BlackBerry Limited, formerly Research In Motion (RIM), is a Canadian enterprise software and cybersecurity company headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario. The BlackBerry brand began as a line of wireless handheld devices and services, and the company’s visual identity has evolved alongside its transformation from smartphone manufacturer to software provider.
Design and History
The BlackBerry name was coined in 1998 by Lexicon Branding, the Sausalito, California marketing firm that had previously crafted names such as the Apple PowerBook and Intel Pentium. Lexicon president David Placek was impressed by the RIM 950 device and recommended giving it a proper name rather than a model number. The name was chosen because the keyboard’s small buttons resembled the drupelets that make up the blackberry fruit, and it signaled a more natural, engaging way to communicate without boxing in the brand’s potential for growth.[1][2]
On January 30, 2013, RIM announced it was dropping the Research In Motion moniker and would be known as BlackBerry only, aligning its branding and company name. The announcement came during the BlackBerry 10 launch event, and the company’s stock trading symbol changed from RIMM to BBRY on Nasdaq. The logo changed at the same time, with the company’s corporate logo and website URL updated immediately.[3][4]
BlackBerry’s official branding guidelines describe the logo as consisting of two elements: the BlackBerry EMBLEM Design and the BLACKBERRY Word Mark. The EMBLEM Design is a registered trademark of BlackBerry Limited and can be used on its own, though it must always include the registration symbol. The guidelines specify that the emblem should never be recreated or altered in any way, and they define an exclusion zone around the logo that must remain free from other copy.[5]
Typography and Design
With the launch of BlackBerry 10 in 2013, the company adopted the Slate typeface family as a key part of its unified brand. Slate was originally designed in 2006 by Canadian type designer Rod McDonald for easy reading in print and on screen. The BlackBerry 10 interface, hardware and advertising all took advantage of the Slate family’s refinement and versatility. Don Lindsay, BlackBerry’s vice president of user experience, noted that Slate was a perfect fit for BlackBerry 10, with subtle stroke detail lending an organic aesthetic that made the interface feel more approachable and less mechanical. The fact that McDonald was Canadian brought additional value and a greater level of nationalistic authenticity to the brand.[6]
Monotype’s creative type director Steve Matteson confirmed that no substantive design changes were made to the Slate typeface for BlackBerry, though all fonts were hand hinted and technologically optimized for the best viewing experience on the operating system.[6]
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