Microsoft's new logo emphasizes Windows, Metro - Page 2

Sleepy. This logo is making you very sleepy.

 

...zzz........

Is that the new Retina Microsoft logo? I mean, that is a retina icon right? ;)

 

In all honesty, I don't see this as much of an improvement, more like an alternative version of their very off-balanced and awkward perspective blue "window" logo. Even their current wordmark is a lot better.

Am I HONESTLY the first one to notice this?

 

 

It's not Myriad Pro, and it's not Myriad Apple, but how much would you bet that they're going to try to call it something other than what it ACTUALLY is: Myriad Microsoft?

 

New logos for top rank companies often cost into the $1 billions to develop. When you consider all of the work that must have been required to develop Microsoft's unique new look, it is inconceivable that it cost less.

 

This new look represents the Microsoft that we have come to know and love better than any of its previous logos. Great job, Microsoft! It was worth every $1 million that you spent on it.

In case, like me, you've already forgotten what the old logo was, here it is:

 

 

Well we did see a charlied up Ballmer in the Monkey Boy sessions. That was a hoot.

In the history of the world, no one has every spend a billion dollars designing a logo.  This probably cost a couple million bucks.  The bigger cost is making the conversion on all printed material and Web sites etc., but it still won't approach a BILLION dollars.

 

What?  Are you making a subtle joke?  The article says the font is calle Segoe.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segoe

"We're excited about the new logo"

 

I suppose they have to get excited about something because their products don't do that.

It's clear that this lot are easily excited.

 

You must have missed when they entered the Apple/Microsoft crosslicence agreement into evidence. They were fully authorized to use squares, rectangles and other patented geometric forms.

I am just happy they did not change the color palette to the ones they use on the ms-surface covers! Just imagine that... Look Ma! our new logo shines in the dark!

i think it's nice. simple and modern. honestly, i think apple has lost it's way in terms of graphic design. paul rand would not impressed with what the OS he originally branded has become. 

 

that steve jobs clip is old. the cut of helvetica that iOS/macs use is crap. the built in kerning between the 1 and any other number is so off, and it's never been improved. i saw an early microsoft design presentation where they were zooming in text in windows phone 7 about 2000% to show micro-fine perfect kerning for all letters. that's the detail jobs was talking about, that apple UI designers no longer get. 

 

sorry, this skewmorphic craptasticism has got to stop, apple. i never in 20 years thought i would say that microsoft could out-design apple, but they seem to be moving in that direction. hardware? no. but, at least for software graphic design, they are far more on the right track that faux wood or leather-wrapped apple. gross. 

On a related note, it truly bothers me how horribly pixelated MS Office looks on my rMBP.

 

No other software looks so atrocious. 

Is correct capitalization an element of design?  I would think so.

they still have over 90% of the market in computing and Apple still have 5%..so what Apple has done? nothing just reach to more computer illiterates to buy their stupid computers

You should read more. Apple patented the rectangle.ᵢ

 

When the general manager of brand strategy for a company that frankly can't decide on a product name to save its life (and I wish that was an exaggeration) and can't figure out why "Windows Phone Series 7" doesn't just roll off the tongue is given front page space you know its a slow news day.

I had completely forgotten about that until you brought it up

 

So, what's the story behind that wedge between the "o" and the "s"? Were they trying to emphasize -- for those who apparently could not get it -- the fact that the etymology was two separate words, Micro(computer) and Soft(ware)? 

 

Considering that I could have designed this one in about 20 minutes…? They spent millions, I'm sure.

Interesting, I actually noticed that the M looked strangely jarring. That's why.

Looks very 1990s to me. And as others have said, being "square" isn't exactly a wonderful image to paint of yourself...

 

I mostly agree. The new MS logo is actually simple, clean, elegant. I like it (though I generally hate MS). This actually may show some new sense of taste and style emerging at MS.

 

As for those focusing on the squareness and what this must say about MS...I suggest that perhaps there's some projecting going on there. :rolleyes:

 

I also agree that Apple's excessive use of skeuomorphic design in their UIs. It has been gaudy and tiresome. It's kind of amazing to me that Apple who has stripped away the clutter and excess in their hardware, packaging and even stores still hasn't quite figured out where to go in this modern time...at least not consistently. Some stuff they've done well, others seems so childishly implemented that you wonder if it is the same company.

 

While I don't know if MS has it all figured out with Metro, I like how they're thinking about the problem.

Edited by MJ1970 - 8/23/12 at 8:54am

I love it when mathematically-challenged people post here. An expensive logo costs a few million dollars to design - at most. The 2012 Olympics logo, for example, was about $700,000.

Creating a new logo isn't all that expensive. The cost starts to escalate when you have to change signs, repaint trucks, throw out mountains of old literature, buy new literature, redo all your advertising, redo your packaging, etc. Even then, it's not billions of dollars.

And Microsoft's new logo? Probably cost $2.89 to develop. $1.99 to buy bananas for the monkey who did the work and two $0.45 stamps to send out a press release.

 

While looking for an example of the old logo, I found this doozy of a page:  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2118008  They have a product called Microsoft Money Plus Sunset?

 

With helpful information like this:

 

Money Plus Sunset is available in two versions:

• Money Plus Deluxe Sunset – designed to replace Essentials, Deluxe and Premium
• Money Plus Home & Business Sunset – designed to replace Home & Business

I do prefer the old one… it moves, with the notched "O" before the "S" creating connectivity between the Micro and Soft concepts...

 

The new one, especially as used on their site WITHOUT the 4-square icon, is … lost and nondescript.

 

compared:

 

 

 

 

 

These were both on a single page on their website… I guess they haven't fully updated their site yet.

 

Interesting sidenote… from a design perspective, it does appear to me that MS is AGAIN taking cues from Apple… simplifying their logo to nothing more than basic typography using a "swiss modern" font, and the grey color… the color is definitely moving a bit more into Apple territory...

 

It doesn't suck, but it removes much of the "identity" that the previous logo carries. Maybe that's on purpose... 

Does the 8 stand for 8-bit? hehehe

New, yes, but shiny? It's banal.
A good logo should be iconic even if rendered in black & white without the brand name. This "four squares" logo doesn't remind me of Microsoft if rendered as four black squares.

 

It's been estimated that 7.42% of the success of the iPad has been directly linked to the eye-catching use of "skeuomorphic" elements in some of the core pre-installed apps, so dial down the hate, man.

 

Also, 98.53% of the use of the word "skeuomorphic" in the past 2.5 years worldwide has been on tech-blogs and fan sites, with the majority of instances on site categorized as "anti-Apple" or "pro-Androind."  Use of the term has been trending down over this time period, however,

No. I noticed it as well.

Surprised how few designers are here.

The logo is bland and truly obvious as a derivative of what Microsoft had in the past. In fact, it certainly wouldn't surprise me if this design wasn't first presented some 10-15 years ago, and just pulled out of the drawer somewhere and reworked.

As for the word mark "Microsoft".... just hideous! They should have stayed with their Helvetica Neue inspired cut if they couldn't think of something better.

Last, as a C-ID... Microsoft doesn't get it, because they are still clinging to disparate logos and differing product word marks (fonts). SJ said it in that old video: Microsoft just plain doesn't get what fonts and beautiful type(setting) is all about.

Actually... we should be pinning the blame on the designers and their CID agency. Although even that's hard to say, because with everything relating to graphics and design these days, with everyone having their own opinion, taste and request "for just one quick little change" (grrrrrrrr!)... this is what you invariably land at: an emotionless design to any and everyone.

Can't hate it..can't like it...it's just "there".

 

Really? Fascinating. You have link to back up this claim or have you made shit up?

 

 

 

Why? I can hate what I want. I can voice my opinion that some of what Apple is doing in its UI is just fugly.

 

 

 

And this is relevant how? Merely to show you making up another statistic?

 

That 5% is teaching the 90% how it's done. Apple's "stupid" computers are the envy of users and the industry (sans Windows nerds, but do they really count?) Highest in consumer satisfaction by often very wide margins year after year. While everyone else relies on Universal Licensing and market flooding. A great way to spread crap. 

 

Apple's changed the face of consumer tech several times over in the last 10 years. MS gave consumers another operating system (including a lemon and then a warmed-over lemon), a few Office rehashes, and another game console. 

 

THAT with *all* that R&D. No taste. No class. And as a result, they're now in Apple's rearview. In fact, MS is OBSESSED with Apple:

 

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/07/10/steve_ballmer_says_microsoft_plans_to_compete_with_apple_in_every_market.html

 

LOL, such losers. 

 

And with a fraction of Microsoft's R&D (can you even call it that? Where's the beef?), Apple's turned the tech world upside down and has been directing the pace of change for the last few years. In fact, Apple's been the only one to really do anything noteworthy in consumer tech in recent memory. Because Apple actually gives a damn about what they put their logo on. And the divide between a Premium Apple experience and "the rest" is getting wider and wider every year. 

 

And you know what, it truly warms my heart to know that it drives you and other computer-weenies batshit insane. And now everyone can be "computer literate" the Apple Way. Everyone is empowered.

 

May Ballmer *continue* to lead Microsoft for many years to come. 

Edited by Quadra 610 - 8/23/12 at 9:13am

I really like that font. I want to take it out behind the Arbys and get it pregnant.

I like the logo but I think there is fault in tying one's corporate identity to it's products' identities and again to the products' interfaces. The interfaces will certainly evolve. The products will, too, and with success they will proliferate, introducing newer interfaces, still. And then what will your company's branding tie into?

 

Edited by rpsx - 8/23/12 at 9:15am

 

Segoe. 

 

Pie, anyone?

 

(OK, UK folk are gonna get that one).

We're going to do great because we have a new logo! Trust me! Look how innovative it is! Buy our products because we have a new logo!

Wow.  That's a pretty bland icon.  I can see a new ad campaign on the horizon:

 

"Microsoft.  Now 50% more boring."

 

That's what I mean. It's barely different enough to call it something else.

 

You're saying exactly what I'm saying.

No one on Earth has ever compared Helvetica and Arial. 

Like everything companies do, they come up with lame reasons to make changes and try to make it sound important, but in reality it like trying to explain why woman skirt lengths go up and down from year to year.