Valve is a video-games developing company, which was established in 1996 in The United States. The company became famous after the release of Counter-Strike, one of the world’s most played video games in history.
Valve is one of the loudest and most famous names in the world’s gaming industry. The company is a creator of such iconic games as Counter-Strike, Half-Life, Dota 2, Portal, and others, which have literally changed if not revolutionized the industry. The company was founded by Gabe Newell, whose biography also includes working at Microsoft for a full 13 years.
What is Valve?
Valve is the name of an American video-games developer, which was established in the middle of the 1990s, and is famous for releasing such games as Counter-Strike and Half-Life. The company is headquartered in Washington, USA, and operates all over the globe.
The initial Valve logo was introduced in 1996 and stayed with the brand for a decade. It was a simple yet powerful monochrome badge where the sans-serif uppercase logotype was set in a white background and enclosed into a thick black rectangular frame. The black letters of the inscription were placed pretty far from each other, so the badge looked solid yet airy and fresh.
The current Valve logo is composed of white lettering on a red background. It looks minimalist and contemporary. Its simplicity elevates it and creates the sense of a professional and powerful company.
The Valve wordmark in all the capital letters is executed in a clean and neat sans-serif typeface, which is very similar to narrowed Arial Bold. The most recognizable detail of the company’s visual identity is a little last “E”, which is reduced for almost a half in comparison to all the other letters.
The Valve visual identity is not only it’s the logo. The company is known for its crea-tive advertising campaigns and the use of the recognizable mascot “The Valve Guy”.
The mascot emblem was designed in the very beginning of the company’s history. It depicts a big bald guy with a red valve in the back of his head, representing the brand’s idea “Open Your Mind”. The other Valve art showed the man with the Valve coming out of his eye.
These two artworks became truly iconic and the modest and neat Valve logotype looks really stylish and meaningful near creative and unique mascot emblems.
The bold and clean uppercase lettering from the primary Valve logo is set in a modern geometric sans-serif font withcapital characters featuring clean straight lines and distinctive contours. The closest fonts to the one, used in this insignia, are, probably, Rolphie 09 Semiblack SC, or Core Sans N SC 65 Bold, with the letters placed at a significant distance from each other, and the “E” set in a smaller size.
As for the color palette of the Valve visual identity, it is based on a very special and tender, yet bright combination of smooth coral-red shade and white. This palette shows the company as a unique and progressive one, pointing at its innovative approach and confidence.