Designers discuss the new Yahoo Logo: "Logo, Bullshit and Co., Inc."

[mouser]

There have been some really nice discussions from a few designers on how the new Yahoo logo was created by the ceo in a weekend on a whim, and her deluded description of the design process.  It's a good example of power going to people's heads and a general lack of respect for skills and experience.

Anybody can make a logo.. All it needs is a little time, a computer, someone that knows how to use Illustrator, and taste, maybe. Everybody has taste, right? So let’s do it! So thought Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer, and she went and did it. How did it turn out?

http://ia.net/blog/logo-bullshit-co-inc/

Other must reads on the topic:

• Yahoo's Logo Reveals the Worst Aspects of the Engineering Mindset - http://glog.glennf.com/blog/2013/9/6/yahoos-logo-reveals-the-worst-aspects-of-engineering-mindset
• Of Irreverence and Irrelevance: A Yahoo! Redesign - https://medium.com/impossible-shapes/cba88884743c

[Renegade]

The article is pretty harsh. I guess some of it is deserved. Dunno.

Days 3, 7 and 10 seem ok:

http://www.yahoo.com/dailylogo

Some just seem idiotic. e.g. Day 6. That's so far removed from reality...

[tomos]

He seems as much upset by the presentation as by the logo itself. This does makes sense to me, as a new logo is like a new face, it's saying we're making a fresh start. And a fresh start needs a bit of omph. Or something.

One could argue that we can’t say if this is bad brand management. Unless we know what the brand ambition, the brand architecture, and the brand strategy is, we ought to have no opinion. Maybe the logo does exactly what it is supposed to do. Because really, it doesn’t matter whether it looks pretty, or whether someone likes or dislikes the purple or the scallops. The Coca-Cola logo was not designed by a professional designer, it is typographically hideous, but that doesn’t matter. Brand identity is not about visual refinement or aesthetics. It can be purposely ugly, like the London Olympics logo. What is important is that it is done seriously.

In theory it could work out as well as Coca-Cola's unprofessional logo. But looking at it, I dont think so - it doesn't have enough character. It's definitely the best of the bunch shown, but that makes me wonder why they showed all the others. (I'm no expert, and I have disliked logos from multi-million-dollar graphic design companies.)

[paulobrabo]

Heh, I'm a lettering and logo designer and I wholeheartedly agree with the backslash: both the logo and the post-justification for it are terrible.

Specially bullshit is the "our logo doesn't have straight lines because there aren't straight lines in nature" reasoning. The curves are so subtle, and in the web the logo will be generally applied in such small sizes, that it doesn't make any difference. The screen will render and the eye will see straight lines in 90% of the cases.

Also: bevels???   The old Yahoo logo was less 1990 than that. The 29 in-joke logos have all the advantage of being straight, one color, no gradient, no shadow, no fake 3-D.

And let me stop at that  

[paulobrabo]

Or maybe not 

The alternative logo this guy created before the reveal isn't particularly great, but I love his reaction to the final design:

Is it playful? Bevels.

Is it simple? Bevels.

Is it original? Bevels.

Is it iconic? Bevels.

Is it meaningful? Bevels.

Is it timeless? Bevels.

Is it irreverent? Bevels.

Of irreverence and elegance
https://medium.com/impossible-shapes/cba88884743c

[mouser]

Thanks for the link to the irreverence essay -- i've added it to the list.

[worstje]

Yeah, that logo turned out pretty crap. Can't say I'm surprised.

The only good choice is the color.. but it's kind of hard to mess up on a single color that is pretty much defined by the old logo already, too...

[TaoPhoenix]

Okay, a bit of "Devil's Advocate" position here, just to get a few chuckles!

What if it's an elliptical "out of the box result" where the key phrase is "we had great fun"!? To me the logo doesn't stand for anything at all! I as a medium informed consumer, using what I consider Yahoo's last core product (Yahoo Mail!), have no idea what else Yahoo is any good at! After all, they are officially out of the search game, being "powered by Bing". I think they might have some good sports stuff (vague 5th hand hearsay). But what else? I have no idea!

But what if they are doing a bit of a snub on the whole "logo is big business" thing and just having some fun in the middle of an exhausting turnaround? Let them have some fun fiddling with the logo!

I will basically only "care" about them when they unleash something completely new and unexpected! Is *anything* left as a game changer in online tech? Or are we just going to jockey about for the next X years with the same roster of output that we have now? (I was gonna say players but that might move around, aka the MS buyout of Nokia.)

Being a bit facetious, they have a "few bucks left" ... so is it worth it swiping Google's now discarded "20% rule"?

[40hz]

Successive approximation is not the same thing as the process of design.

I think she watched far too many episodes of Mad Men...

[wraith808]

Of irreverence and elegance
https://medium.com/impossible-shapes/cba88884743c

That is a cool article.  And I love his logo with the Y-bang.

[paulobrabo]

I think she watched far too many episodes of Mad Men...

Lol, and haven't we all?

Part of the problem is that the mathematical approach should not be used in this case. Bilateral symmetry and typography generally don't work well together. Typefaces are like... faces, and we have a keen eye for those. We all have seen those photo edits where a human face looks complete, but it becomes soon clear that one of the side of the head is just mirrored... and the final effect looks often somewhat unnatural and disturbing. The same general principle works for letters.

All letters in the new logo have perfect bilateral symmetry (if you cut them vertically, one side is identical to the other), and the effect is... imbalanced:



Compare to this one, made with Hermann Zapf's Optima (which certainly inspired the new Yahoo typeface). The "Y" and "A" have personality and weight, being asymmetrical in their vertical axis:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optima

Let's say that the new logo is far from OPTIMAL  

Yahoo's old logo had its problems, but at least it was very asymmetrical  

[40hz]

I would have done something like straight lower case Optima for the "yah" and added an infinity symbol done in a similar semi-serif style after it for the two "O"s - and lost the much too on-the-nose exclamation point as others have suggested.

(And yes. I too loved that Y-bang Richards came up with. )