Arduino Brand Guidelines: Open-Source Boards, the Teal PCB & the Maker Movement

Arduino opened up hardware.

Arduino is a lesson in openness as a strategy. It began in 2005 at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea (IDII) in Ivrea, Italy, as a cheap, easy tool so students, designers and artists could build interactive electronics without deep engineering knowledge. Its commonly credited co-creators are Massimo Banzi, David Cuartielles, Tom Igoe, Gianluca Martino and David Mellis. (A lovely, verified detail: the name comes from Bar di Re Arduino, a bar in Ivrea where the founders met, itself named after Arduin of Ivrea, an 11th-century King of Italy.) (Honest caveats: no official brand hex is published, so the teal below is approximate, and the wordmark typeface is undocumented.)

The defining choice is open source. Both the hardware (board reference designs and schematics) and the software (the Arduino IDE) are open, so anyone can study, modify, build on — or legally clone — them (only the Arduino name and logo are trademarked). That openness turned Arduino into the foundation of the global maker movement: hobbyist electronics, DIY, robotics, wearables, art installations and classroom STEM projects worldwide. By lowering the barrier and inviting everyone in, Arduino grew a vast, creative community.

The flagship is the Arduino Uno (released 2010, built on an Atmel AVR microcontroller — note the project is 2005 but the Uno board is 2010), alongside the Nano, Mega and others. The boards carry a distinctive teal/turquoise silkscreen — a deliberate, counterfeit-resistant brand signal (Arduino literally blogged about “the perfect teal”). The logo is an infinity symbol (∞) with a minus (−) nested in one loop and a plus (+) in the other — signifying endless creativity and electrical polarity — beside the “ARDUINO” wordmark. (Note the ~2015 Arduino LLC vs SRL trademark split, resolved in 2016–17.) A tiny teal board that democratised electronics.

Arduino lives in teal. Click a swatch to copy the hex.

Arduino’s identity is defined by its signature teal/turquoise, the colour of its circuit boards. The teal reads as friendly, distinctive and approachable — a warm, un-intimidating colour for a product meant to invite beginners into electronics — and it’s genuinely ownable: almost no other tech brand uses it, so a teal board is instantly recognisable as Arduino. The company even chose it deliberately as a counterfeit-resistant brand signal. It’s a fresh, memorable scheme that stands apart from the green PCBs and black gear of the electronics world, perfectly matching Arduino’s open, welcoming, maker-friendly spirit. The honest caveat: Arduino publishes no official brand hex — the teal (commonly cited near #008184 / #00979D) is an observed approximation, not a first-party value.

The lesson is own an uncontested colour to become recognisable. Arduino’s teal makes its boards instantly identifiable and even helps fight counterfeits. For designers, it’s a textbook case of picking a distinctive, ownable colour. The takeaways: choose a colour rivals don’t use so you can own it (the teal); apply it consistently as a recognisable signal (the board silkscreen); and treat specific hexes as approximate when no official spec is published.

The wordmark is a clean sans with an infinity mark — friendly and open.

Arduino’s identity pairs a clean sans wordmark with its infinity-symbol logo (the ∞ with a nested minus and plus). The even, approachable letterforms read as friendly, modern and inclusive, matching a brand whose mission is to welcome beginners into electronics, and the infinity mark is a clever, meaningful device — endless creativity plus the plus/minus of electrical polarity, all in one symbol. In the signature teal, the whole identity feels open, optimistic and maker-friendly rather than intimidating or corporate. It’s clean and warm — exactly the “anyone can build this” personality Arduino wants. (Because the exact face is undocumented, the honest description is “a clean sans,” not a named font.) The type behaves like the brand: friendly, open and inclusive.

Arduino grew by giving it away.

Arduino is a lesson in how openness can build an unbeatable community. Counter-intuitively, by making its hardware and software open — even allowing legal clones — Arduino didn’t undermine itself; it built a massive, loyal global community that made “Arduino” the default name and platform for hobbyist electronics. Openness lowered the barrier for millions of learners and makers, generated endless tutorials, libraries and projects, and turned the brand into an ecosystem far larger than any single company could build alone. The trademarked name and logo (and the trust in the “real” boards, signalled by that teal) let Arduino monetise while the openness kept the community growing. It’s proof that giving things away, done right, can be a powerful moat.

For designers and brand-builders, Arduino offers a clear takeaway: openness and community can be a stronger moat than secrecy — while a trademarked identity keeps the brand ownable. The lessons: lower the barrier to build a huge community (open hardware and software); keep the name, logo and a recognisable signal trademarked/ownable (the “Arduino” name, the teal); and let the ecosystem become the value. It’s also a reminder to keep the facts precise — Arduino began in 2005 in Ivrea, Italy (name from a local bar), is open-source hardware and software, founded the maker movement, has the Uno (2010) as its flagship, and uses the infinity logo in signature teal. Arduino grew by giving it away — proof that openness can be a moat.

Keep Arduino’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.