Blizzard Logo

Blizzard Logo PNG

For this game developer, the name serves as the basis for the emblem. But the letters in the emblem are not ordinary but trembling. The shaky letter effect has been used for a long time: the company chose the Blizzard logo with torn glyphs almost at the beginning of its career. And since then, he has stayed within the original design because it makes it possible to tie together the concept, plot, and identity.

Meaning and History

The history of this corporation began from the moment when three graduates of the University of Los Angeles received diplomas in higher education. Friends decided to open a joint business, for which each invested about 10 thousand dollars in it. Morhaime borrowed them from his grandmother. The result was a company that focused on creating and designing video games for other studios. In 1993 they developed The Lost Vikings and Rock n’ Roll Racing.

The guys chose the name Silicon & Synapse specifically to emphasize their concept. From their point of view, the word “silicon” should refer to the building block of the computer and the second part (“synapse”) – the building block of the brain. But in 1993, Adham said that this was a bad option and that it should be changed, as their company was confused with the production of silicon for the chemical industry and silicone for the breast implant industry. This is how Chaos Studios was born, embodying the unsystematic development processes.

Then the service repeatedly passed from hand to hand until it finally became the property of Activision Blizzard. However, recently, Microsoft Corporation announced its intention to acquire a well-known computer games developer to become their sole publisher. The purchase process was supposed to start in January 2022 and be completed in mid-2023. So far, nothing is known about the preservation of the identity, but it has accumulated five logos over the entire period of the company’s existence. One of them was designed by Stu Rose.

What is Blizzard?

Blizzard is an American corporation whose full name is Blizzard Entertainment. It is engaged in the development and release of video games. Its most famous product is Warcraft. The company appeared in 1991 and, at first, was called Silicon & Synapse. Later, it was replaced by the Chaos Studios version (in 1993), and a year later, it received its current name and became subordinate to Activision Blizzard. Its founders are Allen Adham, Frank Pearce, and Michael Morhaime. The head office is located in Irvine, California.

1991 – 1994

The debut emblem featured an extraordinary character – a brain in glasses with folded arms and crossed legs. He looked to the left. Next to it (on the right) was the company’s name. The phrase “Silicon & Synaps” took up two lines and resembled handwritten lettering, but with the difference that the letters in it stood vertically, not diagonally. The background was a gray rectangle formed from light and dark shades, scattered in chaotic spots.

1994

The rebrand brought an update to the visual identity. Its result was a black and red rectangle. The dark background with bloody lettering and bottom lighting evoked a stunning mystique effect present in computer games. The genre of military strategy and battles fit perfectly into this concept. The first part of the name (“Chaos”) was located in the upper tier and occupied a central place. It was a red inscription with “trembling” letters. This impression was formed due to the wavy lines with which the symbols were made. The second fragment (“Studios”) was at the bottom, was painted blue, and typed in strict sans-serif characters.

1994 – 2010

After rebranding as Blizzard Entertainment, the video game developer received a new logo. The designers have retained the old style: “trembling” letters with uneven edges, characters of different heights, a dark background, and a classic inscription at the bottom, typed in capital characters. But there was also a significant difference. So, the authors depicted the emblem horizontally and not vertically, as in the previous version, and chose blue instead of red. They circled everything with a frame of the same color.

2010 – today

The next option was a light logo without rectangular frames. The first word of the company name is sky blue with a highlight in the middle. A whitish highlight appears from under the inscription, further brightening the letters. The second part consists of capital characters – white with a black border.

2015 – today

The text character is used, almost completely corresponding to the version adopted in 2010. They differ in color: in this logo, the letters are much lighter than the previous one and are close to a blue tint with gradient transitions. The lower inscription is painted the same tone as the upper one but without sharp tint variations. It is strict, smooth, and centered. Although there are no frames, the hypothetically rectangular shape of the logo is preserved.

Font and Colors

Blizzard’s visual identity has evolved along with its name. It was constantly modified to match the thematic focus of video games, attracting attention with a non-standard form of letters of different sizes. This is the main highlight of the corporate identity.

The basic set is individual. These are drawn letters of a chaotic wave-like shape with a “trembling” effect. They have different sizes and different leg heights, which makes them recognizable. While “Blizzard” is in the unique Custom font, “Entertainment” is in Gill Sans Bold.

The corporate palette includes bright colors that stand out clearly on both dark and light backgrounds. Among them are red and several shades of blue – cobalt, sky blue, and neutral blue. The very first logo uses two types of cold gray.

Blizzard color codes