Yahoo’s new logo and the 30-day punchline

What happens when a CEO and an intern turn designers? About what you'd expect.

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[utopia2]

"...the explanation mark..." *exclamation* D'oh!

[moonsharksays]The intern responsible for that typo will be consumed whole this weekend[/moonsharksays]

 

[Devin]

The Y doesn't even look chiseled. The left side is consistent with the shape of the Y but the right side has some sort of lonely dark line pretending to add depth, and oddly connected. And then they radiused all of the ends of the letters, to just add insult to injury. The other odd thing that stands out is the logo now looks like the well known emoticon o.0

There truly is no accounting for taste.

 

[Nothing sketchy about me]

With everyone going to flat logos I'm kinda surprised Yahoo went and made theirs 3D.

 

[brainychimp]

this is exactly my problem with the new logo. it's not just that it's bland, it's the fact that they've cheapened the entire branding process into a weekend exercise. sure, it might work for joe startup who's launching a new app, but when you're a billion-dollar company with an extensive history like yahoo, you need to take branding strategy and execution very, very seriously--people already have an investment in the brand and will have strong opinions. did they learn nothing from the tropicana backlash?

 

[gandalfSVG]

Meh- It's not too bad, although faux-depth effects are kind of... out. If Yahoo's biggest problem was the logo I'd be selling my car and organs to buy their stock.

 

[Rory_O]

Even seeing this logo on a retina screen makes my eyes go wonky. The bevel is so incredibly subtle it looks like there's a false image, like the grid of dark squares on a white background illusion.

Marissa is the prime example of what's going wrong in the Valley. She has a casual interest in Illustrator so she has full rights to create a logo for a multi-billion dollar brand,; because she's Marissa, plebe.

 

[Control Group]

This is the perfect logo for them, assuming they are a plucky web startup in 1998.

 

[killing_time]

this is all subjective but it looks like junk.
they had teased some nicer logo designs which makes me say they had some good talent behind this.

at the end of the day the talented people under you are bound by the tastes of the person in charge.

 

[mecaenas]

Is it April Fools? I'm stunned that a CEO of a huge company would do this, the sheer stupidity to think that this is the best use of their time, let alone the arrogance to assume they're capable of doing a good job.

This is very telling about her mindset, poor judgement and is a red flag about her leadership and the future of the company. If I was on the board I'd be worried and furious at the same time.

 

[Nijyo]

While I'm not one to spend time whinging on about fonts and graphic design... I think this logo looks like ass.

 

[Rory_O]

mecaenas[/url]":2mxlocp9]Is it April Fools? I'm stunned that a CEO of a huge company would do this, the sheer stupidity to think that this is the best use of their time, let alone the arrogance to assume they're capable of doing a good job. If I was on the board I'd be furious.

It's Marissa. You do not question Marissa. She worked at Google, I'll have you know.

 

[Stone]

Eh, it's not too bad. I hold Walmart up as the prime example of logo rebranding gone wrong.

 

[Gooflactus]

mecaenas[/url]":39ll0bwe]Is it April Fools? I'm stunned that a CEO of a huge company would do this, the sheer stupidity to think that this is the best use of their time, let alone the arrogance to assume they're capable of doing a good job. If I was on the board I'd be furious.

Normally I would agree with you, but it seems she is not only the CEO, she is their spokesperson. She is the very public face of the company (more so than many CEOs). So anything that could almost get her out there more might seem like a good idea.

 

[Devin]

gandalfSVG[/url]":1p7hf0os]Meh- It's not too bad, although faux-depth effects are kind of... out. If Yahoo's biggest problem was the logo I'd be selling my car and organs to buy their stock.

If they wanted depth they should have just pillow-embossed some text in Photoshop and been done with it; or even a drop shadow. It would have looked better.

 

[AndrewRSA]

In a loss for wor....

 

[luckydob]

Am I the only one that finds it silly to argue and spend large sums of money on logos? Change it and move on. As long as it isn't hideous, then it will work for what it's intended to do. It's all subjective...

 

[Shiori]

Wow, if someone that's dabbled in Illustrator can come up with a logo in a weekend for someone as "large" as Yahoo, I should run off and be the next Don Draper in my spare time. Imma work on that.

 

[Topevoli]

It looks like the 3D .GIF letters everyone was using to create Geocities websites in the 90's.... If they can make them rotate, add a sparkly background and some MIDI tunes I might just have to switch search providers.

 

[Sufinsil]

Rory_O[/url]":10iofhm2]

mecaenas[/url]":10iofhm2]Is it April Fools? I'm stunned that a CEO of a huge company would do this, the sheer stupidity to think that this is the best use of their time, let alone the arrogance to assume they're capable of doing a good job. If I was on the board I'd be furious.

It's Marissa. You do not question Marissa. She worked at Google, I'll have you know.

And nearly doubled the stock in a year.

But still doesn't give an excuse to treat the logo design process like this.

 

[Aurich]

luckydob[/url]":gfensall]Am I the only one that finds it silly to argue and spend large sums of money on logos? Change it and move on. As long as it isn't hideous, then it will work for what it's intended to do. It's all subjective...

No, you're clearly not the only one. However I'd argue you and anyone else who thinks that is very wrong, and it's a lot more important than you might think.

 

[santos-l-halper]

It would have been nice to include the old logo along with the new logo so those not familiar can see the change without having to search for it.

 

[robotic_tourist]

It's a well-executed troll-move. There are people who hate Optima as much as anyone hates Comic Sans. All publicity is good publicity etc...

 

[leedo]

I don't think it's too bad. I'm not sure why they would brag about only spending 2 days on it though... that isn't a good thing.

Everyone calling this new Yahoo logo hideous hasn't looked closely at the Google logo in a while:

 

[flunk]

I'm not sure I would have even noticed that they changed logos without this article. I barely remember what there logo looked like before and this is so bland and average (although the enlarged O on the end looks terrible) that I wouldn't have noticed.

Lee, the Google logo has never looked good but it hasn't stopped them.

 

[pulsar9]

Perhaps Aurich could redesign Yahoo's logo and show them how a pro does it?

 

[Sifaka]

From a branding perspective it fits... when Yahoo got out of the search business it has been all downhill.

 

[Sufinsil]

luckydob[/url]":nw0x6g0f]Am I the only one that finds it silly to argue and spend large sums of money on logos? Change it and move on. As long as it isn't hideous, then it will work for what it's intended to do. It's all subjective...

The Art of Logo Design | Off Book | PBS Digital Studios
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3jTSB2ez-g


For an international company, a logo is how your brand carries around the world and is recognized beyond language barriers. Maybe for a local coffee joint it it is not as important.

 

[AaronLeeR]

Sounds like Marissa is every designer's nightmare client, "I've dabbled in Illustrator and Photoshop, so I think I know what I'm doing". Well, the results show that not only does she not know what she's doing, but neither do any of the other designers on this weekend excursion.

For a company who is by and large a digital company, you'd think the logo would be optimized to work on a variety of digital screens and resolutions. Instead, we get a purple pantone color that vibrates (but they are so proud of that color!), a chisel effect that completely goes away when used at any appropriate size, and an overall weight that diminishes its purpose.

They put so much focus onto so many useless notions (the Y in the chisel?) that they neglected to make it a logo that actually usable in a variety of scenarios. Terrible? No. Pointless? Completely.

 

[jdale]

Control Group[/url]":1rfn1x3j]This is the perfect logo for them, assuming they are a plucky web startup in 1998.

And, ultimately, since that was their heyday, they'd really like to go back to that point.

 

[slogger]

My first impression was that it looked oddly Google-like.

 

[Uxorious]

utopia2[/url]":1e7jkeh4]"...the explanation mark..." *exclamation* D'oh!

[moonsharksays]The intern responsible for that typo will be consumed whole this weekend[/moonsharksays]

Lee, so you're of vegan Soylent, and are now attempting to actualize the Soylent myth using an intern?

Edit: Arggg, I confused pokrface (Lee) & moonshark(Ed.), apologies to both for the confusion.

 

[Aurich]

pulsar9[/url]":3otzo9s2]Perhaps Aurich could redesign Yahoo's logo and show them how a pro does it?

Heh. That's really the point though, I couldn't do it off the cuff. If they came to me and said "we read your story, you're obviously our savior, can you do it this weekend?" I'd laugh at them. Well, I'd take their money and laugh at the end result.

A weekend isn't even enough time to let a concept marinate, this stuff takes time. Sure, sometimes lightning strikes and you just nail it, but more often not, and in this case obviously not. It's not a race to see who can whip out a tweaked font faster.

I made that point about how even simple logos like Microsoft's take time. I guarantee there was a ton of alternate takes and evolution to get to that end result, even if it looks really obvious in hindsight. The process is valuable.

 

[Disgustoid]

I'm waiting for a few "Under Construction" GIFs to be added to round out this 1990's throwback.

 

[mecaenas]

Disgustoid[/url]":1dzl8ulw]I'm waiting for a few "Under Construction" GIFs to be added to round out this 1990's throwback.

That's her MS Paint project for this weekend, right after she colour coordinates the mugs in the break room.

 

[Martin Blank]

Aurich[/url]":14x9k5nq]

luckydob[/url]":14x9k5nq]Am I the only one that finds it silly to argue and spend large sums of money on logos? Change it and move on. As long as it isn't hideous, then it will work for what it's intended to do. It's all subjective...

No, you're clearly not the only one. However I'd argue you and anyone else who thinks that is very wrong, and it's a lot more important than you might think.

It is important, and this isn't the makeover that the name needed. But the last few years have seen companies spend money on rebranding by the truckload only to come up with bland concepts that looked like they were done in a weekend.

 

[Nothing sketchy about me]

leedo[/url]":1gduz6iu]I don't think it's too bad. I'm not sure why they would brag about only spending 2 days on it though... that isn't a good thing.

Everyone calling this new Yahoo logo hideous hasn't looked closely at the Google logo in a while:

I personally don't think its terrible. It just seems like an odd choice considering the current trend of clean flat minimalist logos.

And I do think the Google logo would look pretty nice if it were flat.

 

[Deleted member 14629]

I'm not a fan. The hard elements look weird at different resolutions, unlike the rounder Google logo which seems to scale cleanly. It also feels rather dated. Kind-of like they want a solid feeling of a blue-chip company, which is weird for a company that is all-digital.

Some of the 30 days actually were rather pleasant attempts. Nothing really daring, but nice. I would have preferred to see them take some other risks, like dropping the bang from the end of the name.

In all, I thought day 25 was the most interesting. Not good for a corporate logo as it stood, but definitely potential to refine it into something forward-looking.

Daily logo list: http://www.yahoo.com/dailylogo

 

[Nothing sketchy about me]

Martin Blank[/url]":10r1vfgu]

Aurich[/url]":10r1vfgu]

luckydob[/url]":10r1vfgu]Am I the only one that finds it silly to argue and spend large sums of money on logos? Change it and move on. As long as it isn't hideous, then it will work for what it's intended to do. It's all subjective...

No, you're clearly not the only one. However I'd argue you and anyone else who thinks that is very wrong, and it's a lot more important than you might think.

It is important, and this isn't the makeover that the name needed. But the last few years have seen companies spend money on rebranding by the truckload only to come up with bland concepts that looked like they were done in a weekend.

Logo for Windows 8?