“What do you think about this logo?!” 🤷🏻♂️
A question we hear a lot from other businesses is, “What do you think about this logo?!” As we’re shown a design, on a white background with no context. They could be showing the logo for their business, or of a new logo that just was launched by Uber, Zara or in this case, Facebook. So what do we think of that logo? More often than not the answer is 🤷🏻♂️.
“But aren’t you a brand designer?” Yes, but your simple question almost always has a complicated answer.
Here’s the deal, a logo is just a mark. It doesn’t have to say how good you are at making your product, what your product even is or your core business values (if you’ve developed them). Your logo just needs to be able to differentiate you from your competition.
If you want to talk about the technical design elements of your logo, sure we can have that talk. Serif vs sans serif, custom letter forms, color thoery, etc.
But that’s not what most people want to talk about. They really mean to ask, “Heres our logo, what do you think about our brand?” It’s the same effect of showing a picture of someone in a new suit and asking, “Should I date them?Do you think they’re a good person? Do we feel the same way about things?” No idea, it’s a damn picture. It says nothing about their personality. You need to go on a date, see their home, talk to friends, etc. to get a feel for who they are. The same goes for your brand.
Take the time to look good, of course. But your story, personality, character and experience are key parts of your brand. No one will ever see your logo ona white background isolated from everything. They will be holding packaging, on your website or in your store when they experience it. People are experiencing your brand story, personality and character through the touchpoints of your business. Then when they see your logo, they associate all those feelings with that mark.
Facebook just unveiled its new overarching corporate logo that all its products will live under. Blue for Facebook, Green for WhatsApp and red/orange for Instagram. Not bad, strategically makes sense. Using the logo as an extension of their design system and individual product identities. If you’d like to learn more, Brand New has a wonderful writeup on the thinking and strategy. To a branding agency like EightySeven, that is the exciting part of a brand refresh.
But why? Why go through all that cost and pain to make a new logo? Aside from paying your team to put in the hours to bring it to life, you also face a cold hard reality. That everyone, regardless of expertise, will chime in. Be prepared, everyone is going to have a crazy opinion about the Facebook logo. From calm and rational to overcritical and bizarre. Did they do this just to make a new logo? Hell no. They had a problem.
Pew research found that only 29% of Americans correctly answered that Instagram and WhatsApp are owned by Facebook. Safe to say a lot people don’t know how big and powerful Facebook is. If you’re trying to avoid being seen as a monopoly, you can use strategic design to be more transparent and upfront with users. In the case of their new logo? The colors represent the different apps Facebook owns.
Now that we start to see the context, things start taking shape. The goal of the identity isn’t to make something sexy and big. It’s to create an unassuming corporate system that they can use to badge their individual assets without looking disjointed. Not because they needed a new logo. But because they saw an opportunity to use design as a PR and awareness tool. Will this fix every problem Facebook has? Absolutely not (frankly, there’s bigger fish to fry around ad targeting, data collection and transparency but that’s another post). Will this fix this specific problem they’re facing to ensure their survival? Only time will tell.
“A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or company. It’s not what YOU say it is. It’s what THEY say it is.” -Marty Neumeier, Branding expert, author of The Brand Gap and The Brand Flip
Using our “well-dressed” analogy, just because someone bought a new amazing outfit doesn’t mean they’ve changed. Feel free to change logos and outfits until theres no more budget. Unless you do some deep therapy to improve your personality and relationships with people, they will still feel the same thing. Your brand hasn’t changed.
“So, what do you think about this new logo?!” Nicely dressed. Sure. But, are they still a jerk? Let’s look at how Brand New summed it up…
Overall, there is no happy ending here despite any good design executions and intentions. Unlike last year’s Uber redesign that came at the right time with the right solution through a more humble and modest logo, this corporate Facebook logo comes at the wrong time when no one wants to cheer for them and no amount of press releasing or corporate copywriting can make us empathize with them. If anything, they should have quietly rolled this out and kept their heads low instead of trying to use it as a show of good will — no amount of nice kerning can make up for reputation lost.
Look sharp and do good out there. #stayup
