The abbreviation “TSMC” stands for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Limited. The organization based in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan, is the world’s most valuable semiconductor company and is also among the nation’s biggest companies. It was established by Morris Chang, who led it for the following thirty-one years. In 1993, it was listed on the stock exchange of its country, while its listing on the New York Stock Exchange took place four years later.
The TSMC logo has remained unchanged for much of its history. There are several benefits to this approach. For instance, customers and business partners don’t get confused when they see a new logo, which they can interpret as a logo of a different company. Also, loyalty to the same visual brand identity means that the company is proud of its heritage.
That said, the design looks slightly dated now. In the era of modern minimalist logos, it appears very cluttered. The palette is also generic and doesn’t give you that “pioneer” feel that the company could want to convey, being the first in its field.
What is TSMC
TSMC describes itself as the first dedicated semiconductor foundry in the world. It is known as the pioneer of the pure-play foundry business model. It was established in 1987.
The logo can be broken down into three main elements. At the forefront, there is the name of the brand given in bright red. The letters are lowercase, like in many modern logos. Yet, the old-fashioned serif typeface doesn’t let us call this wordmark truly modern. It doesn’t say “innovation.” While the way the lines go from thick to thin makes the glyphs elegant, it also contributes to the “heritage” or “traditional” themes, which works against the brand’s image as an innovator.
Behind the wordmark, there is an emblem inspired by the company’s core products, semiconductors. The emblem features a circle filled with a rectangular grid. Some of the rectangles are black, but the majority of them are just blank. While the emblem is a great representation of the company’s specialization, it creates too much visual noise because there are multiple small elements.
The lower part of the circle has been cut off. Instead, there is a long horizontal line in red. It adds some stability to the logo. Otherwise, the circle would have looked as though as it was going to roll. This is especially true if you take into consideration the wordmark in the middle, which also added instability. The red line below, however, solves this problem, although it is another element that keeps the logo from looking sleek and minimalist.
Technically speaking, the shade of red used in the TSMC logo is vivid and energetic, it captures your attention. That’s why it’s used in logo design so often by companies from all industries, from fast-food chains to energy giants.
However, here, it is paired with black in such a way that the black dilutes the energy of red. Together, these two colors look somewhat too noisy. We can only speculate whether it is in actuality the effect of the palette or the shape of the emblem, but it appears that a calmer grayish shade instead of black could look a bit nobler.
The classic serif type works perfectly when there is a need to connote tradition and heritage. We doubt, though, that it was TSMC’s intention to conjure up these ideas.