Up popped the new Windows 8 logo this weekend. Reviews have been notably negative. Critiques have pointed out numerous problems with the redesign. Some are fact based others a matter of opinion. This reinterpretation of Windows pervious logo shows a bigger issue though than first meets the eye....Microsoft just doesn’t get it. Chasing Apple’s simple elegance and cool factor is futile. The new logo is very simplistic. This is a good thing. I’m pleased to see the tied turning toward more straightforward approaches rather than the rampant overuse of gradient blends to hide a boring idea. Simplicity works when based on a clever concept. This is the same idea which wasn’t that clever to begin with. Apple’s logo is based on a clever concept hatched in the 80‘s that works to this very day.
One color approaches are all the rage. Gone are the days of the multi-colored everything but the kitchen sink color palette. Here again simple is better. But is this too simple and not any better? Does this one color illustrate Microsoft’s ho-hum corporate culture and product? Something bolder and daring might have been in order.
A typeface sets the tone for a logo. This new typeface is rather staid and boring. Sure, Helvetica has had a resurgence in the current simplistic movement but is something similar to it right for a new software product? I think not. A typeface with a bit more movement and action would have been better. Moving into the future not stuck in the past.
Microsoft is trying so hard to be cool like Apple. But as we all know, when you try too hard you often fail. The cool kids don’t try to be cool....they just are.
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