The Weather Company is a weather forecasting and information technology company that owns and operates weather.com and Weather Underground, among other consumer brands. It has been a subsidiary of IBM’s Watson & Cloud Platform business unit since 2016. The company’s visual identity has evolved through its corporate history, most notably following the IBM acquisition.
Design and History
The current The Weather Company logo is a wordmark consisting of the words “THE WEATHER COMPANY” in a stacked format, with “THE” on the top line, “WEATHER” on the second line, and “COMPANY” on the third line. A raindrop design appears next to the word “THE.” This mark is registered as a trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office under registration number 4729838.[1]
In January 2016, IBM closed its acquisition of The Weather Company’s B2B, mobile and cloud-based digital properties, including weather.com, Weather Underground, The Weather Company brand and WSI, its global B2B brand.[2] As part of this transaction, WSI, The Weather Company’s business-to-business brand, was renamed The Weather Company, an IBM Business.[2] The company’s logo file is documented as “The Weather Company IBM Byline.svg,” reflecting the IBM byline added to the identity.[3]
Brazilian trade publication Meio & Mensagem reported in February 2016 that The Weather Company had a new logo highlighting the company as “an IBM business.”[4] The IBM acquisition did not include the cable television unit, which continued under a long-term licensing agreement for use of weather data and The Weather Channel name and branding.[2]
Meaning and Symbolism
The raindrop element in the logo is the primary documented symbol. The U.S. trademark registration for the mark describes it as “a design of a rain drop appearing next to the ‘THE'” in the stacked wordmark.[1] The raindrop is classified under the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office design code for “a single drop (including a single raindrop or a single teardrop).”[1]
The raindrop motif also appears in related brand identities within The Weather Company’s portfolio. When Weather Underground launched a brand makeover in 2014, its new logo incorporated a raindrop falling into the letter “U,” which the company described as representing the rain gauges on its network of personal weather stations.[5]
Typography and Design
The trademark registration provides the only verified description of the wordmark’s construction: the words “THE WEATHER COMPANY” appear in a stacked format across three lines, with the raindrop design positioned next to the top line.[1] No official documentation of the specific typeface used in the wordmark has been published by The Weather Company or IBM.
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.
