Google last week, in case you missed it, introduced a brand new logo design. While not a monumental change, the new typeface offers up a subtle variation to the logo the search giant had been using for the last five years. The most prominent change is that Google’s new typeface completely does away with the serifs that helped define its logo for the past 16 years.
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While most folks might yawn at Google’s new logo design, this is the type of stuff that designers live for. That said, Fast Company recently sat down with a number of prominent designers and branding experts in order to see what they thought of Google’s new logo.
In short, it seems to be a resounding hit.
But first, here’s a quick blurb on the framework Google’s own designers used when coming up with the new logo.
The Google logo has always had a simple, friendly, and approachable style. We wanted to retain these qualities by combining the mathematical purity of geometric forms with the childlike simplicity of schoolbook letter printing. Our new logotype is set in a custom, geometric sans-serif typeface and maintains the multi-colored playfulness and rotated ‘e’ of our previous mark—a reminder that we’ll always be a bit unconventional.
As for the pros, here’s what they thought.
Michael Rock, a founding partner and creative director at 2×4, had this to say:
The only-thing engineers love more than Escher prints are primary colors, perhaps they appeal to their sense of reductive order. Google has always packaged its unfathomably complex, world-dominating operation in a cutesy wrapper of bright tones and charming cartoons. The awkward naiveté of the past logo iteration—novelty serif font in Lifesaver™ hues—has now been re-imagined in full Montessori: even rendering the inaugural appearance in crayonimation. In case you miss the pre-school reference, the rotated lowercase “e” of the new sans serif version hammers the point home with a needlessly obvious wink.
Meanwhile, Steve Heller, a former Art Director at The New York Times also came away impressed:
Google’s new logo is a homerun. They’ve managed to take the three often conflicting attributes of logo design—the letter, the word and the image and turn them into a joyful, memorable modern expression of their brand. Some might say the animation is a bell and whistle, I say it is an evocation of contemporary media.
Suffice it to say, seemingly everyone Fast Company touched base with seemed to think the design was nothing short of an absolute triumph. Hit the source link below for the full recap of why designers seem to be so enamored with the new design.
As for folks who aren’t feeling the new logo in the slightest, perhaps John Gruber’s take was the most scathing of all.
“Their old logo was goofy,” Gruber wrote. “This new one is simply garbage. Just right for a company with no taste.”
