Solium Capital Inc. was a Calgary-based software-as-a-service company founded in 1999 that provided equity administration, financial reporting and compliance software.[1] In 2019, Morgan Stanley completed its acquisition of Solium and re-branded the business as Shareworks by Morgan Stanley.[1] The Solium identity therefore belongs to a brand that no longer operates under that name, having been folded into the Morgan Stanley at Work suite of financial solutions.[1]
Design and History
Solium’s visual identity was developed as part of a broader branding effort by the Calgary design firm Switchback Creative. The agency’s portfolio documents work on “Solium Capital: One Solium,” covering brand development, guidelines, promotional materials and animation graphics.[2] The project involved reworking existing brand symbols rather than starting from scratch, with the design team drawing on the company’s core values of creativity, invention and innovation.[2]
The identity was built around a typographic wordmark, placing the company name at the center of the visual system. The design work extended beyond the logo itself into a full brand book that connected Solium’s operating principles with its visual language.[2]
Solium’s trademark history shows that the company registered both “SHAREWORKS” and “SOLIUM SHAREWORKS” as standard character marks with the USPTO in 2005, indicating that the Shareworks product name was part of the brand architecture well before the Morgan Stanley acquisition.[3][4]
Meaning and Symbolism
Switchback Creative described the Solium brand as embodying “the inventor mentality,” combining art and engineering in a way they likened to a “DaVinci feel but for the tech age.”[2] The design process incorporated “big sky, blue ocean thinking,” a reference to the company’s Calgary roots and its approach to developing new solutions.[2] The agency noted that some of the new brand elements resonated strongly enough with employees that they were displayed in the company’s offices.[2]
Typography and Design
The Solium logo functioned as a typographic wordmark, with the brand name serving as the primary visual element. The trademark registrations for both SHAREWORKS and SOLIUM SHAREWORKS were filed as standard character marks, meaning the protection covered the words themselves rather than a specific stylized design or logo.[3][4] This approach gave the company flexibility in how the wordmark was rendered across different applications and media.
Logo Index is an independent educational archive covering logos, visual identities and graphic design history. All trademarks and brand assets remain the property of their respective owners.
