Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s New Logo: What Changed?
What changed in Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s logo after the HP split, how the current wordmark is built, and what that means for vector artwork.
Contents
What the current HPE logo is
Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s current logo is a separate brand identity created when the former Hewlett-Packard Company divided into two businesses in 2015. The asset in question is HPE’s own wordmark and green supporting form. HP Inc. continues to use the circular “hp” device for its personal-systems and printing business; that historic badge is a different company’s mark.
The change that matters for vector work is therefore corporate first, then visual. HPE needed lettering and color that would identify the enterprise company on its own. The identity is name-led: the words “Hewlett Packard Enterprise,” often shortened in application to a compact “hpe” logotype, with green as the signature color. Anyone preparing, requesting or evaluating artwork should match that current lockup rather than adapting the pre-split Hewlett-Packard circle.
What changed in the identity
The documented turning point is 1 November 2015, when Hewlett-Packard split into HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. HP Inc. retained the familiar circular hp logo. HPE launched a new identity for the enterprise technology businesses—servers, storage, networking, software and services—so the two successors would read as distinct companies in every application, from signage to vector masters.
Relative to the old Hewlett-Packard system, production teams should treat these differences as the working brief:
- HPE’s mark is a wordmark, with an optional green supporting form, rather than a letter pair locked inside a circle.
- Green is the color that carries HPE in print and on screen; classic HP applications were built around blue.
- Artwork sets typically include more than one approved configuration: the full legal name, a short “hpe” lockup, and color, monochrome and reversed versions of each.
- Minimum-size, clear-space and color values belong in current brand guidelines; they were not supplied for this article and should be copied from an official master rather than guessed from a preview.
Later HPE materials often present a tighter, lowercase “hpe” logotype. That is a real shift in how the brand is applied. A dated, credited redesign announcement, construction grid and designer or agency attribution for any refresh after the 2015 launch were not supplied here, so that tightening should be treated as an evolution of the wordmark’s use rather than a fully documented second rebrand.
How the mark is built, and what that means in vectors
HPE’s logo is a logotype-first system. The recognizable unit is custom or tightly drawn lettering, sometimes accompanied by a green supporting form. Readings of that form as a sprout, leaf or growth cue are interpretation. They are a visual impression, not a substitute for the company’s stated brand language, and they do not define how the paths should be drawn.
Vector construction follows ordinary logo-delivery practice. True production artwork is outlined paths, or live type still bound to a licensed font. A filename ending in SVG, EPS or AI does not establish that the file contains editable vectors: those containers often hold embedded raster images or auto-traced previews. Open the file in a vector editor and inspect the objects. Outlined lettering, a limited number of clean paths, and spot or specified process/RGB fills are what a usable master looks like. Jagged traces, a placed PNG inside a vector frame, and extra clipping masks are signs of a conversion, not of original artwork.
If the wordmark still contains live text, editing the lettering requires a license for that typeface. Permission to download a logo file is separate from permission to modify its paths or fonts, and both are separate from trademark permission to use the mark. Color should be taken from current brand guidance for the medium—print spot or process, screen RGB, and the specified green—rather than sampled from a compressed raster preview.
Full-name and short-name lockups are different artworks. Fitting “Hewlett Packard Enterprise” into a space designed for “hpe” will break proportion and clear space even when the paths themselves are clean. Choose the configuration the layout actually needs.
No official artwork was inspected for this article, so path economy, curve quality, whether the green form is a single compound path, and whether a given download is outlined or font-dependent cannot be confirmed from a name or extension alone.
Preparing and using the artwork
For readers evaluating, finding or producing a vector of the current HPE logo, the practical sequence is:
- Match the correct company identity: Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s wordmark and green supporting form, in the lockup the layout requires.
- Request the configuration you will apply—full name or short “hpe,” with or without the green form, and the colorway (green, mono or reversed).
- Obtain files through an authorized brand or legal channel. Unofficial conversions from a website raster are previews.
- Confirm the file contains outlined vectors or licensed live type by inspecting it in a vector editor for embedded images and auto-traced paths.
- Clear trademarks, font licenses and artwork copyright as separate permissions. A press-kit download typically supports accurate representation of the company; it does not, by itself, authorize a redraw, a combined mark or a new colorway.
What remains unspecified
Authorship of the 2015 identity, dates and credits for any later wordmark tightening, official drawing proportions, exact color values, minimum size and clear-space measurements were not supplied. Those specifications belong in HPE’s current brand guidelines and in an official vector master. Path-quality judgments and a definitive reading of the green supporting form should wait on inspected artwork from that source.