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Microsoft launches new logo

Thursday, August 23, 2012 · 4:00 pm · 96 Comments

“It’s hard to imaging Coke without the classic red label and white, old-time Coca-Cola script that goes back more than a century, or Apple without, well, its apple icon that has a small piece cut out,” Rex Crum reports for MarketWatch.

“Then there is Microsoft, the world’s largest software company,” Crum reports. “Microsoft hasn’t always been known for being the most innovative tech giant, but it is seeking to change that with a new slate of products and, as of Thursday, a new logo for the first time since Ronald Reagan was president.”

Crum reports, “The new logo is the fifth one in Microsoft’s 37-year history, but the first new logo since 1987.”

Microsoft’s new logo

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: They need a lot more than a new logo.

Categories: News

Tags: branding, logo, marketing, microsoft, Microsoft logo

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Comment Feed

96 Comments

1 2 3 4 Next »

Jim

Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 4:01 pm · Reply

Staggering.
Mac Plus

Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 4:02 pm · Reply

Wow. Bad, even for Microsoft.
- Lordthree
  
  Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 4:22 pm · Reply
  
  THIS is bad
  
  Windows 8 2012 vs AOL 1996 http://t.co/jp1KttPJ—
  Matteo Spinelli (@cubiq) August 22, 2012
  
  photo/1
  - Lordthree
    
    Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 4:28 pm · Reply
    
    oops. Just wanted to link the picture… Not that dudes entire tweat..
    - DRMSSDB
      
      Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 5:34 pm · Reply
      
      fantastic regardless
    - MacHeadB
      
      Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 11:39 pm · Reply
      
      very funny and great comparison
      - botvinnik
        
        Friday, August 24, 2012 - 9:15 am · Reply
        
        dunno, looks very similar to tv’s horrible, new interface design.
  - kingmel
    
    Saturday, August 25, 2012 - 6:13 pm · Reply
    
    Metro (or whatever Microsoft is going to call it) probably *really* sucks if you are colorblind.
Mac Plus

Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 4:03 pm · Reply

Simplicity is usually good, but apparently things can be too simple.
- Weekend
  
  Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 5:22 pm · Reply
  
  Looks like something my granddaughter would have made. Then thrown into the trash can because it wasn’t very good. She would start over and do better. Daddy and grandpa are longtime Mac users (professionally as well as far fun) as is my six-year-old granddaughter. She was using an iPad at four. Last month I saw her try to use an android tablet when we were visiting someone. She gave up after a couple of minutes and said “this is too hard,do you think they have an iPad daddy”? She’s Mac through and through just like us. Even kids can tell quality when they see it.
  - twilightmoon
    
    Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 7:01 pm · Reply
    
    Haha ha brilliant. Will someone get this kid an iPad? Who needs cheap half baked wanna be imitations?
ShnDvd

Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 4:03 pm · Reply

Hipsters got ahold of that one.
- hannahjs
  
  Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 4:21 pm · Reply
  
  Meaning…Microsoft is a bunch of squares, man.
  - The Other Steve
    
    Saturday, August 25, 2012 - 1:29 pm · Reply
    
    squares, boxed in innovation, can’t think out of the box, wavy things are too hard to draw.
    
    It had to be squares, Apple has a patent on the rectangle.
Mac only

Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 4:03 pm · Reply

Absolutely rubbish.

Waste of money, would have taken a design student 20mins using adobe illustrator to come up with that POS.
- Jim
  
  Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 4:19 pm · Reply
  
  What’d said student have to do for the other 18 minutes? Wait for Windows to boot?
- gkmac
  
  Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 4:26 pm · Reply
  
  Illustrator? That is a clear MS Paint job, Powerpoint at a push.
- Coal Cracker
  
  Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 4:53 pm · Reply
  
  Agreed.
  
  20 minutes?
  
  Possibly, more like five minutes. Unless their was an obtuse argument over square (metro tiled) colors.
  
  Assuming thousands of dollars potentially spent for something a high school art student can come up with.
- ApplePi
  
  Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 5:10 pm · Reply
  
  Actually… some of the most recognized logos look simple. That’s what makes them powerful. IBM.
  
  Even Steve Jobs recognized this when he asked Paul Rand to design the NeXT logo.
  
  This logo is what is needed. A general logo, updated that can go on every product they sell.
  - Coal Cracker
    
    Friday, August 24, 2012 - 3:39 pm · Reply
    
    No doubt simple logos work the best.
    
    However, the NeXT logo is in a different league.
    
    It is too easy to replicate the Microsoft logo in a minute or less.
    
    Open Illustrator, draw a square and copy and paste three more. Grid arrange, add four colors and select the Agenda font with the text tool and type Microsoft in upper and lower case. Done.
    
    Well, if you have to pair kern the type it may add a few seconds.
    
    I’m not saying this is a bad looking logo. It does brand the Metro GUI well. SIMPLE, yes. Sophisticated? Not so sure.
    
    All that said, it is a cleaner solution improvement from the previous logo.
Zulkifli

Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 4:04 pm · Reply

It is not bad , the colors are unique…
Too bad the products are just beyond use lol
- DRMSSDB
  
  Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 5:37 pm · Reply
  
  Maybe it is just my crappy dell monitor, but the colors look like the same MS crappy corporate logo colors as before…
  - Scubaboy
    
    Friday, August 24, 2012 - 9:38 am · Reply
    
    They are. With the stylized squares replaced by actual squares.
cd

Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 4:05 pm · Reply

yawn
Ballmer's left nut

Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 4:05 pm · Reply

I’m surprised the symbol isn’t a steaming pile of dog turd in Zune brown.
- althegeo
  
  Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 6:00 pm · Reply
  
  “steaming pile of dog turd in Zune brown”
  
  I think that’s the technical name, not the logo.
sononaco

Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 4:07 pm · Reply

“Meh”crosoft.
- LateRegistrant
  
  Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 4:11 pm · Reply
  
  My favorite: Microcruft
cognativedisonance

Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 4:07 pm · Reply

It’s the rotated “Simon” tm electronic game color scheme – no innovation here

– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_(game)

“Simon’s tones, on the other hand, were designed to always be harmonic,[2] no matter what order they were played in, and consisted of an A major triad in second inversion:
E-note (blue, lower right);
C#-note (yellow, lower left);
A-note (red, upper right).
E-note (green, upper left, an octave lower than blue);

The re-released version of Simon
Simon was later re-released by Milton Bradley – now owned by Hasbro – in its original circular form, though with a translucent case rather than plain black. It was also sold as a two-sided Simon Squared version, with the reverse side having eight buttons for head-to-head play, and as a keychain (officially licensed by Fun4All) with simplified gameplay (only having Game 1, Difficulty 4 available). Other variations of the original game, no longer produced, include Pocket Simon and the eight-button Super Simon, both from 1980. Finally, Nelsonic released an official wristwatch version of Simon.[3]
Later versions of the game being sold include a pocket version of the original game in a smaller, yellow, oval-shaped case; Simon Trickster, which plays the original game as well as variations where the colors shift around from button to button (Simon Bounce), where the buttons have no colors at all (Simon Surprise), or where the player must repeat the sequence backwards (Simon Rewind);[4] and a pocket version of Simon Trickster.” Some Microsofty looked down at their Simon keychain and copied the color scheme verbatim without realizing it was upside down.
- Magic iBall
  
  Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 4:17 pm · Reply
  
  awww — you woke up the patent trolls!!!
- Quevar
  
  Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 6:37 pm · Reply
  
  Nice! It does look remarkably outdated when put side by side with the Simon. However, it their defense, it is hard to come up with a fourth unique color when the three base RGB colors have already been selected. There is not a clear choice for the fourth.
  
  Nonetheless, their new logo does perfectly represent the company: nothing says copycat like “Simon says”.
JES42

Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 4:08 pm · Reply

New perfume on the same old pig!!
Bob

Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 4:09 pm · Reply

It’s better than a white apple. Need the rainbow apple back (see BootXChanger).
- Rorschach
  
  Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 4:27 pm · Reply
  
  No it doesn’t. The shape itself is iconic, and colours just complicate the manufacturing process. A MacBook with a multicoloured logo glowing on the open lid would just look like the kids had attacked it with their magic markers.
- Coal Cracker
  
  Friday, August 24, 2012 - 10:40 am · Reply
  
  In the Age of Aquarius and Hair, some years later, rainbow logo worked well.
  
  The current white logo with the demensional slash is an elegant evolution.
newton*

Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 4:10 pm · Reply

It’s still s.o.s.
midwestmac

Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 4:12 pm · Reply

There were actually some really good designs put forth but after filtering through seven committees, four vice-presidents and Ballmer himself it ended up with an inorganic, boring and strikingly uncomfortable feel.

Just like their software.
- silverhawk1
  
  Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 7:20 pm · Reply
  
  You just described Ballmer himself.
shawnpetriw

Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 4:13 pm · Reply

That will fix everything wrong with Microsoft.

I mean, it worked for Apple, didn’t it? Since changing their logo in 1998, AAPL is up about 10,000%….
I love Apple

Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 4:13 pm · Reply

Their logo now is their best product. I wish Word and Excel were as sleek as this. Wait … no. I don’t use Word and Excel anymore but Pages and Numbers.
Monger

Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 4:13 pm · Reply

No depth. — No surprise.
TheLastWord

Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 4:17 pm · Reply

Isn’t Apple the worlds largest software company?
- shawnpetriw
  
  Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 4:31 pm · Reply
  
  +1
MacRaven

Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 4:17 pm · Reply

Hmm…Now why was I expecting to see a square with a bite out of the side? Probably they’d put the bite on the left instead of the right so they could say they were NOT copying Apple.
- Weekend
  
  Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 5:35 pm · Reply
  
  Great comment! Although it’s probably true, they probably considered it!
- Now, Now...
  
  Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 6:14 pm · Reply
  
  Nah, that is going to be Samsung’s new logo… An ‘S’ with a bite taken out of it.
  
  What, me copy?!
- Rico
  
  Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 7:31 pm · Reply
  
  What they should have is a square with a bite taken out of it AND a puddle below of puke that would naturally occur. Of course, Microsoft would describe it as a drop shadow signifying depth but we know better.
Scoobydoozie

Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 4:23 pm · Reply

Boring, but I think it is referencing their “metro” tiles. Which is something they are going to regret on pc’s if the reviews are accurate. Which I believe they are, by the way.