The Headspace logo history, symbol and meaning: A commitment to mental health
When it comes to minimalistic brand emblems, few designs are more memorable than the Headspace logo. This simple brandmark, created to highlight the companies commitment to helping customers find joy and enlightenment, has become one of the best-known logos in the mental health space. But, even if you’re familiar with the design, you might not know much about Headspace logo history.
Headspace, unlike many of the popular and well-known medical and health-focused companies in the world today, hasn’t made many changes to its visual identity over the years.
From the very beginning, the company has focused on portraying a friendly and accessible identity to those who might not fully understand the concept of meditation.
Though relatively rudimentary, the Headspace logo does an excellent job at demonstrating the unique personality and essence of the mental health brand. Today, we’re going to take a closer look at the Headspace logo, its meaning, and the role it places in Headspace’s branding strategy.
Who created the branding for Headspace? An introduction
Before we begin looking at Headspace logo history, let’s take a moment to discuss the origins of both the company and its branding strategy. Headspace is actually a subsidiary of the larger company “Headspace Health”.
Launched in 2010, it’s an English American digital brand, focused on the area of mental health and meditation.
Primarily, Headspace operates through an online platform, which provides users with access to guided meditation and mindfulness tools. The tech and wellness company was founded by Richard Pierson, and Andy Puddicombe (a former Buddhist monk).
Interestingly, the business began as an events company, hosting mindfulness talks and seminars throughout London.
Eventually, customers started demanding a way to share mindfulness techniques with others, which pushed the founders to create the Headspace mobile app.
Part of what’s made Headspace, and its mindfulness app so effective, is the company’s unique approach to branding. Creative director Anna Charity and Illustrator Chris Markland worked together to create a visual identity for the company that would be uplifting and friendly.
The visual brand, defined both by the orange dot logo, and the company’s unique approach to illustrated and animated app graphics, is intended to be fun and refreshing.
Headspace created its brand to appeal to people of all backgrounds and personalities, turning the concept of “meditation” into something anyone can experience and enjoy.
Headspace logo history: The powerful Headspace icon
The Headspace visual branding strategy, and the logo of the company hasn’t changed since the mobile app was initially launched in May 2012.
The orange dot logo is a simple, but ideal complementary asset to the company’s wider image, which consists of a family of fun animated characters and illustrated components. Every part of the Headspace tool is designed to be calm and inviting.
The official Headspace logo today consists of two elements, a bright orange circle, and a wordmark. The bright orange circle, placed on the left-hand side of the combination mark, is intended to symbolize feelings of being centered, calm, and happy.
The circle is representative of the temple of the forehead, a source of “mental energy” in the Buddhist space. The orange color, associated with warmth, joy, and creativity in color psychology, is intended to be motivational and enlightening.
Though the orange dot frequently appears alongside a wordmark, it’s also commonly used as a standalone brand asset. It’s also the image used in the favicon created by the brand for its website and mobile app.
The headspace wordmark, when it is included in the logo, is just as inviting and simple as the orange circle. Depicted in a shade of deep grey, it conveys ideas of sophistication, without being as harsh or aggressive as black.
The letters, all inscribed in lowercase, feature a sans-serif font, which is both modern and friendly, perfect for the company’s brand personality.
Is the Headspace logo a perfect circle?
From a distance, the Headspace logo may look like a perfect circle – a shape associated with balance and community. However, it’s actually a little imperfect in places. It’s intended to look like a circle drawn by hand, admittedly by someone with excellent drawing skills.
The decision to use a slightly imperfect circle was potentially a deliberate one by the brand, intended to demonstrate that imperfection itself can be beautiful and attractive.
The Headspace logo: Fonts and colors
While there haven’t been any major changes to the company’s visual identity throughout Headspace logo history, looking at the emblem, we can see that it really hasn’t needed any updates.
The modern yet simplistic logo perfectly conveys the personality and values of the business. It’s flexible and scalable enough to work in a digital world, adapting to any type of platform.
Additionally, the Headspace logo has also effectively helped Headspace to build a more memorable brand identity. The “Orange Dot” – the name used to refer to the icon, is also the name given to the editorial and blog section of the Headspace website.
If you want to take a closer look at the compelling Headspace logo, you can see some examples for yourself in the resources below:
What color is the Headspace logo?
The Headspace logo has always featured a combination of two colors. The primary Headspace logo color, and the shade used for the company’s iconic circular graphic, is a bright shade of orange.
Orange is a highly evocative color in the psychological world, symbolizing harmony, warmth, and creativity. It also symbolizes purity of mind in some cultures.
Grey is also included in the official Headspace logo colors when the company utilizes the combination mark for its branded assets. The deep grey color is a lot softer and more serene than black, helping to draw attention to Headspace’s mission of encouraging calm and mindfulness.
What font does the Headspace logo use?
As mentioned above, the Headspace brand doesn’t always use an inscription in all instances of its logo. However, when the wordmark is used, it appears in a simple, sans-serif font, with all lowercase letters.
The simple and streamlined font choice is intended to be universally accessible and beautifully balanced. It’s similar in style to the Apercu font.
What is the meaning of the headspace logo?
Looking back at Headspace logo history, we can see that the company effectively created a powerful visual identity from day one. Although the Headspace logo might not be as complex as some of the other emblems used by well-known brands around the world today, it’s still evocative.
The orange dot logo conveys ideas of balance and creativity, while showing the warmth and friendliness of the business itself. The circular shape is wonderful for highlighting ideas of calmness and purity.
Additionally, because the circle isn’t completely round, it also reminds us that imperfection can be beautiful too.
Minimalistic, bright, and beautiful, the Headspace logo perfectly demonstrates the mission of the brand to make meditation more appealing and accessible to everyone.
Fabrik: A branding agency for our times.
As Fabrik’s creative director, Stephen oversees complex branding programmes. He advises our clients on their tone of voice, creates logos and visual identities and crafts names for companies, products and services. Writing for Brand Fabrik Stephen reflects his love for logo design and visual identity.
