# Arm new logo (2017)

> Arm launched a new logo in Aug 2017. New logo.

## Key facts

- Brand: Arm
- Launched: Aug 2017
- What changed: New logo.
- Industry: Consumer electronics
- Logos: https://rebrandlog.com/logos/arm-2017/before.png (before), https://rebrandlog.com/logos/arm-2017/after.svg (after)

## The rebrand, explained

The chip designer formerly known as Acorn RISC Machine was acquired by SoftBank in 2016 for about $31 billion. Eleven months later, LinuxGizmos reported in August 2017, it had quietly rebranded with a hipper lowercase logo. The new look debuted in a YouTube video on 1 August rather than through a formal announcement.

The name itself became a small puzzle. LinuxGizmos found the company's own website mixing ARM, Arm and arm, and noted visible indecision in the edit history of its Wikipedia page. The company's PR director settled it by email: the logo is all lowercase, and in text the name is Arm. The capitalised acronym, a relic of the Acorn era, was gone.

The video built on messaging from a speech by its chief executive at SoftBank World 2017 in Tokyo. It claimed Arm technology touched 70 per cent of the world's population and powered 95 per cent of mobile devices, with 100 billion Arm-based chips shipped, and set out a vision of a trillion devices on one foundation, technology so seamless that it empowers the best in life, making life better and happier for everyone.

LinuxGizmos was openly sarcastic. It called the video platitude-rich, said the message soared into la-la land over a montage of blissed-out faces, and greeted the promise of happiness for everyone with a Hallelujah.

IT Home in China noticed the change on the company's website and Twitter account, where the capital letters gave way to a rounder lowercase arm, sitting above an image of a connected globe. The company offered no explanation, the site observed, though the move was easy to read as a nod to the internet of things and the coming 5G era. Launching a new identity without a word of explanation is a strange kind of confidence, but the softer lowercase does at least look less like an acronym and more like a name.

The mockery is fair, but the logo is not the problem. Lowercase type is the default costume of a friendlier tech company, and arm is wearing it. Dropping the all-caps acronym makes sense for a business that wants to be seen as the quiet platform under a trillion things rather than an acronym. What the change lacked was a single clear story, and the confusion over capitals proves it.

In short: ARM, Arm or arm.

## Sources

- https://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/new_logo_for_arm.php
- https://linuxgizmos.com/arm-becomes-arm-or-is-it-arm/
- https://www.arm.com/company/policies/trademarks/brand-journey

## Cite this

Rebrand Log, "Arm new logo (2017)", https://rebrandlog.com/rebrand/arm-2017/, last updated 2026-10-20.