Tonight, the millions of users across dozens of Yahoo! properties will see something a little different. The new official logo will be rolling out for all to see. Of course, Yahoo! has been switching logos daily for the past 30 days to help build hype for the big logo change, but this time it is permanent. The old logo, which served the company well for 18+ years, will officially be retired, and the new one will take its place.
According to the official blog of Yahoo! CEO, Marissa Mayer, they “knew we wanted a logo that reflected Yahoo – whimsical, yet sophisticated. Modern and fresh, with a nod to our history. Having a human touch, personal. Proud” The new logo, it seems, will certainly include all of those things, and the iconic exclamation point at the end will still be there. In fact, it will now be an animated exclamation point, which bounces around for a moment before settling in place. Something sure to be fun for the first two times people visit a Yahoo! property, and then be largely ignored, or even a bit annoying to some.
Mayer reports that she was directly involved with the design staff in coming up with the new logo. Using Adobe Illustrator, a software package about which she said, “I’m not a pro, but I know just enough to be dangerousJ”
They kept their purple color, which has been an important part of the brand since the beginning as well. The lettering is much more chiseled and triangular, a change which Mayer says causes the letter Y to appear in the shading at the ends of each letter. In some ways the changes are quite minimal, and in others more dramatic.
Other than the fact that Yahoo! is a huge company which influences just about anyone who does business online, this story should be of particular interest to marketers. Yahoo! clearly took the task of updating their logo (and by extension, their whole brand) very seriously. Something like a logo can have a HUGE impact on the way people look at a company, and what they think about it. Whether creating a logo for the first time, or updating an existing one, it is essential to take the time to think it through completely.
Yahoo! obviously took this time, and came up with a nice logo which holds on to their history while still moving forward, a great reflection of the company today.
You can see Marissa Mayer’s blog announcement HERE.
What do you think of the new logo?
