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Microsoft gets a new logo for the first time since 1987
- pmelendez 14y agoWhile the new logo is OK what I found intriguing is that for the first time Windows is associated with the corporate image. Isn't that betting the whole company on a single product? Not that is not true since a decade ago but it might reduce the chances in the future to make a turn around. Apple did remove "Computer" from his name to make space to iOS devices and to me Microsoft is doing the opposite... let's see how it goes, at least they are working hard to refresh their selves and that's good for the industry.
- quarterto 14y agoI... don't hate it. What's wrong with me? It's bold, it's fresh, it does a pretty damn good job of shrugging off the Microsoft of the past 25 years.
- astrodust 14y agoYou mean the one that utterly dominated the computer market and made money by the truckload when other companies could barely survive? Well, at least that's over now.
- pyre 14y ago> made money by the truckload when other companies > could barely survive The other companies would probably have fared better of Microsoft wasn't dominating the market. This phrasing makes it sound like the market wasn't a zero-sum game.
- Prophasi 14y agoThe market wasn't then, and isn't now, zero-sum. Microsoft's domination was achieved by making passable-to-excellent browsers in the beginning and putting them on the desktop, which made the web more accessible to millions of people, boosted commerce, and pushed feature development forward much more quickly than Netscape (or any company) would have done absent competition. Bigger market, bigger pie, more investment, more jobs, more consumers. Netscape died, of course. But it didn't have to be that way; and Microsoft won far more than Netscape lost.
- chawco 14y agoThis isn't how I remember the 90s. I remember Microsoft shipping several versions of laughably bad browsers, while their operating system completely dominated the market. They finally shipped a better browser than NS with IE4, but that has just as much to do with shipping a usable product as it does with NS failing to ship a good product. That said, in those days the web wasn't yet a big deal, and wouldn't be for another couple of years. I don't see how MS "boosted commerce" at all during this timeframe, either. By the time the web became accessible to the multitudes, and was being used for commerce MS already dominated the browser market.
- Prophasi 14y agoAs I recall, IE3 was passable, not laughable. IE4 was better than usable; as much as I clung to my Netscape Communicator 4, it was better than NS's offering. In fact, another current HN article right now details all that IE4 innovated: http://www.nczonline.net/blog/2012/08/22/the-innovations-of-internet-explorer/ http://www.nczonline.net/blog/2012/08/22/the-innovations-of-... IE3 started Netscape's decline, but it really picked up in the couple years after IE4's release (1998-2000). All that competition, the proliferation of features, the new ecosystems of dev tools, new jobs as companies saw the Internet taking off with MS's weight behind it, the press about the browser wars, being able to click the desktop "Internet" icon on your new computer and see well-rendered and fast websites... to state that none of that actually grew web usage and that MS just took NS's users 1-for-1 is unbelievable to me. MS made a better browser and put it in front of everyone's face while simultaneously convincing lots of companies to join the fray. The pie exploded.
- pyre 14y ago> The market wasn't then, and isn't now, zero-sum. How many desktop operating systems are normal people going to use? Operating systems don't tend to be complementary (people running multiple OSes and desktop VMs are the exception, not the rule... especially back in the 90s).
- astrodust 14y agoFor desktop, probably only one, but who uses "desktop computers" any more? Now that your phone, your music player, your computer, your notebook, your tablet, your game console(s), your television and your video playback device all need an OS, I'm guessing the number of operating systems people use on a daily basis is higher than you think.
- macspoofing 14y agoThere's always someone making "truckloads" and someone barely surviving. Every industry, every era.
- quarterto 14y agoThe one with the antitrust lawsuits, yeah.
- Karunamon 14y agoSomehow I doubt their logo had much to do with this.
- eckyptang 14y agoI think you could only shrug the last 25 years off if you changed the word as well.
- debacle 14y agoIt's also simple, but still utilitarian in that Microsoft style. It actually reminds me very much of the Wii logo.
- calinet6 14y agoI think it's fine. It's just that it's... only fine. It's perfect for Microsoft!
- discreteevent 14y agoI don't like it. I like mimimalism but this clean minimal look that's virtually everywhere (as people try to outdo each other in simplicity) is just a fashion. You know already that there is going to be a backlash against this as there always has been in the past (how long did the Bauhaus last?) and then this will be outdated. Also the primary colours are a bit sixties'ish and shortly will look just as dated as anything from that time. Its just the wheel going around with some hailing each revolution as, well, a revolution!
- contextfree 14y agoSo you're saying that it's a style from the 20s-60s and also a passing fad? :)
- madoublet 14y agoIf it was minimalism for the sake of minimalism, then maybe. But, minimalism in the case of Windows Phone and 8 serves the purpose of bringing content forward. So, I think it will have lasting appeal.
- snowwrestler 14y agoI love the whole direction of Microsoft's graphic design these days, and I've had Macs at home exclusively for at least 10 years. I think Microsoft is doing a great job of trading on the emotional value of colors. Apple rebuilt their company by bringing color to computing (remember the iMac and iBook), but then went away from that in almost every way, sucking the color out of all their products except for a few iPods. It's very sleek and elegant, but let's face it, colors are fun too.
- hk_kh 14y agoHow is the top menu[1] ok? Grey background with clear blue icons? I would understand with skype because it's not their logo, but even their own blue icons look terrible with that background. Also, the controls on the carousel[2] are off. This is not just fanboy hate, but for a company the size of Microsoft, their homepage should matter. These two examples show that they just don't care. Unrelated to this, I find the metro style interesting for touch devices, but adopting it as the look of the whole company dumbs down their entire product. Also, the font looks to me like a futurist Comic Sans. [1]: http://i.imgur.com/a9JzT.png http://i.imgur.com/a9JzT.png [2]: http://i.imgur.com/rnjJM.png http://i.imgur.com/rnjJM.png
- xanadohnt 14y agoJust an FYI (and you'll probably hate it more), but the controls(2) are not off. This is part of the new metro sensibility[1]. [1]: http://www.ditii.com/2012/05/22/github-windows-released-support-pre-release-windows-8/ http://www.ditii.com/2012/05/22/github-windows-released-supp... (second image down)
- hk_kh 14y agoNow I know... Why on earth?
- sandis 14y agoLooks more like a new version of Windows logo to me.
- vannevar 14y agoIt's interesting they would make a point of incorporating the old Windows logo. Microsoft is a company trying to reinvent itself, and the industry consensus is that Windows has an uncertain future at best. It has failed completely in the phone and tablet markets that would seem to be the future of consumer computing. So is this a statement of defiance or a company in denial?
- corporalagumbo 14y agoi think Microsoft hasn't even gotten started in the phone and tablet markets yet. thats coming soon. should be interesting.
- zerostar07 14y agoI assume it's intentional. Isn't OSX full of apples here and there?
- state 14y agoBut Apple isn't full of OSX logos. It seems weird that the windows association needs to stay in their primary mark.
- astrodust 14y agoWhat the hell is this? Are they trying to take the Gap approach and turn out a turd so terrible that designers storm the campus and flood them with better logos?
- VMG 14y agoInteresting... I've never seen this before: http://i.imgur.com/Ag3fl.jpg http://i.imgur.com/Ag3fl.jpg Edit: found better res
- fuzzix 14y agoI did vote for that one, but I am listening to 80s metal right now - that may have influenced me.
- wprater 14y agoI voted for that one too! Never seen it; spitting image of MegaDeth or Metallica! Haha
- stinos 14y agohell yeah. I'm even tempted to cut out the logo itself from the jpg and use it as a desktop background. Hard to imagine a company now so huge ever used a logo so dark that screams metal all over the place
- yawgmoth 14y agoVery heavy metal!
- heyjonboy 14y agoHa, I saw that one and immediately thought Iron Maiden: http://images.wikia.com/logopedia/images/6/69/Iron_maiden_logo_1.gif http://images.wikia.com/logopedia/images/6/69/Iron_maiden_lo...
- girlvinyl 14y agoThe 1975-1979 logo is neat. I actually really like it. The new one is so boring.
- sudonim 14y agoThe logo is O.K. Their homepage http://microsoft.com http://microsoft.com looks like a mix between a "corporate" website template you'd buy for $50 and a domain squatting page with amazon referral links. Gosh I want to cheer for microsoft but they make it real hard.
- eckyptang 14y agoIt was only this morning that my wife said exactly the same thing about it looking like a domain squatting page (while she was trying to find MSE download on their web site).
- brudgers 14y agoThe web came to Microsoft after the IPO. At the time, there were a lot employees with "fuck you money" and the web was still the wild west not a corporate branding commodity. Thus Microsoft's approach has been generally hands off and the first priority has always been to get information out on the web. The idea of a monolithic website like Apple's or Google's just doesn't apply. It's not part of Microsoft's DNA. Compare: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/ http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/ http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/home http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/home https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/ http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/ http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-us/default.aspx http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-us/default.aspx http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/2010-editions/express http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/2010-ed... http://expression.microsoft.com/en-us/cc184874.aspx http://expression.microsoft.com/en-us/cc184874.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/ms376608.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/ms376608.aspx Other than white backgrounds, it's not very consistent.
- k3n 14y agoConsistently bad.
- brudgers 14y agoDepends on the relative values one places on form, content, and completeness. In HN terms, Microsoft's website[s] is[are] great as MVP's and improvements thereupon. On the other hand, in terms of Apple's ex cathedra philosophy, then perhaps, yes it[they] is[are] bad.
- rkwz 14y agoI wonder why they didn't choose this logo (colorful tiles) for Windows.
- rkwz 14y agoHere's the intro video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzkZWvAJUr0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzkZWvAJUr0
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- uvdiv 14y agoMicrosoft should sue the Seattle Times for desecrating their beautiful logo with compression artifacts. edit: I retract that, Microsoft is doing the very same thing: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/08/23/microsoft-unveils-a-new-look.aspx http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/08/23...
- Livven 14y agoSame with the Windows 8 logo. Without the artifacts it would look so much better. http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2012/02/17/redesigning-the-windows-logo.aspx http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive...
- drcube 14y agoInteresting that as soon as they dump the old Windows logo, they just start using it as the company logo, minus the swoops. That said, however, I like it. I'm a big fan of color, and, while not a big fan of Windows, I've always liked its logo. In fact, while I probably won't ever install or use it extensively, I've really been liking the bold, primary color design of Windows 8.
- nilsbunger 14y agoMy first thought wasn't Windows, it's Live Tiles. It seems to have the allusion of Windows (the past) and "the design style formerly known as Metro" (the future). All in all, a big improvement! Only one thing: I can't believe it doesn't render properly in mobile safari on MS home page! Bottom line gets clipped...
- rrouse 14y agoThey should go the "Prince" route. They should just adopt the 4 square logo as the official name for "The design style formerly known as Metro". Brilliant
- zafriedman 14y agoThe article starts of by saying that a lot is at stake when a company rolls out a new logo. I'd like to point out the Microsoft has, either intentionally or unintentionally, been piloting this logo-style in their products for the past few years, which is ostensibly a lower-risk proposition. Rolling out their parent brand logo to conform to this arguably successful re-branding that their individual software products have underwent over the past three or so years seems like a reasonably sound decision. Furthermore, if Microsoft has intentionally been piloting this new brand on parts of their business that are subordinate to the brand as a whole, then I'd have to say bravo for likely reducing a huge business risk in the making of a relatively permanent, long-term decision.
- GiraffeNecktie 14y agoVery ubuntish.
- mbesto 14y agoYou know the greatest lesson I learned from the tv show The Wire? When your brand lacks credibility you make a change to the brand.[1][2] Good move by Microsoft. On other hand, I'm still trying to grok why Twitter changed it's logo recently[3]? Was something inherently being tarnished about the Twitter brand? As far as I know, the answer is NO. I'm going to make a major assumption here, but I think it had to do with it being driven by a Creative Director and not by a Marketing (i.e. Business) person. The blog post and title at least reads that way. [1]- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undertow_(The_Wire)#Barksdale_trade http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undertow_(The_Wire)#Barksdale_t... [2]- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbbZc2pab9k http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbbZc2pab9k [3]- http://blog.twitter.com/2012/06/taking-flight-twitterbird.html http://blog.twitter.com/2012/06/taking-flight-twitterbird.ht...
- debacle 14y agoHow does Microsoft lack credibility?
- thoughtpalette 14y agoCredibility's not the issue. Stagnation is.
- mbesto 14y agoI'm assuming I don't have to explain to you the sentiment over Microsoft's product base (consumer mainly) in the past 5-10 years in comparison to it's biggest competitor, Apple, right?
- debacle 14y agoApple is a single, targeted competitor to a fraction of Microsoft's business. The XBox 360 is a great console, MS hardware is still top notch, Office is still Office and Exchange is still Exchange. Windows 7 has been widely well received, and IE 10 is on track to be the most compliant browser in the IE line.
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- toddmorey 14y agoJokingly: That logo cost them $50 [1] My real questions are whether there will be a one-color variant, whether the symbol will be allowed to be displayed without the type, and how you could ever secure international trademark on four squares. My guess is that you'd have to be, well, Mircosoft. More than the logo designers, I'm really impressed by the legal team. My trademark lawyers would laugh at me. [1] http://www.bestlookinglogos.com/2009/07/four-square-logo/ http://www.bestlookinglogos.com/2009/07/four-square-logo/ Edit: fixed to read 'international trademark'
- Jabbles 14y agoShould I make a FourSquare reference? I'm just amazed that the colours are a rotation of Google's Favicon... Red Green Blue Yellow. (Alright so it's orange, not red.) https://www.google.com/search?num=10&hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1600&bih=1088&q=google+icon&oq=google+icon&gs_l=img.3..0l10.1847.3183.0.3384.11.11.0.0.0.0.117.806.9j2.11.0...0.0...1ac.NvWvYh2x8Po https://www.google.com/search?num=10&hl=en&site=imgh... Is there any way to get a compressed google search URL that's not a redirect?
- jgroome 14y agoAs far as I know, the only query string that really matters is "q". There's also "tbm", which seems to indicate the type of search to run. So: https://www.google.com/search?q=google+icon&tbm=isch https://www.google.com/search?q=google+icon&tbm=isch
- K2h 14y agoI was thinking logo may be more appropriate to FourSquare as well.
- vectorbunny 14y agoSquare being the operative word.
- Livven 14y agoUm, ever seen the old Windows logo?
- makmanalp 14y agoI'd have preferred a thinner, longer variation of the font like they had in their win8 demos or Zune menus. This one looks a bit short and stocky imho.
- chuinard 14y agoI wonder if that independent Microsoft re-design seen on HN a few weeks ago - http://www.minimallyminimal.com/journal/2012/7/3/the-next-microsoft.html http://www.minimallyminimal.com/journal/2012/7/3/the-next-mi... - had anything to do with this.
- karlshea 14y agoI doubt it, this was probably in the works for much longer than a couple of weeks. That said, I like the minimally minimal redesign much better.
- davidedicillo 14y agoSomething I noticed: beside the M, the rest of the font is very similar to the font Myriad (the font used by Apple in their logo).
- sp332 14y agoI believe it's Segoe, which Microsoft owns and has been using everywhere lately.
- Millennium 14y agoSo basically, Segoe is to Myriad as Arial is to Helvetica. Got it.
- sp332 14y agoIt's more like they're both similar to Frutiger. And Myriad is barely 2 years older than Segoe, and it was developed by Agfa not MS, so it's not likely that it was copied. While Arial was kind of a crappy font, MS's new stuff (Consolas, Calibri etc.) has been pretty nice.
- ghaff 14y agoThey're all Humanist fonts so there's a fair amount of family resemblance. So take the school of thought that finds Helvetica boring and corporate and apply to the new Segoe-based Microsoft logo. One thing I find interesting is that there was some legal brouhaha over Segoe a few years ago which appears to be all resolved but still makes it a little surprising to me that they'd go so all-in in such a visible context.
- dhughes 14y agoI can see the anti-Apple mentality of this. Apple icons are glossy this is flat. The icons on an iPad/iPod are small glossy "chicklets" but on Win8 they are flat and large tiles; no black space. I like the look and the design it's a nice change, as for the inner workings of the OS I have no idea since I only used it briefly in a (non-touchscreen) VM.
- untog 14y agoDifferent to Apple != anti-Apple I think it is a tremendous disservice to the amount of work that went into the Metro (or whatever it's called now) interface to describe it as an anti-Apple reaction. It isn't, and not everyone in the tech world bases their entire business around what Apple is or is not doing. It wasn't created to spite the memory of Steve Jobs.
- dhughes 14y agoI'd say different is anti-Apple when you're Microsoft and Apple is your primary competitor your goal is to gain customers, being the same doesn't make sense since it already exists. A great quote I heard once (not sure who) to paraphrase: Trying to be as good as your competition just makes you equals. To be better you have to exceed beyond what is being done.
- NTH 14y agoYes, it certainly wasn't created to spite Steve Jobs, because Metro shipped with Windows Phones in November 2010, just under a year before he died.
- drivebyacct2 14y agoEveryone is pretty different visually from apple. Apple is stuck in 2003 with skeuomorphism, glossy buttons, faux wood. They and KDE would get along together great. Versus Holo in Android, the beauty of Metro or whatever it's called, even GNOME3 and Elementary OS are embracing a minimal, flat-ish design
- buro9 14y agoFor me... personally, the logo doesn't work. I am slightly colour blind. The logo in the article I see just fine, and all of the squares are the same size. And I get it... Metro theme. The favicon.ico and small logo on Microsoft.com Those don't fair as well. The red and yellow squares are much larger than the green and blue, and my eyes see a throbbing line around the bottom and left of the red box, and a black line at the bottom of the blue box. Now... I know that those boxes don't have those lines. For I know what the Metro style guide looks like. But there it is, the logo has not been viewed by anyone colour blind with the ability to have it modified. There should be more space between the boxes when it's shrunk. The red box is literally 20% wider than the blue to my eyes. You know how much of the population is colour blind? A very significant chunk. Also... those colours... very bad choice. When you print this logo (greyscale), all of the colours come out too similar a shade of grey. There is no distinction between them.
- pilsetnieks 14y agoThe differing lines and popping squares are not because of your color-blindness, someone did an absolutely terrible job resizing the logo images for the website and preparing the favicon. Also, rounded corners on the favicon? It's ok to give these jobs to an intern but someone still should check the results before pushing them live.
- buro9 14y agoI can take the logo from the homepage, enlarge in gimp, and it's fine to my eyes. And what with being slightly colour blind, I've learned to suspect that it is probably my vision that is the problem.
- pilsetnieks 14y agoThey either resized a bitmap image or they rasterized a vector image that wasn't properly aligned, thus some of the squares have some of the borders antialiased and the space between squares appears to be wider between some than others. Also, they are different colors with different lightness levels and that has additional impact on the appearance of different width of the empty space. This has nothing to do with color-blindness, I can see it, too (I was non-color-blind enough for my driver's licence.)
- AtTheLast 14y agoIt's nice to see Microsoft putting some effort into design. The logo doesn't take my breath away or anything, but I think it's an improvement on the old one.
- jcoder 14y agoWow, microsoft.com looks like shit on iOS with a Retina display. Couldn't be bothered?
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- Akhena 14y agoIt seems it is NOT the first logo change since 1987. Some previous logos are displayed here : http://facts.swebee.com/microsoft-logo.html http://facts.swebee.com/microsoft-logo.html
- lamebrain 14y agoA bit plain but I like it. The previous one was dated-looking.
- Tichy 14y agoAre those the Google colors?
- notatoad 14y agoThey're the windows colours. http://thegadgetsite.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/windows-logo.jpg http://thegadgetsite.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/windows-...
- despart 14y agoThe logo from the 70's is so disco.
- zubr1768 14y ago"The new logo, which incorporates a multicolored Windows symbol in addition to the "Microsoft" name in straightforward, lighter type, is intended to "signal the heritage but also signal the future — a newness and freshness," said Jeff Hansen, Microsoft's general manager of brand strategy." Freshness? The most underwhelming design "innovation" yet... Playing it safe, boring, square as ever.
- loceng 14y agoThe colours remind me just a little bit of Google..
- trhtrsh 14y agoBecause Google uses the same primary colors that MS Windows used.
- jere 14y ago>Ironically, Windows 8's new logo is now single-colored. While I don't enjoy the perspective on the Windows 8 logo, I at least respect the single color. As usual, it doesn't seem like the right hand is talking to the left hand. I actually like the previous logo. It feels like it has some character and I'm not surprised it lasted 25 years. This new logo feels so damn generic, like a generic brand you would pick up at the grocery store... * Compare to the active ingredients in Apple.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- tharris0101 14y agoThe four boxes don't bother me, but the segoe font is way too plain. I guess they use that font on everything, though.
- horacio 14y agoTheir choice to use their own Segoe typeface is what will make this a less-pleasing logo than it could have been. Segoe looks good in its intended use for text on screen, and printed text at small and normal sizes, but Segoe does not look good at very large sizes. When this logo appears on billboards, and in other large display settings, its weaknesses will become apparent.
- ThomPete 14y agoMany commenters here are predictably unable to look at this as the business decision it is. What people don't seem to understand is that the price of a logo is not based on how it looks. Aesthetics have nothing to do with this. It's based on how much the ability to make sure that the entire system is implemented properly is worth to MS. This is not a question about whether the logo "works for you".
- ricardobeat 14y agoIt's a question of whether it works for everybody, and unless somente here wants to do free research, we can only extrapolate from our on perceptions.
- ThomPete 14y agoNo it's not a question of whether it works for everybody. The world is filled with successful companies with ugly logos. The purpose of the logo is not to look pretty but to identify.
- ricardobeat 14y agoThat's the definition of working in this context: fulfilling it's purpose as a logo.
- tankbot 14y agoPersonally, I'm a big fan of their short-lived 1980-1981 logo. I realize it has no place among today's clean, "Metro" look, but I love Metal and this just speaks to me. :)
- MartinCron 14y agoIt's not just metal. It's full of "tech" and "science" and "future" and "enthusiasm" and even "fun". Re-adopting the 1980-1981 logo would send a signal that I would love to hear. That Microsoft is rebooting Microsoft and that things are going to be new and fun again.
- tankbot 14y agoI totally agree. Honestly MS really needs this sort of overhaul if they want to remain competitive down the road. They still have a pretty good hold on enterprise IT (slipping with the cloud) but I personally think they are in a bad position in just about every other market. Though I've never had much love for Redmond despite using their products for 20+ years, since they feel like an underdog now I instinctively want to cheer for them. But, like someone said in another post, they sure make it difficult.
- KingOfB 14y agoInteresting that 3 of the squares represent Windows, Office, XBox. I'm guessing the 4th square will represent Surface once it de-vaporizes?
- rhengles 14y agoCondensates.
- draggnar 14y agoI think MSFT is starting to get a little obsessed with the boxes - excuse me "tiles". I went to the store opening today in Boston, and I was pretty impressed. Very clean, bright, lots of screens.. made the Apple store across the street seem very conservative. We'll see if it ends up being a hit, but it is definitely standing alone as it's own unique store experience.
- ricardonunez 14y agoThe logotype would have been better alone. The symbol should have been the Windows 8 symbol. It makes me think that they used two teams and they didn't communicate during the process. Overall I like it, is refreshing.
- alphang 14y agoThey started using the new wordmark in June, in the Surface promo materials: http://photos.allthingsd.com/photos/i-vGmfLVB/0/M/i-vGmfLVB-M.jpg http://photos.allthingsd.com/photos/i-vGmfLVB/0/M/i-vGmfLVB-... I guess this is the official launch.
- septerr 14y agoThe Google+ button (right towards top) in this article about Microsoft's new logo is totally spoiling it for them. http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2012/08/23/microsoft-now-brand-new-logo-first-since-1987/ http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2012/08/23/microsoft-now-bra...
- SoftwareMaven 14y ago[The logo] is intended to "signal the heritage but also signal the future — a newness and freshness". Does every marketing exec have to say that about their new logo? Must be the same effect as sports players saying "We just gave it 110%" when they win.
- narrator 14y agoAnybody notice this is basically the AVG logo with the colors flipped around? See: http://www.avg.com/us-en/homepage http://www.avg.com/us-en/homepage
- CubicleNinjas 14y agoI'd say the AVG logo is the Windows logo with colors flipped around since AVG was born in 1991. :)
- seanalltogether 14y agoNo, but now I see that the AVG logo has always been the windows icon, but with the colors flipped around.
- AndresOspina 14y agoGood change!! the new logo is simple and direct the point.
- run4yourlives 14y agoThey should go back to that Metallica logo they had in 1980. Nothing says corporate dominance like thrash metal font.
- mandeepj 14y agoAt the top left corner, I think the text "menu" should be replaced with "Start" and dropdown icon should be replaced with the icon found on windows start button (the MS logo)
- imd 14y ago"is expected to unveil its new, more colorful logo" Picture of logo already available in the article.
- CyberDroiD 14y agoOn the homepage at microsoft.com, they are using the same logo for Microsoft Store as the company name.
- runn1ng 14y agoI still don't get why Microsoft is pushing Metro SO HARD to bet everything on it when nobody really likes it that much. Zune (where I saw it for the first time) failed in the market. Windows Mobile (that has the Metro theme) failed in the market. Now I don't know XBox (at all) and its GUI, but its success happened long before Metro was created. People don't seem to like it in the new Windows preview all that much, either. Why the big bet on Metro?
- podperson 14y agoSimilarly the Ribbon. The Ribbon was supposed to make Office easier to use. It was so incomprehensible (not to mention annoying and wasteful of screen real estate), Microsoft created a GAME to explain to users how to use the Ribbon. (How bad a UI fail is that?) Still no-one likes it, so they shoehorn it into more places. I think Microsoft gets that Apple doesn't allow itself to be driven by focus groups, but instead they allow random insane people to drive them.
- baq 14y agoi like the ribbon. it doesn't make access to anything harder - i couldn't find whatever i was looking for in pre-2007 office and i can't find anything now, but at least the icons are prettier. that's a net win for me.
- podperson 14y agoIf it didn't waste so much (precious) vertical real estate I would be inclined to agree.
- DavidHogue 14y agoDouble click on the tab at the top. It auto-hides the ribbon and you get most of your real estate back.
- SCdF 14y agoWell, to be completely fair MS Labs made it, not the office team, and there is no indication that they made it because it was so hard to use. If that was the case surely then Office would actually ship with Ribbon Hero, instead of having it as an unmaintained experiment you can download from their website if you happen to have heard of it? IIRC, it was an experiment in gameification and Office and the ribbon was the thing that was new at the time, and it made sense to write it on top of teaching users the new UI. While we're throwing around anecdotes on how incomprehensible ribbon is, I know plenty of people who are totally fine with it. I don't really use any MS products (and so never encounter it) and don't have an opinion on it, but I think phrases like "no-one likes it, so they shoehorn it into more places" are neither true nor even potentially valid (no one likes it so they use it more because... they're evil? They want you to hate them?)
- JGuo 14y agoI prefer the windows 8 logo much more: http://www.fastcodesign.com/multisite_files/codesign/imagecache/inline-large/post-inline/inline-2-windows-8-logo-pgram.jpg http://www.fastcodesign.com/multisite_files/codesign/imageca... The unsolicited redesign "slate" logo is cool too: http://www.minimallyminimal.com/2012/7/3/the-next-microsoft.html http://www.minimallyminimal.com/2012/7/3/the-next-microsoft....
- outworlder 14y agoDid they hire the same designer that created the game "Simon Says"? Even the colors are the same. Image: http://www.digitalrendezvous.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/simonextreme.png http://www.digitalrendezvous.net/wordpress/wp-content/upload...
- progrock 14y agoYou mean simply 'Simon.' The Chrome logo has been called into question about it's similarity in the past. Weirdly I now associate those primary colours with Google rather than M$.
- jeyaganesh 14y agofor me it looks like chrome
- alphadoggs 14y agoClearly, this will get the masses to dump their iPhones and embrace Windows Phones
- alphadoggs 14y agoClearly, this will get the masses to dump their iPhones and embrace Windows Phones
- nostromo 14y agoReminds me of Philip Morris' rebranding (http://taxtrials.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/altria_logo1-1.jpg http://taxtrials.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/altria_logo1...) Problem is, I'm pretty sure "Altria" was trying to be generic and forgettable.
- drstewart 14y agoIt seems to be the common theme among all giant multinationals -- they're trying to soften their image by using pastel colors, rounded, clean fonts, minimalist shapes. See also: BP, Walmart
- fratis 14y agoAs much as I just loathe saying "I told you so," I direct your attention to this prediction 55 days ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4174622 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4174622
- bwhmather 14y agoIt seems odd that they chose to post the logo as a jpeg. The compression artifacts stop it from appearing as crisp as it should be.
- yew-right 14y agoDoes your TV need a "user-interface"? Does your secretary need a touchscreen? MS's last remaining market is business. As others bring to business the old power of UNIX, for less cost, and repackaged with now commonplace buzzwords like "opensource", "linux", and "cloud", MS is in big trouble. For most of the business world, software is an expense, not an asset. Inexpensive wins. But those guys who could say "FU" in 1992, why should they care? MS has had a GREAT run.
- te_chris 14y agoBahahahaha, it's pretty much the old telecom New Zealand logo [1] . that makes me laugh. a lot [1] http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/telecom_logo.gif http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/telecom_... - the one on the left.
- gradstudent 14y agoInteresting. Is it just me or does their new logo seem to suggest that Microsoft has given up on trying to be anything other than Windows?
- molmalo 14y agoCan someone explain me why do they have that strange blue windows logo at the bottom of the page? http://i.microsoft.com/global/ImageStore/PublishingImages/logos/32x32/windows_symbol_clr_32x32.png http://i.microsoft.com/global/ImageStore/PublishingImages/lo... http://res1.windows.microsoft.com/resbox/en/Windows%207/main/4300ae64-546c-4bbe-9026-6779b3684fb9_61.png http://res1.windows.microsoft.com/resbox/en/Windows%207/main... I mean, it's not the current Windows 8 logo, nor the Windows 7 logo. It's a merge of both worlds: Old logo with Win8 colors. Are they planning to change it in the very last second? (I don't think so) Or do they want to make a slow transition between the old and the new Windows logo? Or... probably, according to Occam's razor, someone just failed to put the right logo there.
- progrock 14y agoItalics in logos may well be offically out!
- mokeefe 14y agoshuffling the deck chairs...
- digitailor 14y agoReally not bad looking. Amazing what you can do with MSPaint these days.
- tsurantino 14y agoI like how from 1980 to 1981 it was not Microsoft but really a front for Metallica to make it's big step in disrupting the corporate technology industry.
- campuscodi 14y agoActually quite impressed. Not because of the logo's quality, since it's not that a radical change, but because Microsoft finally got the guts to make a change.
- schukin 14y agoThis logo just screams "compromise".
- jasonkolb 14y agoIs it just me or does the laptop in this (stock?) banner photo on their homepage look like a Macbook? (With the Apple logo photoshopped off.) http://i.microsoft.com/global/ImageStore/PublishingImages/Asset/features/OfficeBackToSchool_0813_800x470_EN-US.jpg http://i.microsoft.com/global/ImageStore/PublishingImages/As...