Anthem, Inc. was the corporate parent of a large network of Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans across the United States. The company operated under the Anthem name from December 2014 until June 2022, when it rebranded as Elevance Health. This article covers the visual identity used during the Anthem period.
Design and History
The Anthem corporate identity was introduced in late 2014, when WellPoint, Inc. officially changed its name to Anthem, Inc. [1] The name change was approved by shareholders on November 5, 2014, and the company began trading under the ticker symbol ANTM on December 2, 2014. [1]
The rebrand reversed a decision from 2004, when WellPoint Health Networks merged with Anthem, Inc. and the combined company took on the WellPoint name. [2] By 2014, WellPoint was already selling its insurance products under the Anthem name in several states, including California, Kentucky and Indiana, and did not sell plans under the WellPoint name. [3] CEO Joseph Swedish said the company believed “it is important to call ourselves by the name that people know best: Anthem.” [3]
The 2014 change was driven by a shift toward consumer-focused healthcare markets, including the new public insurance exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act, where brand recognition became more important. [3] The company also created a new website, antheminc.com, and installed new lettering over the entrance to its Monument Circle headquarters in Indianapolis. [4]
In June 2022, the company announced it would rebrand its corporate parent name from Anthem to Elevance Health, marking the second corporate rebrand in less than a decade. [5]
Meaning and Symbolism
The Anthem corporate logo was a text-only wordmark with no additional graphic elements. Only the initial letter “A” remained uppercase, with the rest of the letters rendered in lowercase. [6] The blue color was retained from the company’s prior identity. [6]
The corporate Anthem mark was distinct from the Blue Cross and Blue Shield consumer-facing brands used across the company’s state plans. Some subsidiary brands, such as Medicaid-focused Amerigroup, were unaffected by the 2014 name change. [2]
Typography and Design
The Anthem wordmark used a serif typeface with a muted blue color. [7] The design was more compact than the preceding WellPoint logo due to narrower glyphs. [7] No designer or agency attribution for the 2014 Anthem logo has been publicly documented in available sources.
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