Sourcetree is a free Git and Mercurial desktop client developed by Atlassian for Windows and Mac. The application provides a graphical user interface for visualizing and managing repositories, with detailed branching diagrams that help developers track team progress at a glance.[1]
Design and History
Sourcetree’s visual identity sits within Atlassian’s broader product logo family. In September 2017, Atlassian announced a company-wide rebrand that updated the Atlassian logo and all product logos, including Sourcetree. The company described the challenge of designing a visual system that stretches across 14 or more products while feeling unified under one parent brand. Each product logo was anchored in a core value or benefit, rendered to feel individually unique but also part of a family, while remaining legible at any size.[2]
The 2017 rebrand was credited to Atlassian’s in-house design team, with Angy Che handling logo design and James Edmondson responsible for type design.[2]
Atlassian’s trademark guidelines list Sourcetree among the company’s protected word marks and logo marks, confirming its status as an official Atlassian product brand.[3]
Separate from the corporate logo system, the Sourcetree application icon has undergone its own changes. Users reported that the macOS app icon was updated in version 4.2.17, with complaints that the new icon had a solid white background, lacked rounded corners, and appeared larger than other application icons in the Dock and Command-Tab switcher.[4] Another user described the icon as “the blue sourcetree logo with a solid white rectangular background.”[5]
Following the release of macOS Big Sur, users also requested an icon update to match Apple’s new design language, noting that the Sourcetree icon was not the correct shape to match other Big Sur-era icons.[6] A separate suggestion ticket asked Atlassian to design an icon meeting Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines, describing the current one as looking “quite abrupt” among other apps.[7]
Meaning and Symbolism
Atlassian’s 2017 rebrand announcement explained that each product logo was anchored in a core value or benefit. The company gave Jira Software as an example, noting its mark started with code brackets connoting development teams. While the announcement did not detail Sourcetree’s specific symbolism, it confirmed that every product mark in the new system was designed to represent a core product benefit while remaining visually related across the family.[2]
The Sourcetree name itself references the tree-like branching structure central to Git and Mercurial version control, and the application’s core function is visualizing those branch relationships through detailed branching diagrams.[1]
Typography and Design
As part of the 2017 rebrand, Atlassian introduced a new company typeface called Charlie Sans, designed by James Edmondson. The typeface was created to balance legibility with personality and to allow hierarchy between Atlassian, its products, and other offerings in the ecosystem.[2]
Brand asset trackers list Sourcetree’s primary brand colors as hex codes #0052CC and #283852, though these third-party listings are not official Atlassian documentation.[8]
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