block brands including Square Reader, Cash App, and TBD. In it, the emblems of the products are stacked into a cube which, while twisting, changes into an integrated logo. Most importantly, the animated emblem, presented in a video, will be the primary logo of Block, being displayed on websites and in mobile apps, while a static version will be provided for printed materials.
Unlike the Square logo designed in black and white, the Block emblem is a vivid mixture of colors. In addition, the blocky style is supported by a laconic wordmark executed in a sans-serif font.
