It was founded in 1948 as a “Mechanical Finance Company”, set up by IRI (Institute for Industrial Reconstruction) and under the control of the Italian state, to reorganize the industrial sector, in crisis after the damage suffered during the war. At the beginning the logo was simply identified with the name of the company, composed with the Clarendon font with heavy graces, and represented the great Italian “machinery” industry; a mission that was also evoked through the corporate magazine “Civiltà delle Macchine”.

In 1964, for the first time, a symbol was associated with the name Finmeccanica: a toothed wheel to communicate, with greater incisiveness, the industrial vocation of the institution. In 1978, after leaving the shipbuilding group, the consolidation of the thermo-electro-mechanical assets and the constant production development towards the most technologically advanced aerospace and electronics sectors, the holding logo was born: a hub of cubes to express the interdependence of the Italian industrial sector.

In 1987 Finmeccanica becomes a joint stock company; a holding company focused on business consolidation in sectors with a strong technological connotation, on internationalization to face a more global and competitive market, on technological excellence to maintain leadership in the strategic sectors of the group. Therefore the logo is revisited and identifies itself with the logotype only; it was designed by Edindustria (a company of the Iri group) while the visual identity system was developed by the Inarea agency. The choice of the red lettering, composed with the slightly retouched Bodoni font, wants to symbolize the Italian tradition and style, enhancing the leadership that the group is building also at an international level. At the beginning of the year 2000, the Finmeccanica group was concretely embarked on a global projection in the aerospace, defense and security sectors; the visual identity of the group is still very varied and the international projection of the group makes the need to spread awareness of the logo even beyond the Italian borders more and more evident.

In 2006 Finmeccanica adopted a new logo and a group brand identity, designed by Carrè Noir, with the task of making the communication of all companies coherent, homogeneous and recognizable. The symbol is a sphere made up of seven “petals” which represent the relative business sectors of the group; a sphere that also represents the outside world, that of the global market towards which Finmeccanica tends. The distinctive colors are red and gray; the red petals of the sphere make up the letter “F” from Finmeccanica. The associated logo is made with uppercase and linear font; all Finmeccanica companies, to affirm team spirit, add the same symbol to their name.

The evolution continues in 2012 with greater characterization: the logo is all red and there is a reduction in the weight of the symbol compared to the logo.

In 2016 marks a new chapter in Finmeccanica’s history: from a holding company managing a group of companies with its own autonomy, it becomes “One Company”, an integrated industrial reality organized into divisions in which the activities carried out by the companies converge. The name that, for more than 60 years, has identified the group is no longer adequate to represent the new image; Finmeccanica is no longer a financial company (Fin) but an operating company focused on high-tech products and services that no longer reflect the original mission (Mechanics). This determines the new name, Leonardo, which is inspired by the Italian genius but is also a universal symbol of innovation, research and creativity applied to every field of investigation. In the new logo, the graphic sign maintains the link with the past, with the image of the rays converging to form a moving globe, introducing however two new elements to mark the new identity of the company: the pictogram has changed direction, giving the sensation, even visual, of a change of pace in the beginning of a new path and the rays have become eight, like propellers in a constant movement.