Cricket Wireless is an American prepaid wireless service provider founded in March 1999 by Leap Wireless International. The brand was relaunched in 2014 after AT&T acquired Leap Wireless and merged Cricket with its own prepaid subsidiary, Aio Wireless, creating a unified national prepaid offering under the Cricket name. Cricket operates as a subsidiary of AT&T Inc. and the Cricket logo is a trademark under license to Cricket Wireless LLC. [1] [2] [3]
Design and History
The current Cricket Wireless logo was introduced in May 2014 as part of the brand relaunch following AT&T’s acquisition of Leap Wireless. The relaunch featured a redesigned logo that highlights the upward trajectory of the line in the letter “k” in the middle of the word. [4]
The 2014 identity was developed by the global brand consultancy Interbrand. Design director Steve Harkin, who led the project alongside creative director Craig Stout and designers Kathy Keen and Michele Lee, documented the process: consumers reacted well to the existing color and visual equities but commented that the logo looked weak, or in one consumer’s words, “needed some Red Bull.” The evolution created a “strong but crisp new presence” while keeping the emphasis on the “k.” [5] [6]
Prior to the 2014 redesign, Cricket’s logo had gone through several iterations. The original mark, created in 1999, was a black lowercase wordmark in a traditional sans-serif typeface with a stylized and enlarged letter “k.” The “wireless” portion of the wordmark was set to the right of “Cricket.” [7]
Meaning and Symbolism
The central design element of the current logo is the letter “k,” which carries a green stripe or diagonal element. According to the designers, the green stripe was added to “signal smart value on communications” and to anchor the brand across illustrations, patterns and animations. The stripe became a key brand visual, utilized across patterns, illustrations and animations. [5] [6]
The upward trajectory of the line in the “k” was highlighted in coverage of the 2014 relaunch as a notable feature of the redesigned logo. [4]
Typography and Design
The current Cricket wordmark is executed in a bold lowercase sans-serif typeface. The letter “k” is emphasized with a green diagonal stripe element that extends through the letterform. Supplementary colors were added to the visual palette beyond green to energize the brand system. [6] [7]
The Cricket mobile app icon consists of a green square with rounded corners containing a bold black “k” with a white diagonal bar. [7]
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