Red Hat

For Published

IT professionals and the enterprises that run on them, from developers and operations teams to IT decision makers, plus partners and open source contributors (paraphrase).

Problem Our reading

Hybrid reality: workloads spread across datacenter, cloud and edge, and tools that do not talk to each other (paraphrase of the voice examples and hybrid style handbook).

Promise Published

We unlock opportunities for innovation, everywhere.

Mission statement (2009) Published

Be the catalyst in communities of customers, contributors and partners that build better technology the open source way (paraphrase).

Proof behind each pillar

• Collaborators who show up for people. More than 90% of companies in the U.S. Fortune 500 rely on Red Hat (Red Hat client data and Fortune 500 list, 2026).
• Collaborators who show up for people. A global company of about 22,000 people.
• Builders of hybrid cloud platforms. Red Hat Enterprise Linux, sold by subscription since 2001, is the flagship product.
• Builders of hybrid cloud platforms. Four platform sub-brands: Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat OpenShift, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and Red Hat AI.
• The most reliable partner in tech. Red Hat Summit, the flagship event, held every year since 2005.
• The most reliable partner in tech. The Fedora Project, a Red Hat and volunteer partnership with tens of thousands of community members.

Story Published

Red Hat began when Marc Ewing, who sold his own Linux distribution on CDs and was known as the helpful guy in the red hat, joined Bob Young; Red Hat Software was born in 1995. It took on proprietary software with the rebel Shadowman logo, went public in 1999, swapped boxed Linux for Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscriptions in 2001, passed US$1 billion in 2012, and in 2019 joined IBM as an independent subsidiary and launched the current logo and fonts through the Open Brand Project.

Values

Category. Open hybrid cloud technology leader; enterprise open source software Observed

Why them

1. Open source the whole way: products built the open source way, upstream communities, and open fonts and icons. Published
2. Hybrid cloud platforms for consistency anywhere apps run. Published
3. An open ecosystem of partners and communities: freedom to change, flex or stay the course. Published
4. Support from open source experts who care about solving the problem together. Published

Instead of

Closed, proprietary software vendors (the upstart role Shadowman stood for).Clones of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (the 2006 Unfakeable Linux response).

Boilerplate Observed

Red Hat is an open hybrid cloud technology leader that gives enterprises a consistent, comprehensive foundation for transformative IT and AI applications. A trusted adviser to the Fortune 500, it offers cloud, developer, Linux, automation and application platform technologies, plus award-winning services.

Taglines

They never claim

• Tell the truth no matter what; no absolute promises. Published
• Be specific without being a know-it-all: a real number, not "more than any other platform". Published
• Third parties may use Red Hat word marks only truthfully and referentially; logos need a written agreement. Published
• Never imply Red Hat certification, endorsement or affiliation that does not exist. Published
• "No one innovates alone" is a mantra, not a marketing headline. Published
• Cite the source of statistics (the Fortune 500 claim carries a source line). Observed

A brand platform of three statements (value proposition, brand position, brand promise) summed up in the mantra "No one innovates alone". The public page gives the promise and three "We are..." lines, each tied to a way of innovating: confidently, consistently, comprehensively. The full statements live on the login-only intranet.

Source: redhat.com/en/about/brand/standards/platformredhat.com/enredhat.com/en/about/brand/standards/personality

• Sentence case headlines
• Never set text in all caps, not even small labels (acronyms excepted)
• Title case only for proper nouns such as product names or book titles
• No spaces before or after em or en dashes; hyphens join words, en dashes separate numbers, em dashes mark a break
• Write "and" when there is room; in tight UI labels or headlines use an ampersand, never a plus sign
• Curly quotation marks and apostrophes; straight marks only as primes for feet and inches
• Emphasize with bold or color, one treatment at a time; never italics, underline or caps for emphasis
• Headlines run three lines at most, avoid widows, and are about 3/4 the length of the text below
• Red Hat is two capitalized words, in the same typeface as the surrounding text, on one line where possible, and never translated (Simplified Chinese exception: 红帽)
• Superscript (R) after the first use of "Red Hat" as an adjective in body copy; none in headlines, quotes, tables of contents or when naming the company
• Use the full product name with trademark symbols on first mention in body copy (e.g. Red Hat(R) Enterprise Linux(R)); RHEL is the only listed short form, after first use
• Offerings start with "Red Hat" plus a descriptive name in title case; components are sentence case and add "Red Hat" only when needed
• Use a trademark as an adjective, never a verb, plural or possessive, and never in an acronym
• Never: RHAAP, AAP, RHAI, RAI, RHOS, ROSA, ARO, EL, Red Hat Artificial Intelligence. Say the full platform name (Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, Red Hat AI, Red Hat OpenShift, Red Hat Enterprise Linux)
• Tell the truth: no absolute promises (the guide rejects "You will never have to think about security again")
• Do not talk down to experts with leading rhetorical questions; say what they will learn
• Never use red to signal something negative; errors and decreases are danger-orange
• When AI tools help write copy, re-check every product name and trademark

ExperiencedCompassionateProgressive

Voice is experienced (not purist), compassionate (not compliant) and progressive (not reckless), each shown as a too-soft, right and too-hard line. Tone moves along four dials (formality, urgency, empathy, authority) chosen by reading the audience. Style asks for clear, concise, conversational, credible and compelling copy, with paired do and don't lines.

• Pick the line between too deferential and too know-it-all: specific and sourced
• Write like people talk, to people, not at them
• Keep it concrete: name the tool, the number, the outcome
• Cut every word that does not earn its place
• Never promise the impossible; never patronize experts
• Say something only Red Hat can say
• Sentence case; no all caps; no spaced dashes; ampersand only when tight, never a plus

• Voice is experienced, compassionate and progressive; tone flexes by audience along four dials: formality, urgency, empathy and authority.
• Start with the reader: their state of mind, how they should feel afterwards (flip the tension: uncertain becomes confident) and the one thing to take away.
• Style: clear, concise, conversational, credible, compelling. Write like people talk, to people not at them, and say something only Red Hat can say.
• Specific numbers beat vague claims and superlatives: "Trusted by 90% of Fortune 500 companies" sits between too deferential and too know-it-all.
• Typography carries the voice: sentence case everywhere, minimal ornament, big or bold headlines, red reserved for short lines.
• The trademark rules (two words, never translated, (R) after first adjectival use in body copy, full product names first) apply to all copy and AI-assisted copy.

Source: redhat.com/en/about/brand/standards/personalityredhat.com/en/about/brand/standards/personalityredhat.com/en/about/brand/standards/personality

Source: redhat.com/en/about/brand/standards/personalityredhat.com/en/about/brand/standards/typographyredhat.com/en/about/brand/standards/naming-and-trademarksredhat.com/en/about/trademark-guidelines-and-policies

The logo (Open Brand Project, 2019) is the hat, the same fedora Shadowman wore, plus a bold wordmark drawn from Red Hat Display. Three lockups: A horizontal (preferred), B stacked with the same sizes, C stacked with a small wordmark for large signage only. The hat can stand alone where the brand is already known.

Source: redhat.com/en/about/brand/standards/logoredhat.com/en/about/brand/standards/the-hatredhat.com/en/about/trademark-guidelines-and-policiesredhat.com/en

Core colors are red, black and white, with red tints and shades and neutral grays for depth. Expressive secondary families (orange, yellow, teal, purple) add energy but never stand alone. Auxiliary palettes are strictly functional: information (success-green, danger-orange, interaction-blue) and people (skin tones for illustration). Seven named collections set grounds and text colors per project. All families run 10 (light) to 80 (dark), and equal numbers share visual weight.

Not published: overall color proportions or ratios (only qualitative "pops of red"); CMYK and Pantone for most tints (login-only); exact gradient angles and sizing (login-only "gradient specs").

Source: redhat.com/en/about/brand/standards/colorredhat.com/en/about/brand/standards/hybrid-style-handbookux.redhat.com/tokens/colorux.redhat.com/foundations/color

One open source family designed for Red Hat: Display (default, geometric with human touches and 12-degree ascenders), Text (for reading) and Mono (for code). Typography is plain and roomy: flush left, sentence case, no tracking changes, generous margins, big or bold headlines, often in red. The design system publishes a full pixel scale.

Source: redhat.com/en/about/brand/standards/typographyux.redhat.com/foundations/typographyux.redhat.com/foundations/typography/scale-and-rhythmux.redhat.com/foundations/typography/type-specificsux.redhat.com/foundations/typography/guidelinesux.redhat.com/tokens/font

Hybrid style is Red Hat's expressive layer: collages that mix photography, studio portraits, people illustrations, 3D objects, 3D platform artwork, icons and logos on nine hat-derived base shapes, tied together by thin gradient strokes and one light source. Each project sits on a spectrum from essential (logo, core colors, icons, type) to expressive (secondary colors, 3D, portraits). A March 2026 update made light red, not light purple, the light-theme depth color and added an accent gradient.

Source: redhat.com/en/about/brand/standards/hybrid-style-handbookredhat.com/en/about/brand/standards/3dredhat.com/en/about/brand/standards/the-hatredhat.com/en/about/brand/standards/color

Three icon types: standard icons (artwork, 36-128px), UI icons and microns (interface), and technology icons (one per product or component, in a rounded rectangle). All share the visual metaphors, rounded strokes and 12-degree angles of the type. Standard and UI icons are CC BY 4.0.

Source: redhat.com/en/about/brand/standards/icons/standard-iconsredhat.com/en/about/brand/standards/icons/ui-iconsredhat.com/en/about/brand/standards/icons/technology-iconsux.redhat.com/foundations/iconography

Two 2D types. Mini illustrations show one idea from the icon metaphors, flattened, lit from the top left, in white, red-30 and red-50 at about 50:50 white to red, on a 1080px artboard with a 1000px key line. People illustrations are realistic, photo-referenced professionals with true proportions, gradients, hard shadows and edge lighting, skin from the people palette. A new people style arrived in March 2026.

Source: redhat.com/en/about/brand/standards/illustrationredhat.com/en/about/brand/standards/hybrid-style-handbookredhat.com/en/about/brand/standards/color

Candid, documentary photos of real people (Red Hatters, attendees, selected models) at work: whiteboards, conversations, hands on laptops, in naturally lit modern offices. Shallow depth of field, over-the-shoulder framing with foreground objects, soft diffused window light, slightly desaturated warm-neutral grade, with a little natural red as a focal point.

Source: redhat.com/en/about/brand/standards/photographyredhat.com/en/about/brand/standards/hybrid-style-handbook

Motion is described only for hybrid style: collages come alive as base shapes scale and morph to carry scene changes, platform-art backdrops frame video, and elements pop out of frames. Video outros use the animated logo. No curves or durations are public.

Source: redhat.com/en/about/brand/standards/hybrid-style-handbookredhat.com/en/about/brand/standards/3dredhat.com/en/about/brand/standards/logoux.redhat.com/foundations/interactions/focus-indicators