May 21, 2015

Agency Blog

Logopocalypse Throwback Thursday

Well it’s happening again. A new logo has been released into the wild and the lions are having a field day. With the advent of the State of Tennessee releasing their new logo and the ensuing media storm that followed it reminded me of a blog post I wrote a while back. So welcome to my version of Throwback Thursday.

Logopocalypse (Originally released September 2013)

The newest member of the logo update club is Yahoo!. Now I may be blowing it a little out of proportion, but the announcement of a new logo for national companies has become huge news. And it never seems to be good news. Remember Gap? Yikes.

So, how to introduce a new look and not tick off the loyal followers. In the world of design, getting committee approval of anything is difficult. Now imagine getting all of the world to approve you new logo. NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN!

Yahoo tried something new. They revealed 29 logos over the last 29 days and culminated on the 30th day with the unveiling of the official new logo. Clever. Or they may have worn down the folks that actually cared to the point that they most likely said, “OK, just pick one!”. Still clever.

My critique of the design for what it’s worth is this. It’s bland. It appears to be simply the font Optima, slightly tweaked and embellished with a bevel effect. But bland is not necessarily bad. (take the Toyota Camry for instance. A perennial best seller and the blandest of the bland) Yahoo will not live or die because of their logo. They will plaster it all over and it will become part of the Internet landscape. People will not give it any thought. But the 30-day reveal and the buzz it created is worth a fortune in coverage.

Basically, a smart move. Congrats Yahoo.