Viatris logo history, meaning and new emblem
If you’re familiar with the world of pharmaceuticals and healthcare, you may have already encountered the Viatris logo. Born from a merger between two well-known medical companies, Mylan, and Upjohn, Viatris has made a significant impact on its industry. Here’s everything you need to know about Viatris logo history, and the evolution of the brand.
Compared to other well-known health and pharmaceutical companies around the world, Viatris is a relatively new addition to the field. It launched officially in 2020, following a successful merger between two pre-existing companies.
However, despite its relatively short life in the marketplace, Viatris has already begun to successfully capture the attention of a wide audience, thanks to its evocative branding strategy.
Not only is the name of the company meaningful, but the values of the brand are conveyed in everything it does, from its marketing messaging to its logo design.
Here’s everything you need to know about the Viatris logo, and the evolving brand behind the pharmaceutical corporation.
What does Viatris stand for? An introduction to Viatris
Before we begin looking at Viatris logo history, and the companies that came before the new organization, it’s worth exploring the Viatris brand itself. Introduced in the year 2020, Viatris is an American pharmaceutical and healthcare corporation, which serves customers worldwide.
The corporation was formed through the merger of Upjohn (a legacy division of the Pfizer company), and Mylan.
Following the combination of the two brands, the business leaders decided to create an entirely new brand, while still utilizing the marketing and advertising efforts of the previous companies. The name “Viatris” was chosen to reflect the company’s core mission and values.
The moniker is taken from the Latin words “Via”, which translates to “path”, and “tris”, which refers to the number “three”. The word “three” highlights the path to the three main objectives set by the company: meeting patient needs with innovation, earning trust, and expanding access to medicine.
Despite being a relatively young pharmaceutical brand, Viatris has already made waves in the landscape, ranking on the Fortune 500 lists of the largest US companies in 2020 by revenue. It was also ranked fifth on the annual “Change the World” list produced by Fortune.
In 2022, Viatris was chosen by Forbes as one of the world’s best employers, and was also named one of America’s most responsible companies by Newsweek.
What is the old name for Viatris?
Viatris doesn’t technically have an “old name”. However, the company was formed by the merger of two pre-existing companies. Upjohn was previously a pharmaceutical manufacturing firm introduced in 1875 by William E. Upjohn.
Alternatively, Mylan was a global generic and specialty pharmaceutical company founded in 1961.
Viatris logo history: The evolution of Viatris
Since Viatris has only been operating in the pharmaceutical space for a couple of years, it hasn’t got much of a logo history to explore. The company created a new visual brand and name before launching officially in 2020, and has retained the same image ever since.
However, we can take a look back at the logos of the two companies which merged to form Viatris. For instance, the Upjohn company, founded in 1886, used a relatively simplistic logo, featuring a serif-style wordmark depicted in white on a black, rectangular background.
The Mylan logo, on the other hand, was a little more decorative, but still quite straightforward. Mylan used a combination mark for its logo, featuring a symbol on the left, and a wordmark on the right.
The name of the company is depicted in a sans-serif font, in sentence case. It appears in black on a white or transparent background in most cases. The symbol consists of three blue test tubes, placed within a square black border with rounded edges.
The Viatris logo, introduced with the development of the new brand in 2020, seems to take nothing from the emblems of its predecessors. Although it is a combination mark, like the Mylan logo, the elements are completely different, from the font choices to the color palette.
On the right-hand side of the emblem, we have the Viatris wordmark, depicted in all capital letters, in a sleek and sophisticated sans-serif font. The letters are written in a dark shade of blue, often associated with trust and sophistication in the world of color psychology.
On the left of the logo, we see the newly created Viatris symbol. In the center is a globe, depicted in a matching shade of dark blue, with gridlines across the center. The globe is surrounded by three curved lines, which overlap in places to demonstrate unity.
The three colors represent the values of the company. Dark blue is intended to represent trust and leadership, while purple indicates collaboration and partnership. The golden yellow color conveys ideas of joy, excellence, and vitality.
The Viatris logo: Fonts and colors
Though it may seem like quite a straightforward combination mark at a glance, the Viatris logo is highly evocative, and steeped in meaning.
The globe represents Viatris’ commitment to serving a huge audience of patients around the world. The three lines around the globe, depicted in different colors, represent the three paths referred to in the “Viatris” name.
According to a press release issued by the brand, the new emblem is intended to demonstrate the company’s core purpose of empowering people around the world to enjoy excellent health at every stage of their lives.
If you want to see the elements of the Viatris logo in closer detail, you can find some excellent resources linked here:
What color is the Viatris logo?
The Viatris logo colors are one of the most interesting parts of the company’s emblem. They take nothing from the logos of the companies that joined forces to create the new organization in 2020, highlighting Viatris as a brand-new entity.
The three colors in the logo are blue, yellow, and purple, chosen to represent the three paths conveyed in the “Viatris” name. They stand for access, partnership, and leadership.
Although the company hasn’t revealed the hex codes of the Viatris logo color palette, they have shared their thoughts on how these colors directly connect with their core missions and values.
What font does the Viatris logo use?
The Viatris logo font is relatively simple at a glance, but it’s intended to highlight the modernity and professionalism of the brand. The sans-serif typeface is depicted all in uppercase letters, shifting away from the sentence case structure used by the previous two companies.
Intended to highlight balance, strength, and power, the carefully chosen typeface features strong lines and smooth curves, with no unusual decorative elements. It’s similar in some ways to popular font families like Open Sans and Arial, which are also used in the company’s brand guidelines.
The evolution of the Viatris brandmark
Looking back at Viatris logo history, we can see the owners of the company chose to take their new entity in a completely different direction to the predecessor brands. Created in collaboration with the Conran Design Group, the logo is intended to convey significant meaning in a relatively small space.
The shifting gradients around the globe image in the logo icon all offer insights into the values and purpose of the company.
Blue connects with ideas of health, harmony, and reliability, while purple showcases compassion and community. The yellow or golden element in the logo reminds us of the joy and enlightenment Viatris hopes to bring to its customers.
Viatris created a logo that effectively demonstrates leadership and authority, despite the relatively short lifespan of the company. The design is evocative and meaningful, intended to connect with consumers around the world on a deeper level.
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.
