One of the best-known financial services companies in the US, Robinhood Markets, Inc. is based in Menlo Park, California. The company’s main focus is providing commission-free trades of stocks and exchange-traded funds through a mobile app. The company was established in the spring of 2013. The mobile app was launched two years later. By 2021, the company already boasted 13 million users.
The most distinctive parts of the company’s brand identity are the green color and the feather, an allusion to the legendary bycocket worn by Robin Hood.
What is Robinhood
Robinhood Markets, Inc. provides trades of stocks and exchange-traded funds with no commission. It was registered in 2013. The list of the main sources of income for the brand includes the interest obtained for the users’ cash balances, reselling order information, and margin lending.
In the original logo, the shade of green was rather calm, close to light teal. The name of the brand was set in an unpretentious sans. All the letters were lowercased. Even the initial “R” wasn’t capitalized – apparently, so as not to steal the limelight from the feather.
The generic typeface didn’t make the logo recognizable in any way. But it wasn’t necessary as it was the feather that made the design unique. It was positioned to the left of the wordmark and was at least twice as high as the majority of the glyphs (the “o” or “r,” for instance).
The new Robinhood logo was developed by the brand’s in-house design teams and Collins, an independent strategy, design, and communications company (its San Francisco, CA, office, to be precise).
According to Collins’ press-release, the aim of the redesign was to convey the idea that finance is “engaging and understandable.” Of course, this included a complete overhaul of the brand identity, not just a logo update.
As for the logo, in fact, no much changed here. One of the reasons was that the feather already had some visual equity – it was widely recognized as the company’s emblem. Also, it was meaningful as it helped to create a link with the hero after which the company was named. It wasn’t just the matter of the name – the reference to the legendary heroic outlaw helps to understand the core values and mission of the company. As the brand’s website claims, they want to “provide everyone with access to the financial markets, not just the wealthy.”
While the feather remained, it was positioned to the left in the new logo. Also, it became smaller- an attempt to make it look like “lighter-weight feather” instead of the “comically-large writing quill” seen in the previous design, as Collins explains. Anyway, this move brought more weight to the wordmark as compared to the emblem.
In the wordmark, the initial was now capitalized. The typeface remained almost the same. It just got slightly bolder, which provided better legibility.
The shade of green has grown by far more vivid than the one on the previous version. What’s more important, it is closer to the color of the outfit and/or bycock, in which Robin Hood is typically depicted.
The typography is based on the font named Maison, by Milieu Grotesque. In addition to the logo, it is used across the app, web, and marketing. Interestingly enough, the brand opted for an older version of this typeface and commissioned pivotal updates. One of them was the tailor-made “R” for the wordmark. The customized type was named Capsule Sans.
The logo can be presented in two versions. It either features the white wordmark and feather over the green background or, conversely, the green wordmark and feather over the white background. This approach provides some flexibility and gives designers the freedom to use the mark in various visual contexts.