Ubisoft Logo

Ubisoft Logo PNG

In the company’s history, the Ubisoft logo changed quite often until it became a whirlwind. Now it’s a black-and-white spiral with a minimalistic and monochrome look, keeping with the traditions of flat design. It symbolizes curiosity, enthusiasm, and madness – of course, in a good way.

Meaning and History

The Guillemot family named the company Ubi Soft, taking the first three letters from the word “ubiquity.” This term means the ability to be everywhere simultaneously, which accurately characterizes a game developer who has achieved success not only in France but throughout the world. What is the adventure platformer Rayman Legends, famous in Japan and the USA. So all attempts by fans to associate the Ubisoft name with the Union of Independent Bretons were unsuccessful.

The company logo has been bright and colorful for a long time, but in 2017 everything changed. The spiral, which previously boasted a blue gradient, was stripped of its color and turned black and white. A sharp transition to flat design is associated with the emergence of a fashion for minimalism. It didn’t get as popular until the top tech companies started using it: first Microsoft for Windows Mobile, then Apple for iOS. The monochrome Ubisoft logo looks elegant, and the negative space makes it unusual.

What is Ubisoft?

Ubisoft Entertainment SA is the developer of iconic video games such as Rayman, Prince of Persia, Far Cry, and Assassin’s Creed. This is a French company that was founded in 1986 and was originally called Ubi Soft Entertainment SA. She changed her name in 2003 as part of a global rebrand.

1986 – 1989

The first logo of a video game developer impressed with its retro style. The letters “U,” “B,” and “I” were large and pink, with wide blue edges. To dilute the bright color scheme, the designers made the word “Soft” white and outlined it with a thin black line. It was located diagonally and was across the “I.” A large three-dimensional sans-serif font was used for the first part of the name, and for the second part, handwritten with elongated horizontal strokes. The cartoonish design of the inscription hinted at the fact that Ubisoft specializes in entertainment.

1989 – 1993

In 1989, the relaxed style of the logo gave way to a conservative and strict design. The developers placed the phrase “UBI SOFT” at the top, using the ITC Lubalin Graph bold for it, and at the bottom, in the same font but in italics, they wrote the phrase “Entertainment Software.” The text was black and center-aligned.

1993 – 1994

During this period, the company was represented by an emblem of many geometric shapes. The basis was a red square with a black inscription “SOFT.” It was executed in a vertically elongated serif font. In the upper half were two small squares (green and blue), and between them was a yellow rhombus. These three figures had lowercase but large ‘u,’ ‘b,’ and ‘i’ in black.

1994 – 2003

When the company released the game, Rayman, it marked the occasion with an identity update. So the name “Ubi Soft” ended up on the same line again. It was black, so the pale green ENTERTAINMENT at the bottom was lost against it. On top was a thin arch with an iridescent gradient.

2003 – 2017

In 2003, the company became known as Ubisoft without a space between the two parts. At the same time, the blue-violet whirlwind logo appeared, which delighted gamers when it began to rotate in animated intros for games. It was a futuristic design, especially for the time. The authors of the emblem used a gradient, darkening the upper coils and brightening the center. The spiral pattern added depth to the image, making it appear three-dimensional. The company’s name was written at the bottom in a modified Microgramma Bold font, which is characterized by letters with unusually sharp corners.

2017 – today

In 2017, the purple swirl turned black and white, and the familiar gradient was replaced with a flat design. The publisher explained that its new logo is in line with the latest trends that are forcing many global brands to strive for monochrome and minimalism. At the same time, the letter “O” and the swirl in the center of the swirl are specially made uneven so that it looks like they are drawn by hand, without the participation of computer graphics. So the company wanted to show that everything human is not alien to it – first of all, curiosity, enthusiasm, and “grain de folie,” that is, “a touch of madness.”

Font and Colors

The Ubisoft symbol may have been simplified to better display in different media. But its shape has not changed much: it is a uniformly balanced vortex with a shifted center, violating the golden ratio principle. So the designers expressed disdain for the perfect symmetry of the spirals.

The logo uses the so-called Ubisoft Sans, created by Colophon Foundry specifically for the French video game developer. It looks like a modified Gilroy Extra Bold. The black sans-serif letters look simple, except for the “O,” which resembles a round chain link and follows the shape of the hand-drawn logo’s central element.

The color scheme is also very simple. Designers turned to traditional black and white monochrome to create a flat image that matches the trendy minimalism. In this case, the vortex’s inscription and contours are black, and the background and gaps are white.

Ubisoft color codes