And Now That Microsoft Has Changed Its Logo

As you are probably already aware, Microsoft has announced a change of its corporate logo. The new logo adopts a new font, Segoe; the same font used in all of their recent products like Windows Phone.  And the new logo also adds well….   a logo. This new ‘logo’ to the left the company’s name is simply the Windows icon. Is it brilliant? I guess that will be a matter of personal taste.
I prefer the design principle of the now erstwhile logo. Allow me to explain why.

The old logo was simple because the font and style was the logo; no graphics or image. The ‘O’ in soft simply had a part of it taken out. This made it neat and as the saying goes, simplicity is elegant. And I have personally observed that this method has held sway in the branding of almost all companies in the tech Industry for as long as I can remember and for good reason. It IS elegant. Not was; I say IS. Take a mental sampling of every major firm and you will begin to appreciate the sense in this. IBM’s logo was ‘’IBM’’ in what I call, IBM font. Oracle was simply oracle with a special font. Sun Microsystems is ‘Sun’ written four times transversely to form the outline of a diamond shape. Google is Google in the famous Google colours. Yahoo is Yahoo! in a special font. Facebook is facebook written in white lettering against a blue background. What Microsoft needs to understand is that there is a difference between corporate branding and product branding. I can understand Microsoft's argument of unification across the brand but how does this fit into the much larger picture? The Xbox  for instance is not Windows based unless the next version will be powered by a flavour of Windows. Their keyboards and mice are also not Windows exclusive so I'm unsure of how this will play out.

Examples of this methodology abound in other industries as well. The CNN logo is CNN in a special font. Others include, the BBC logo, the Sky logo, the 3 Hutchinson logo in the UK, PC Format, PC Plus. Mercedes Benz and BMW have two respectively; apart from the tristar and the white propeller against the blue sky graphics, their names and model emblems are spelt out in special fonts. The trend here is in special fonts. Having graphics is outdated. The only exception here is Apple. But then we know Apple likes to Think Different.

So Microsoft's decision to base its corporate brand on the symbol of one of its major products seems risky but time will tell. However, seeing as most companies just copy emulate each other’s strategies these days, I expect other firms to follow suit. I can just hear the phone call from the Director’s office to the PR department.

Director: Microsoft has changed its logo. Do you copy?

PR Department: I copy. Roger that.

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