Red Hat Software was registered in North Carolina, the USA in 1995 as a result of cooperation between an entrepreneur Bob Yong and an IT specialist Marc Ewing. Yong was dealing with computer supplies by catalogue and noticed a growing demand for the Linux system provided by Ewing. The two professionals decided to join forces and founded a successful company providing open-source software. In 2018 it was acquired by IBM.
Meaning and history
1995 – 1996
The first logo of the company appeared at the outset of the company’s life, in 1995. The emblem depicted a rose-red top hat, considerably stretched vertically. Below it, there was the company’s name “Red Hat Software” written in a thin, horizontally compressed font. The colour of the wordmark was black.
1996 – 1997
1997 – 1999
A new version was developed in 1997. This time, it was a silhouette of a man’s head made in white with a red hat decorated with a black ribbon. This was placed in a circle inside a rectangle filled with circular stripes in indigo and lapis blue tones. To the right of the emblem, inside the rectangle, there was the brand name “red hat” in red colour and very thin and tiny font.
1999 – 2019
A modified version of this logo was introduced in 1999. The background colour was changed to scarlet red and the wordmark was made in white colour and in a bigger, thicker and much more readable font.
2019 – Today
The redesign of 2019 brought a new image to the Red Hat visual identity. The logo is composed of two bright and bold parts, with the graphical emblem on the left, and a black title case logotype on the right. The emblem depicts a classic fedora hat in red, with a black ribbon on it, which is perfectly balanced by the color and thickness of the lines in the inscription. The “Red Hat” lettering is set in a custom sans-serif typeface with diagonal cuts of the “E” and “T” tails.
What is Red Hat?
Red Hat is the name of open-source software, which was released at the beginning of the 1990s. Today the software is owned by IBM and offers its users various applications for different operating systems. The Ted Hat applications are mainly specialized in business and organization.