Line Logo PNG
The emblem is a symbol of live communication. On the Internet, everyone can express their opinion and receive comments from the audience. The Line logo conveys an active, growing community and promises constructive, friendly communication.
“Line” began after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. Japan’s phone lines were overloaded, SMS networks failed, and NHN Japan’s Tokyo office needed a working online communication tool. NHN’s leadership, including Lee Hae-jin, asked engineers to build an app that used Wi-Fi and the remaining 3G access. South Korea’s KakaoTalk was already entering the Japanese market, making speed critical.
Line was released on June 23, 2011. Its offer was direct: free internet calls and free messages. In Japan, where carriers charged for SMS and mobile calls, Line had an economic edge over KakaoTalk. Growth was rapid. In October 2011, servers struggled under user traffic. Line reached 100 million downloads in 18 months and passed 200 million downloads another 6 months later.
In December 2011, Naver merged Naver Talk with Line. Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and Indonesia looked more open than South Korea, where KakaoTalk dominated. In 2012, Line added Home, Timeline, and paid stickers. Line Friends characters, including Brown, Cony, and Moon, later became a separate brand. On February 6, 2013, Line Corporation was created. By 2013, Line was Japan’s largest social network.
In July 2016, Line held a dual IPO in Tokyo and New York. In 2019, Naver and SoftBank announced a merger with Z Holdings, the parent company of Yahoo! Japan. The deal closed in March 2021. In 2023, a data breach exposed over 440,000 records, and in March 2024, Japan demanded the separation of shared Line and Naver IT systems.
Meaning and History
Tragic events prompted the program. Her idea began with a massive and deadly earthquake that triggered a tsunami. This natural phenomenon dates back to the spring of 2011, when telecommunications infrastructure was disrupted nationwide. NHN Japan representatives (the South Korean division of NHN Corporation) decided to release a special communication tool based on Internet technology. In the summer of the same year, the service was already ready to launch.
It turned out to be so popular that it overloaded the server. Therefore, the developers decided to integrate the open-source Java-based HBase platform with Line. It has become the basic repository for user accounts, groups, and contacts. The instant messaging service has become incredibly popular across Asia: in Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, Cambodia, and Turkmenistan. In particular, it is available in 17 languages.
Starting as an app for Android and iOS, Line has gradually been adapted to other platforms, including BlackBerry OS, Nokia Asha, Windows Phone, Firefox OS, Microsoft Windows, and macOS. Therefore, the program is now available on smartphones, tablets, laptops, personal computers, and smartwatches. It is recognizable by its simple and bright icon, which stands out from its counterparts. Moreover, her visual identity sign proved so successful that the service never changed it; it only made minimal corrections. There were two of them.
What is Line?
The Line is a communication app that supports the exchange of text messages, audio files, videos, photos, and images. It was created in 2011 after an earthquake in Japan left people without communication. NHN Japan, now known as Line Corporation, decided to help people during a critical time. They offered an alternative to the popular KakaoTalk by making their messenger completely free.
2011 – 2013
To make the logo clear, catchy, and simple while still indicating a specific activity, the developers used geometric principles. To do this, they took a square and rounded off all four corners. This made it possible to smooth out the sharpness. Then they placed a white text balloon in the square, a direct-speech callout, like in comic books. This suggests that the program serves as a means of communication between users, allowing you to send and receive information.
In the dialog box, the center is the Internet service’s name, written in grotesque uppercase letters, printed letters, even, bold, of the same height. The icon also has a lens flare in the upper-left corner. Simultaneously, the designers applied a gradient in the center on a light background and around it, on a green one.
2013 – 2016
After the redesign, the emblem retained its shape, size, element grouping, and number. Only the color has changed. In this version, the authors removed gradient transitions, reflections, and white spots, stabilizing the palette. The main shade was lime green. He refreshed the logo, adding modernity and recognition.
2016 – today
In July 2016, the designers made some adjustments. And they were again insignificant, but they were already concerned not only with the color but also with the text. The developers have shifted the palette to a dark spectrum, using a rich shade of green. The streamlined font was changed to an angular one, removing the rounded corners of the letters. As a result, the text balloon now looks distinct.
Font and Colors
The program’s corporate logo is stable. It denotes all its services: social network, telephony, Line TV video, Line Today news, Line Pay money wallet, Line Manga comics, Line Webtoon, etc. The company does not undertake a radical redesign to avoid losing recognition among a multi-million-user audience. It is always limited to minor changes to the logo.
For early designs, the designers opted for a typeface with rounded letterforms, resembling Volkswagen Serial Xbold and Rundschrift Pro Regular. In the later version, the style is rougher – with right angles and straight lines, echoing Substance Extra Bold and Touche Bold.
The main emphasis from the very beginning was on color, so it was corrected twice. A green with a gradient was used; in the second, a lime shade (#37cf00); in the third, a deep green (#00ba00). The text balloon in all emblems is colored white.