The logo of the US gaming hardware manufacturing company Razer depicts three snakes in black and acid green.
Razer was founded in San Francisco back in 1998. The founders were American Robert Krakoff and Singaporean Min-Liang Tan, who later became CEO. It is noteworthy that initially, the founders wanted to name their company Razor (such an idea was suggested by Krakoff, who remembered how he once cut himself with a razor), but by mistake, Min-Liangentered it into the register as Razer. However, the creators though it sounded and looked cooler and left the name unchanged.
There is hardly a gamer in the world who has never heard of Razer. Various devices with the famous green logo are a welcome gift for all video game lovers. The three-headed snake has long been synonymous with high quality and professionalism.
Razer’s first product was the Boomslang gaming mouse, named after the South African snake. It was a real industry breakthrough that took two years to develop. Since then Razer has been constantly delighting its fans with innovative gadgets and computers. Today the company is compared to Apple.
What is Razer?
Razer is an international company, established in 1998 and engaged in the production of computer and gaming hardware, consumer electronics, and digital distribution. The company has two main offices, in Singapore and California.
The snake emblem has close links to the name of the company and its first product. So, to explain the Razer logo, we should first understand why the company was named “Razer” and why its first product was “Boomslang.” The answer can be found in one of the interviews with the company co-founder Min-Liang Tan.
In 1986, the logo was replaced with the brand’s name written in acidic green letters. The font resembled graffiti or computer graphics. Moreover, the shapes were broken with the diagonal cuts present across the length of the word.
In the interview, Min-Liang Tan mentioned that to begin with, the name “Razer” would have been “Razor” if he hadn’t disabled the spellcheck while preparing the documents for the firm’s incorporation. The problem was that the co-founders were sure the word “Razor” was spelled with “e,” so they just submitted the documents with the incorrect word.
Now, another question arises: why choose the word “razor” at all? What did it represent?
Min-Liang Tan explained that the other co-founder, Robert Krakoff, once had an accident with a razor blade, which was for some reason very memorable. We can only imagine this story as he didn’t go into much detail about it in the interview.
Now, as Min-Liang Tan put it, the company’s first product “looked like it had Logitech mice for lunch,” so they decided to name it the Razer Boomslang (Boomslang is a highly venomous snake from sub-Saharan Africa). While it is rather unusual to name computer mice after snakes, the co-founders considered this a fun way to say their mice were different from a regular computer mouse.
So, the reason for putting snakes on the logo was just to refer to the company’s signature product, the mouse. The bright neon colors were inspired by the Boomslang snake, too.
Min-Liang Tan didn’t explain the reason why they chose three snakes, he just said it was “a story for another day.” Upon comparing the logo with the biohazard symbol, we can assume that possibly the author of the Razer logo was inspired by its circular harmony.
The unique style of the typeface is provided by the “A,” which has lost its horizontal bar, and the even more unusual “E,” which has lost its vertical bar. Apart from this, the type is pretty common.
Acid green and black are the colors of the Boomslang snake, which is one of the reasons why they had been chosen for the logo. Also, it’s a pretty bright and memorable combination in itself.