O’M’G… A Total Eclipse of the Medium Logo

My very first no-filter reaction

Joe Váradi
Aug 23, 2017 · 3 min read
My own hastily clobbered-together reaction montage

Wait… Medium just unleashed its new logo, with some revised branding?

First, clapping 👏. Now this M business.

On the same day as Trump’s train wreck speech in Arizona? How much of this are we expected to take? 😱😅


I see some first reactions already, both pro and con, another pro, so let me take a slightly different tack — more tongue-in-cheek, less quick-to-judge.

Let’s take this one step at a time.

The old (or most recent) logo:

old school logo — I miss you already

Quick aside — reading about the history of the Medium logo just eclipsed, seems that some really neat thinking went into it:

we pursued the concept that our logo could be made of a series of interconnected ideas or shapes that, when joined together, form a new thought

Respect.

Now onto the new design language.

I’ll start with the mobile icon that I first noticed early this morning, with the latest Medium app upgrade (I happen to be on Android, thanks for confirming ditto for iPhones):

And now the new logo that appears on the website, what designers call the Monogram.

Ok … so how do I feel about all this? I’m not ready to declare Love or Hate just yet, on the new design language. Let me just say — I liked the old logo. It was nuanced, 3-dimensional, and had a nice concept behind it. If it ain’t broke …

The new logos are simpler, 2-dimensional, some would say cleaner. Perhaps they are an homage to the typed word, which is obviously Medium’s bread and butter. The font with the triangulated serif is, in my opinion, not unappealing, and I would like to learn more about how it was arrived at, but that is for a different day.

Final thought:

Is anyone else reminded of the Microsoft Office suite logos, especially by the new Medium mobile icon? And, is this a good thing?

Just askin’.

, , , I linked to your reaction pieces, above, thanks for that & would love to hear your thoughts. , , I continue to love y’all.

Aug 24 update: I must say, the “Medium” text, centered & floating atop each page now feels like a bit of a slight to the author community, since they cannot center their own titles! Also, I am surprised that in the many reaction pieces, there is little or no mention of the mobile icon, it was the first thing I noticed. Just to be clear, the beige border as I show it above is my own background, the mobile logo itself just has a white background.


The Bigger Picture

Oddly specific. Universally applicable. Submit your writing to biggerpicturemedium@gmail.com.

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Joe Váradi

Written by

Editor of No Crime in Rhymin' | the Woke Bloke | the Quid Pro Bro ..."come for the sarcasm, stay for my soft side"

The Bigger Picture

Oddly specific. Universally applicable. Submit your writing to biggerpicturemedium@gmail.com.

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