Digital Turbine is an Austin, Texas-based mobile growth and monetization platform serving advertisers, publishers, carriers and device manufacturers. The company unveiled its current unified brand identity in July 2022, developed in collaboration with the design firm Pentagram and communications firm Purpose Worldwide. The rebrand marked the integration of the company’s acquisitions of Fyber, AdColony and Appreciate, shifting Digital Turbine from a house of brands to a branded house under a single master-brand. [1]
Design and History
The previous Digital Turbine logo, adopted in 1998 when the company was founded, consisted of a multi-blade, rainbow-colored pinwheel. The circular mark was made up of eight blades in eight different primary colors and was intended to resemble a spinning turbine. The individual blades were arranged like the petals of a sunflower, which Pentagram noted appeared oddly static instead of conveying the intended sense of movement and energy. [2]
During the rebrand, Pentagram designers showed the Digital Turbine team examples of technology companies that evolved from similarly busy, multi-colored logos to simpler, monochrome solutions, including Apple and Microsoft Windows. The team explored pared-down renditions of the original logo, eventually landing on a two-blade solution that maintained the essence of a turbine. To add a sense of motion, an exaggerated pixel pattern was added to the blunt ends of the two blades, giving them a blurred appearance as if the blades were moving rapidly. The individual pixels were made in the shape of rounded squares, called “squircles,” a shape frequently used for app icons. [2]
The new identity was unveiled on July 13, 2022, and rolled out across all external touch points, including products, websites, social media accounts, and sales and marketing materials. [1]
Meaning and Symbolism
The two-blade turbine mark maintains the essence of a turbine while the pixel pattern at the blunt ends of the blades adds the “digital” element, making the symbol unique and ownable for Digital Turbine. The squircles reference app icon shapes, which Pentagram noted made the inclusion of the pixels appropriate and meaningful to the company’s mobile focus. [2]
The primary brand color, called “Digital Turbine Red,” was derived from a section of warmer colors taken from the previous logo. Pentagram created a color spectrum from those colors and identified a distinctive red tone in the middle, which was suggested as the main brand color. The color was chosen to stand out among Digital Turbine’s AdTech and telco competitors, whose branding tends toward blues and greens. [2]
Typography and Design
The previous wordmark was an all-lowercase logotype in an art deco-inspired font consisting of angular letterforms. For the new identity, Pentagram considered a range of contemporary sans-serif typefaces and selected GT Walsheim by Grilli Type. The typeface, with letterforms inspired by Swiss poster designer Otto Baumberger, was chosen for its sense of authority and confidence while retaining enough personality to be recognizable on its own. The designers also noted the circular negative space found in the letterforms and how it echoes the shape of the final turbine icon. [2]
The new primary wordmark, set in upper and lowercase, stacks the words “Digital” and “Turbine” in a compact, interlocking configuration. The capital letters “D” and “T” correspond to Digital Turbine’s new “DT” acronym, which was part of the company’s reworked organizational hierarchy and sub-brand naming. [2]
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