Microsoft Unveils First New Company Logo In 25 Years 378
Barence writes "For the first time in 25 years, Microsoft has issued a new company logo to usher in the Windows 8 era. Made up of a newly square Windows symbol alongside grey Microsoft logo type, it's been designed to closely match the logos for other products in Microsoft's portfolio, including Office and Xbox. The logo takes pride of place on Microsoft.com from today, and will be used in Microsoft's retail stores and on all future TV ads."
poor (Score:5, Funny)
there is no dollar sign in there.
Logo for Microsoft, not MS (Score:5, Funny)
there is no dollar sign in there.
Of course there isn't. The logotype part is "Microsoft", not "MS". The dollar sign, an homage to Microsoft's roots as a BASIC interpreter publisher, comes in only when you abbreviate it as M$.
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Re:Logo for Microsoft, not MS (Score:5, Funny)
Yes there is... (Score:5, Funny)
there is no dollar sign in there.
If you watch the video [youtube.com] introducing the logo, you'll note that three of the colors represent broad categories of Microsoft - Blue is Windows, Red is Office, and Green is XBox.
So what's the color remaining they didn't provide an explicit mapping for in the video?
Gold.
Well played, Microsoft.
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Re:poor (Score:4, Funny)
My thoughts go to Ludo [wikipedia.org], which also uses less vibrant versions of RGBY, just like Microsoft does.
But what I thought the most funny was how the logo doesn't work well with jpeg. Look at the two version of the logo on the pcpro page linked to, and there's horribly visible jpeg artifacts on the logo. This is a well-known problem when trying to use right angles between differently colored fields.
Of course, png would work better, but so many web sites still use jpg even for logos that Microsoft might face a small problem here.
Re:poor (Score:5, Informative)
Re:poor (Score:5, Insightful)
One of the interesting things about this is the amount of money spent to create this logo. It probably runs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Internally, they probably went through multiple design revisions, followed by multiple meetings on how the logo should look and what the brand "evokes", followed by multiple meetings at the very top of the company to confirm these findings. And that's if it was done internally; if they hired an agency to do this it could easily have cost them millions.
All for something I could have done with Powerpoint.
Re:poor (Score:5, Funny)
Or done in Paint.
Re:poor (Score:5, Interesting)
Good simple logos are hard to do. Look at FedEx. That needed an all new font just to get the subtle symbolism.
And simple is the right direction. If you look at art or old magazines, the designs of illustrations go from a type of baroque, all curvy and overdetailed to ever more simplified.
The problem with the new logo isn't that it's simple, it's that it's generic. The four colors always were. Google and eBay has similiar colors by now (although they incorporate it into the name itself). I think Microsft has the most generic logo out there for a major corporation and without the "Microsoft" next to it, most people wouldn't be able to place it -- unlike, say, a Mercedes Star or some such.
Re:poor (Score:4, Insightful)
Good simple logos are hard to do.
Bad simple logos are easy to do. Like this one. Or do you see something good about it?
Once again, major props to Steve Ballmer for keeping that impressively steady hand on the tiller, straight towards the rocks.
Re:poor (Score:5, Insightful)
All for something I could have done with Powerpoint.
Piece of chalk $0.05
Knowing where to make the mark $5000
The tools used does not determine the difficulty of the project.
Re:poor (Score:5, Funny)
Actually, there was a glitch in the organization: developers ended up designing the logo and designers ended up developing Windows 8.
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Thanks, I just spent 10 minutes reading about vomiting.
Looks like Metro tiles (Score:5, Funny)
Next best thing to putting Clippy in there, I guess.
Re:Looks like Metro tiles (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Looks like Metro tiles (Score:5, Interesting)
This guy would agree with you ;-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk2sPl_Z7ZU [youtube.com]
How to paint the MONA LISA with MS PAINT
The artist also "draws" with Cheetos ... no joke. He is *good*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IoqpXQ_dpA [youtube.com]
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You're right, and it's obviously not a coincidence. I for one, welcome our new Metro Overlords!
Re:Looks like Metro tiles (Score:5, Funny)
You're right, and it's obviously not a coincidence. I for one, welcome our new Windows 8 Style UI Overlords!
FTFY
Re:Looks like Metro tiles (Score:5, Funny)
I prefer "The UI formerly known as Metro"
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Re:Looks like Metro tiles (Score:5, Funny)
“People liked NASCAR because the constant crashes made it exciting, and this gave me an idea...”
-- Bill Gates on Microsoft Windows
Another brilliant idea, change the look of your brand as the exciting crash of the company begins.
For those of you not able to tell, this is my terrible attempt at humor.
Re:Looks like Metro tiles (Score:4, Interesting)
My local telecom came out with new branding with pastel colors and sharp squarish logos right before it was sold off.
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M$ has too much cash on hand to be sold off. They'd have to hemorrhage quite a bit before they could be bought out. Either that or they could get rid of Ballmer!
Spin-outs (Score:4, Interesting)
M$ has too much cash on hand to be sold off.
How much cash would Microsoft have to hemorrhage before having to spin out pieces of itself? Would Xbox be the first to go?
Re:Looks like Metro tiles (Score:5, Insightful)
Either that or they could get rid of Ballmer!
Hey, shut up! Don't give them any ideas! I'm personally enjoying watching this trainwreck unfold.
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I thought hipsters don't carry cash.
Re:Looks like Metro tiles (Score:5, Funny)
"People liked NASCAR because the constant crashes made it exciting, and this gave me an idea..."
-- Bill Gates on Microsoft Windows
"You Can't Believe Most of the Quotes You Read On the Internet"
-- Abraham Lincoln
Re:Looks like Metro tiles (Score:4, Funny)
"No, wait, this one goes to the mouth..." [acousticmonster.com]
- some Win8 UX designer who thinks Win8 is an upgrayedd.
(Personally, I'm not sure.)
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LMAO more proof of how prophetic Idiocracy was! XD
Re:Looks like Metro tiles (Score:5, Funny)
They had to change because Apply has the property rights for round corners...
Launched? Unveiled? (Score:3)
I'm pretty sure I've already seen this exact logo out in front of their Microsoft Store at University Village for quite some time now (maybe a year?).
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I've seen this logo everywhere
(Browsing with Noscript gives a nice white, blank box).
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That's not the logo. This is. [pcpro.co.uk] You can see it clearly just a few lines below (and yes, I'm using noscript myself)
Re:Launched? Unveiled? (Score:5, Insightful)
Damn, there's some awful optical illusions going on there... Gray dot in the middle, faint lines of off colors equidistant from the white separator bars in each of the color boxes.
Maybe it's just the poor quality of JPG?
Re:Launched? Unveiled? (Score:4, Informative)
That's definitely overcompressed.
Re: (Score:3)
Cum on your monitor, maybe?
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That was my reaction as well. This is the logo used at the store since it opened last year. Now its just the official logo and will show up more and more as they update their various products.
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According to the Microsoft blog [technet.com] (which wasn't linked in the PC Pro article), you're correct.
Better Article (Score:5, Informative)
This article [nwsource.com] shows a history of Microsoft's logos.
Re:Better Article (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, and let me be the first to say, I think they went backwards.
That logo belongs in the 80s. I'm saying this as a graphic designer too; The colors are flat, solid. It uses simple geometric shapes. The only thing that tells me that this isn't vintage is the kerning on the text at the end (they overlapped the crossbar on the 'f' and 't'), which wasn't terribly common in that day. And yes, I am saying this knowing the design house that created the logo (very disappointed, Pentagram... you're supposed to be the best here. Da fuq happened?).
I know it was designed to evoke feelings of openness and friendliness, but to me it just comes off as dated. But maybe I'm jaded because I know that Microsoft OS' follow the same rule as Star Trek movies: Every other one sucks. And maybe I am being harsh on Pentagram; I mean, it's hard to design a logo for something you know is going to explode on the launchpad.
But still guys, it's pretty 80s. You could have at least... I don't know... tilted the squares a little? Something. Anything. It's very boring.
Re:Better Article (Score:5, Funny)
That said, I actually like this logo (yes, feel free to mod me +funny). I think that simple and flat shading evokes modernity and that trying to be fancy and use gradients or otherwise trying to make things pop-out or use 3D-ish looking elements is on its way out.
As far as boring goes, we are talking about a large software company that makes most it's money of licensing software for big business, it's not a games studio or a high-octane energy drink company, the logo was never going to be neon green with a lightning flash. I wouldn't call Apple, Google, or Facebook's logos exciting either, they are functional. These companies live or die based on their products, not their logos.
Re:Better Article (Score:5, Insightful)
Bah. Pentagram made a Windows 8 logo. Look at the one on their own homepage by Paula Scher, their lead designer and goddess in the design world -- monochrome, baby blue, sans serif font, angled rectangles. That looked modern.
Logos are supposed to look simple, they're symbols; and should be easily recognizable and (ideally) capable of being used in black and white. Anyone who's taken a semester of graphic design classes could tell you that much.
And don't say companies don't live or die based on their logos: Brand identity is what separates Pepsi from Coke. I won't get into the research and market data that says how important this is, but it is and you're making a huge mistake to think otherwise.
Re:Better Article (Score:4, Insightful)
However, when it comes to Microsoft Server software and say Linux server software, these are two very different products with a vast array of differences and relative positives and negatives. The people in charge of choosing whether a database server gets Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server or Linux and MySQL is going to be looking at up-times, security, compatibility, and so on. The point I'm trying to make is that the branding of a company is definitely more important for some companies than others and soda especially is an example of where branding is hugely important, business software, not so much.
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That logo belongs in the 80s.
Have you noticed women's hair styles lately? The synth-pop dance music? Hell, even the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are back on TV. I'll bet you anything we're in for a punk revival soon.
Re:Better Article (Score:5, Informative)
I'm saying this as a graphic designer too ... kerning on the text at the end (they overlapped the crossbar on the 'f' and 't')
I don't want to be a dick, but that's not kerning, that's a ligature, and it's been present in various scripts for about five thousand years (seriously). Furthermore, neither 'f' nor 't' have crossbars; they have cross strokes.
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Hahaha quite funny to imagine them having that logo. I can just see a younger Steve Ballmer playing air guitar with a long wig on XD
Re: (Score:2)
If it makes you feel any better I temp-allowed their site and it still didn't work.
Either Microsoft stole it from this guy (Score:5, Funny)
http://www.bestlookinglogos.com/2009/07/four-square-logo/ [bestlookinglogos.com]
or they paid him $50 for it
Re:Either Microsoft stole it from this guy (Score:5, Funny)
Hey, rounded corners make all the difference. You should know that by now.
Re:Either Microsoft stole it from this guy (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe they rolled out this new logo because the old Windows logo had rectangles with curved sides in it. And curved sides are just rounded corners for the straight parts!
Re:Either Microsoft stole it from this guy (Score:5, Funny)
And curved sides are just rounded corners for the straight parts!
What's really screwed up is that this is not the most nonsensical statement on Slashdot. It's probably not even the most nonsensical thing I've personally seen on Slashdot today.
One of the linked story's comments was right (Score:5, Funny)
It really does look like the image used on a Quatro can: http://www.canmuseum.com/Staging/Images/Cans/22681.jpg [canmuseum.com]
I find it okay (Score:3)
I don't like the spacing between the f and t, aesthetically, but I like clean lines and simple designs so it works pretty well for me.
What I see... (Score:5, Funny)
So is the average user going to think that the logo is the app for the game Simon? Artistic brilliance, aye! Should make that playable while computer boots...
Yeah, it's a crap logo (Score:5, Interesting)
To be expected. What I want to know is:
a) How much time did they spend on this?
b) How much money did they spend on it?
Anything north of 12 months and $50 mil, I'll be suitably disgusted and impressed. 24 months and $100 mil, they deserve some kind of fail award.
already leaked, perhaps? (Score:4, Informative)
Interesting...a few weeks ago I recall seeing an article somewhere about supposedly leaked designs for new Microsoft devices -- I think it was a portable mouse and some other things, can't remember where I saw it. But one of the comments pointed out that it was probably fake, because the Microsoft logo on the devices didn't have their usual slant, didn't have the notch in the o.....it basically looked like this one. Perhaps they weren't fake after all?
Re: (Score:2)
Oh, it was the 'wedge' mouse, and it's already official. Well, guess that clears that one up!
Boring (Score:3)
Worse than the flag, that's an achievement.
Ligature (Score:3, Funny)
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Unimaginative (Score:5, Insightful)
Apparently this is the "less is more" philosophy... but at the same time, it is plain and unimaginative. Isn't it bad for a company that aims to prove that they can reinvent themselves?
Love the current comments on that page (Score:5, Funny)
"I can't help but think of windows 3.11 for some reason."
"Does my monitor need calibrating again, or do those four colours in the panes look curiously sickly?"
Return to fomer glory (Score:2)
Not.
... and made with MS Paint (Score:5, Funny)
Really? This looks like the last thing you drew before you thought, "I should try out the circle brush."
Re: (Score:2)
I bet Steve Ballmer made it himself!
How much did that actually cost? (Score:4, Funny)
Four squares and some basic typeset.
I can't even imagine how much they actually paid for this with all the different designs submitted, numerous meetings going over designs, tweaks to it.
I can imagine the comments in the meeting though.
"Yeah Bob. What we're looking for is something that says simple and not over thought. Go back and try AGAIN."
It looks juvenile (Score:2)
Seriously, this is the best they could do?
Re: (Score:3)
just wait till sp1 for better colors
Another fugly design from the marketing droids (Score:5, Insightful)
slashdot (Score:2)
how long before /. updates their logo then?
It's like the Polaroid logo turned 45 degrees (Score:2)
Compare with the Polaroid logo. [wikimedia.org]
This tiled-rectangle thing is getting completely out of hand. Even on phones it looks stupid.
10,000 Hours in MSPaint (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
More than both of us combined :-(
25 years worth of work... (Score:4, Insightful)
Logo is fine, font is wrong. (Score:5, Funny)
Given the latest developments, the font should've been MS Comic Sans.
That does it! (Score:3)
I'm totally upgrading to Metro now!
Sweet Jesus (Score:5, Funny)
That thing is so bad the f is molesting the t out of sheer despair.
Re: (Score:3)
Don't kid yourself. The t likes it.
Are you kidding me? (Score:3)
This logo looks like it came out of a middle-school art contest in the 80's.
Do they even realize how hokey it is or have they just all drank the Metro kool-aid?
So they *really* can't let go of the Windows brand (Score:3)
For years, Microsoft has been stuck on making everything "Windows". "Word for Windows". "Windows Live Messenger". "Windows Phone". Their marketing department seems convinced that it's their strongest brand and needs to be spread to absolutely everything, no matter how irrelevant.
They clearly now have committed the whole company to it, building the Windows logo into the company logo.
Personally, I think it's tedious and repititive and of little value. But they clearly aren't going to let go now...
Re: (Score:3)
Probably had to eat with only one hand too.
Re:Stop laughing (Score:4, Insightful)
The designer must of taken a whole lunch break to create it.
Mayhaps but, you know it went something like..
Hey we need a new logo
Send out the RFP
Receive hundreds if not thousand of submissions, most of them decidedly silly
Spend hours upon days upon weeks of LSERs (Logo Submission Evaluation Reviews) to narrow the field
Toss that into the pot and go with an Execs 5yo did in crayon
Re:Stop laughing (Score:5, Funny)
This is Microsoft you are talking about here.
This was designed by multiple committees each of which would only support their own design.
After 3 months of deliberations Balmer sat in on a committee meeting and determined the winner by lining up the different executives that ran each committee and then started throwing chairs at them. The last one standing won.
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Re:Stop laughing (Score:5, Funny)
have. It's "must HAVE". "of" makes no sense.
The best response of that nature that I've seen read something like "Do you of any idea how annoying that is?"
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Wow, oh wow! Whoa! A square rainbow! WHAT DOES IT MEAN!?!? T_T
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Wow, oh wow! Whoa! A square rainbow! WHAT DOES IT MEAN!?!? T_T
The video linked in the Technet announcement [technet.com] is interesting:
blue: Windows
red: Office
green: XBOX
yellow: ???
Maybe Microsoft is planning a new product line ... (if yellow was Server or dev tools there would be no reason not to include it in the video)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
The video linked in the Technet announcement [technet.com] is interesting:
blue: Windows
red: Office
green: XBOX
yellow: ???
Maybe Microsoft is planning a new product line ... (if yellow was Server or dev tools there would be no reason not to include it in the video)
Hmm I would have thought ...
Blue - Windows (For BSOD) ... Okay stuck on this one.
Red - XBox (For RROD)
Yellow - ASP/.NET (Yellow screen of death)
Green -
Aaron
Re: (Score:3)
No, even their gays are boring and uncreative:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/84/Logcabinlogo.jpg [wikimedia.org]
Re:Oh my God! (Score:4)
I figured the new logo would be a stylized graphic of Balmer bending a customer over a table and shoving an apple up the customers ass. Of course, I did poorly at marketing.
The apple goes in the mouth, Balmer is shoving something else up the customers ass.
Squeal!
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Well imagine the irony if the new logo was created with a competitor's image manipulation tool? They eat their own dogfood, gotta give 'em that.
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The definition of "futuristic" has changed, to childish ultra-simplicity.
Myriad vs. Segoe (Score:3)
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