No, but that doesn’t mean he will be a feature of our new logo, either.

Shadowman is a symbol from our early days. He represents a time when our founders embraced our outsider status and ran with it. Part superhero, part private detective, Shadowman reflects our origin story, especially our early market strategy of “sneaking” open source into datacenters.

Today, our brand is based on openness and transparency.

Still, Shadowman is a potent symbol attached to a powerful story. He represents our company history of doing the right thing.

To refine or create a brand identity, logo, and corresponding brand system that:

• Feels both current and timeless.
• Aligns with our brand and values.
• Works well across cultures.
• Is prominent and visible.
• Is easy to use correctly and consistently in any application.
• Follows an open and transparent design process.

It has been 17 years since we’ve made any changes to the Red Hat logo. A lot has changed in that time—our company, our industry, our competitors. The world.

Over the years, our logo has served us well. It’s simple and clean. It’s loved by associates and brand experts alike. It’s distinctive, ownable, and stands out from our competitors. But it’s starting to show its age.

There are also issues with logo visibility and prominence, an aging visual style, and a general lack of a logo system, which all need to be addressed.

The rise of digital communications and Red Hat’s increased investment in marketing our brand to the world have led to our current logo posing myriad challenges in the ways we need it to work. Our logo should facilitate our efforts to tell our story in new and modern ways, and to new audiences, not hinder it.

We’ve changed, we’ve grown, our place in the world is different, and our identity should reflect that.

Our logo was created in 1996 and refreshed in 2000. (Read more about the history of our logo.)

America Online bought Time Warner for US$162 billion. Bill Gates left Microsoft. Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston got married. The original dot-com bubble burst, Napster disrupted the music industry, and Dora the Explorer premiered. Phones had nothing to do with cameras. Social media? MySpace didn’t launch until 2003.

All of us. To create a new logo and brand system with shared meaning for everyone, we need to work together.

The day-to-day design work will be done inhouse―a collaboration among Red Hat designers, influential Red Hat thinkers, and leaders from multiple teams and functions across the company. Red Hat has partnered with Pentagram, a distinguished international design consultancy in New York to guide us on our journey. Paula Scher, a partner at Pentagram and world-renowned graphic designer, will provide creative direction throughout the project.

No. The Open Brand Project is not a crowdsourcing project. We are not accepting designs from the public. It is not a design contest, and no designers are working for free. There won’t be any voting or a Boaty McBoatface situation.

Instead, we are inviting people to share criticism, thoughts, and ideas. We are sharing our work as we go, letting people see our process as it unfolds in the name of transparency.

Yes.

The Red Hatters with Shadowman tattoos we have talked to (12 that we know of) understand the problems we need to solve. Some have even asked if they can be the first to get tattoos of the new logo.