The logo of the Chinese tech company Xiaomi reflects its global ambitions and interest in innovations.
Meaning and history
Xiaomi was started in 2010. As the word “xiaomi” was already widely used in China, it seemed an appropriate company name – pronunciation mistakes, at least, were impossible. But as the project crossed the borders of other Asian countries and then entered other parts of the words, the need for a simpler name became urgent. This name was “MI.”
2010
2010 — 2014
2014 — Today
Symbol
The Xiaomi logo features stylized letters “MI” in white placed inside an orange rectangular with rounded corners. Due to their unusual design, the letters bear a subtle resemblance to Chinese hieroglyphs. The middle line of the “M” is separated from the rest of the glyph, while the “i” doesn’t have the dot.
What does the emblem stand for?
According to the official explanation given by the company, “MI” is the abbreviation for “Mobile Internet.” However, Xiaomi also mentioned that the abbreviation can be explained as “Mission Impossible” referring to all the challenges the company faced in its early days. The “Mission Impossible” explanation may also remind of how difficult it was to get the MI trademark, as for that the company had to purchase the Mi(.)com website.
Colors
The bright and joyful combination of orange and white is used not only for the MI logo but also as the core of the corporate color palette.