In the years of the COVID-19 pandemic, Zoom has been mentioned so often that it has almost become a household name. the cloud-based video conferencing platform has become an indispensable companion for millions of users from around the world.
Meaning and history
In 2011, Eric Yuan, a lead engineer in Cisco’s WebEx division, quit his job and decided to create his own business. He recruited a team, gathered the first investments, and two years later, in 2013, the Zoom project was introduced to the world.
The main task of the new platform was to create a system that combines video conferencing, online meetings, chat, and mobile collaboration. By May 2013, the number of Zoom users had already reached one million. By 2015, the project had raised 30 million USD, and by as early as 2017, it was valued at one billion USD.
By the end of 2019, Zoom has become one of the most popular business tools, and the fastest-growing in the world. By the end of March 2020, Zoom had even overtaken TikTok in terms of downloads on the AppStore.
The most active user growth came during the pandemic period when video conferencing services became more in demand than ever. During this period, the company recorded the largest revenue in its history, when Zoom earned 4 billion dollars within 3 months.
What is Zoom?
It is one of the most popular programs for video conferences, webinars, and online meetings. The platform was introduced in 2013, while the developer company Zoom was established in America in 2011.
In terms of visual identity, Zoom is very laconic yet progressive. The platform has just one element in its badge — the lowercase lettering, however, due to the use of intense color, the logo looks bright and progressive.
2011 – 2013
With the establishment of the Zoom company, the logo was created for it in 2011. It was a very simple composition with the name of the company written in the lowercase of a rounded sans-serif typeface, and underlined by the “We can see clearly now”. In the left part of the primary badge, there was a circular emblem with a white camera, decorated by the blue “Z”, set on a gradient blue background.
2013 – 2014
With the launch of the platform, the new logo was created in 2013. It was a simplified version of the previous badge; set in a more intense shade of blue. The lettering got bolder, and now the characters were placed close to each other. As for the graphical part of the badge, the emblem gained a double outline, and the “Z” was removed from the white camera.
2014 – 2022
The redesign of 2014 has introduced a bright modern version of the Zoom logo, with the cleaned-up flat emblem set above the lowercase logotype in a custom sans-serif typeface. The shade of blue is now bright and cool, and all the gradients are removed from the logo.
2022 – Today
In 2022 the company decided to get even more laconic and removed the emblem from the primary version of its logo. The typeface was also slightly modernized — with the vertical bar of the “M” disappeared, and the tails of the lines elongated and drawn more playfully and elegantly. The shade of blue, used for the badge l was also intensified and got a bit darker.
Font and color
The recognizable lowercase Zoom logotype is set in a sleek custom sans-serif font with interesting ends of the bars, and a smooth shape of the “M”. The closest commercial font to the designer one, used in the Zoom insignia, is, probably, Sean Henrich ATF ExtraBold, but with some visible modifications.
As for the color palette of the Zoom visual identity, it is based on one shade of blue, with no gradients. The brightness and depth of the Zoom blue stand for the progressive and innovative approach of the company and represents connection and security.
