“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.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: They need a lot more than a new logo.
Staggering.
Wow. Bad, even for Microsoft.
THIS is bad
http://twitter.com/cubiq/status/238329183636422656/photo/1
oops. Just wanted to link the picture… Not that dudes entire tweat..
fantastic regardless
very funny and great comparison
dunno, looks very similar to tv’s horrible, new interface design.
Metro (or whatever Microsoft is going to call it) probably *really* sucks if you are colorblind.
Simplicity is usually good, but apparently things can be too simple.
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.
Haha ha brilliant. Will someone get this kid an iPad? Who needs cheap half baked wanna be imitations?
Hipsters got ahold of that one.
Meaning…Microsoft is a bunch of squares, man.
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. 😉
Absolutely rubbish.
Waste of money, would have taken a design student 20mins using adobe illustrator to come up with that POS.
What’d said student have to do for the other 18 minutes? Wait for Windows to boot?
Illustrator? That is a clear MS Paint job, Powerpoint at a push.
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.
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.
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.
It is not bad , the colors are unique…
Too bad the products are just beyond use lol
Maybe it is just my crappy dell monitor, but the colors look like the same MS crappy corporate logo colors as before…
They are. With the stylized squares replaced by actual squares.
yawn
I’m surprised the symbol isn’t a steaming pile of dog turd in Zune brown.
“steaming pile of dog turd in Zune brown”
I think that’s the technical name, not the logo.
“Meh”crosoft.
My favorite: Microcruft
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.
awww — you woke up the patent trolls!!!
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”.
New perfume on the same old pig!!
It’s better than a white apple. Need the rainbow apple back (see BootXChanger).
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.
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.
It’s still s.o.s.
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.
You just described Ballmer himself.
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%….
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.
No depth. — No surprise.
Isn’t Apple the worlds largest software company?
+1
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.
Great comment! Although it’s probably true, they probably considered it!
Nah, that is going to be Samsung’s new logo… An ‘S’ with a bite taken out of it.
What, me copy?!
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.
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.
Not too dissimilar from the logo in the Chrome address bar, just reordered the colors a bit.
Innovation. ®
Hey, aren’t those the new colors for the kick stands? Those tiles are the best they could do when they shrink down the logo to fit on inferior 7″ displays.
My old Commodore 64 is much better!
Need the Guy that tatooed the Zune logo on his body to follow up with the New Windows Logo. One failed product and the newest failing product.
I hope they paid a few millions for that. Primary colors, looks like it would belong in a nursery.
The Titanic needed new racing stripes too.
Last one was a distorted flag. Now these squares. Both means Windows. But windows analogy is gone (see iOS), so makes no sense, maybe tiles… but still the same stupid colors as Google. Lame as usual.
Wow… if you think those colors are the same as google’s well…
I guess it’s just their official recognition of what we always knew:
Microsoft = Windows.
The new logo reminds me of Europe: hold on to past glories, reject the future. They have bet their entire future on office bothered is nothing in the logo that remotely evokes innovation, the future, seduction (Eve’s bite of the apple gave us sex, yea, Eve!) technology, connection, mobile, sexy curves, NOTHING, The lack of imagination in t logo states the obvious: we are of, by and for the mediocre. even the name of the company is has-been.
Of course, Microsoft must have gone for this explanation – even though the link below refers to Google choosing those colors…
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_explanation_for_the_Google_logo_colors
“…the explanation might be that colors are assigned to letters according to whether their positions represent a prime number or don’t.
Thus letters number 1, 2, 3 and 5 (all of them prime numbers) have a distinctive or “prime” color assigned: blue, red, yellow and green. Letters number 4 and 6 (not prime numbers) repeat colors -no longer “prime colors”- in the same order that such colors were assigned in the first time: blue and then red.
If the sequence were to continue with new letters, the next letter, number 7, should have a new or “prime color” since 7 is prime; letters number 8, 9 and 10 should repeat colors in the preestablished order: yellow, green and the same as 7’s; letter number 11, also a prime number, should have another new color, and so forth.
Both of the above answers are plausible. Most people think there are three primaries (the additive primaries are red, green and blue; the subtractive primaries are cyan, magenta and yellow; and the artists’ primaries are red, yellow and blue). However, there is no reason to pick out red, green, yellow and blue on this basis. However, there are four psychological primaries associated with the unique hues: red, yellow, green and blue. These psychological hues have far more visual/psychologal importance than the three primaries of any colour mixing system. The correct answer is therefore that the four colours have been chosen as the four psychological primaries.”
I think copying the “Simon”tm makes more sense.
So who is Microsoft trying to “psych out” by using those colors?
Their shareholders. This new logo is designed to keep them off Ballmer’s back. The logo was made on a Mac mini.
It must have taken dozens upon dozens of highly paid designers to come up with four color squares. Wow!
A company with no taste trumpeting yet another makeover/boring iteration of their thoroughly corporate logo.
To celebrate this non-event, various MS VPs are virtually fellating various senior VPs via email right now.
“It’s good enough.”
Beautifully done with MS Paint I’m sure (not that there’s anything wrong with that)!
Has committee written all over it. Can’t imagine trying to drag a decent design through the bureaucratic sludge at MS. I’d say a student could do better and they did… http://www.fastcodesign.com/1670245/a-students-smart-microsoft-rebranding-is-better-than-the-real-thing#1
1. who gaf
2. is that all?
why spend all that energy/time/money on revamping an ugly logo, nearly as stupidly designed as the London Olympics logo, instead of
a. spending it on more useful stuff i.e. education
b. a brain transplant for most staff
3. why bother?
MSFT has failed more than achieved over 3 decades, only surviving thanks to license deals…
if the Microsoftian nerds wish to veni, vidi, vici,
they better cum, leave, self-destruct & restart!
I guess they think it’s hip to be square?
I’m not sure why all the negativity on this logo update. I am in no way a Windows fan, have been Mac since ’99 and own just about every iDevice produced. However, as a graphic designer, this design is clean, simple, refined and ties in with the Windows 8 and Metro tile look unifying their brand. Less is more (think Apple specifically) and this logo update portrays that. I for one, like this new look.
What Steve Jobs said Decades ago, still holds true today.
“They just have no Taste, they have Absolutely no taste” and this Logo Proves it all.
Not Classy, Not well Defined, Not Unique or Creative & Does not Stand out.
(May Monkey Boy Remain @ the Helm 4 as long as it Takes)
Leave it to MS to even mess up the video of their new logo, notice that one square has no meaning at all. That must be Ballmers secret hidey hole.
But, you, know, at least they are not Shamdong or Gurgle.
What a snoozefest, yawn
It’s just the bootcamp logo rotated 45°.
I’ve been down the logo definition path a few times. A logo that includes the name is weak, though sometimes required for a new company with an unrecognized name. I fear that the four squares are not distinctive enough to stand on their own. Microsoft appears to be very confused right now about their future.
Their managers realized that Microsoft is sort of a cult, and its followers are blind believers. Because of this they decided the logo better look like a church Logo (with a cross).
If I have had that exact pattern in my bathroom wall’s tiles for over 5 years, may I sue Microsoft?
For being forced to retile? Yes.
What’s that saying about polishing a turd? X_O
a new logo for the first time since Ronald Reagan was president
What exactly is new here, apart from a change in font? What we actually see in this ‘new’ logo is the retrograde ugly window graphic that we all hated back from the Windows 3.1 days. Clearly this is another sign of company decay.
Old joke:
New joke:
http://www.nerfnow.com/comic/image/825
Might have been more accurate to put it on the “green screen”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Windows_NT_3.1_logo.svg
Still broken…
As a graphic design pro of 32 years experience, I have to say the new MS logo is absolutely, positively and completely…
underwhelming.
It gave me a sense of deja vu when I saw it… probably because it looks like something that might have appeared on their very first software packages.
Lets see now, they flattened the flag, took out the background and kept the colors. Guess it cost them 10mil to create that logo.
They made a big mistake. A sinking ship would have been a more appropriate logo. Oh, that would have been copied from Titanic!
I think they made a big mistake with the new logo. A sinking ship would have been more appropriate. Oh, they copied that from Titanic!
I found that new logo is very fresh. but Apple logo has been rotten so bad. change dumb fucking logo. I hate it.
Cant believe they didn’t use Comic Sans
I can’t believe they didn’t use Comic Sans
They were really close to having an amazing new logo, but they hadn’t saved and Windows crashed.
Sorry, Ellsworth Kelly holds the copyright on colored squares.
Oh my god, the logo is freakin’ Metro tiles. Is this logo signaling that Microsoft has bet the company’s future on Metro?
Oh please oh please oh please
…not snappier…
I do like the font, which one is that?
Here’s the history Microsoft logos, what should have been included in MarketWatch story.
http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-unveils-new-logoheres-a-history-of-the-designs-evolution-2012-8?op=1
The ribbon cutting photo at the end is, well, just sad.