The Next Microsoft • Hacker News Board

Re: The Next Microsoft

#61

Post by jasomill » Tue, Jul 03, 2012, 7:52 PM UTC

alberich wrote: post #44

I didn't find it good at all. Why "microsoft" and not "Microsoft"? And the logo is ugly. well, after all, it's just a matter of opinion.

Why "Microsoft" and not "MICROSOFT"?

I emphatically disagree that capitalization is merely a matter of opinion, as it can have significant ramifications in both readability [1] and trademark law, especially where marks like 'Word', 'Windows', 'Excel', 'Outlook', and 'Surface' (or 'Apple', 'Pages', 'Keynote', and 'Numbers'; or 'Android'; or 'Oracle', 'Sun', and 'Java'; or ...) are concerned.

[1] http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudio/archive/2012/06/05/a-de...

Re: The Next Microsoft

#62

Post by stcredzero » Tue, Jul 03, 2012, 7:55 PM UTC

    - Apple - Skeuomorphic
    - Google - Hybrid
    - Microsoft - Purely digital

I agree that this is one of the things Metro has right. It's even more "about the content" than Google or Apple is.

In the case of Apple, I think this may be intentional. Apple is also about the personal. Skeuomorphic interfaces can be used to evoke memories associated with physical objects and past technology.

Re: The Next Microsoft

#63

Post by creativityland » Tue, Jul 03, 2012, 7:55 PM UTC

programminggeek wrote: post #6

This is great. It will never work. A brand has to reflect the culture of how a product is made, sold, experienced, etc... Microsoft is not about simplicity, it's about feature creep. Microsoft sells software and licenses to big companies. Big companies don't want simple, they want value for their money - features! A better brand promise would be Microsoft - It Does Everything! Look at Windows 8. Is it going metro onl…

Couldn't have said it better myself. The whole concept of a brand also becomes harder to change the more well known it is. For Microsoft it is close to impossible at this point unless they branch out completely another business, and a good example would be xbox.

Re: The Next Microsoft

#64

Post by brittohalloran » Tue, Jul 03, 2012, 7:56 PM UTC

esbwhat wrote: post #15

I'm no designer, but aren't logos supposed to be recognizable? This is a geometric shape, why not just use a square for the logo, or a triangle? Would people really associate this shape (which isn't particularly unique and probably not even trademark-able) with microsoft when they see it? I have my doubts Also unrelatedly, the missing i-dot is really throwing me off (probably just because I am used to it)

Microsoft is big enough that a shape that simple could easily become their logo. What company is this:

http://www.owenjonesdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/1_...

or this:

http://www.wearesuntravel.com/SquareLogo_Jewel.303162624_std...

or this:

http://www.vintagevideogamer.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/...

Re: The Next Microsoft

#65

Post by maytc » Tue, Jul 03, 2012, 7:56 PM UTC

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #9

programminggeek wrote: post #6

This is great. It will never work. A brand has to reflect the culture of how a product is made, sold, experienced, etc... Microsoft is not about simplicity, it's about feature creep. Microsoft sells software and licenses to big companies. Big companies don't want simple, they want value for their money - features! A better brand promise would be Microsoft - It Does Everything! Look at Windows 8. Is it going metro onl…

That's an interesting perspective that I'd never considered before. If you're right, and you sound it, then Microsoft clearly has an internal struggle. Metro is all about simple. It's fast, it's fluid, it's simple, it's "alive with activity". But it's not complex, packed with features. This is the image Microsoft wants to present to consumers. On the other hand, Microsoft's Business division is all about things packe…

They already have multiple lines of windows which are all the same except the some features are turned off with a lower level serial key

Re: The Next Microsoft

#66

Post by kalmsy » Tue, Jul 03, 2012, 7:57 PM UTC

Love the effort, but that typeface is just horrific! Badly hinted and that 'm'? Jeebus.

Re: The Next Microsoft

#67

Post by kitsune_ » Tue, Jul 03, 2012, 7:57 PM UTC

This design is Orwellian in nature.

In the current age of global wars, international terrorism, financial turmoil, outsourced labor, awakening behemoths (China), increasing corruption, people fear the future.

Look at Apple, classic 1960's space age retro.

Look at Instagram. Cozy and nostalgic polaroid filters.

If I designed for the future, I'd take hints from the past.

A key difference is that in the past, different social groups had something to look forward to (emancipation and liberation), despite the looming threat of thermonuclear warfare. Nowadays? In the western hemisphere? It's all gloom and doom.

In western markets - Your brand should function as an opiate, it should reassure and placate people.

In emerging markets - Sell the American dream of old.

Of course there's a third way, show us a way out of here. But for that advertisement alone is not enough. You'd have to change how your business runs and make a lasting impact on society. Forget shareholder value and start thinking about society.

Re: The Next Microsoft

#68

Post by monkeynotes » Tue, Jul 03, 2012, 7:57 PM UTC

Microsoft's major problem is not the branding. The branding is just a symptom of the underlying problem which is its culture.

Re: The Next Microsoft

#69

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jul 03, 2012, 7:58 PM UTC

EternalFury wrote: post #25

Great work. But you know what they say about lipstick and pigs. Microsoft's problem is not their lack of spending on advertising, branding, marketing, PR, etc. They spend colossal amounts of money in these departments. Their problem is that they no longer know who they are. Worse, they no longer know who they want to be. In that respect, they are very close to Sony.

[deleted]

Re: The Next Microsoft

#70

Post by rndmize » Tue, Jul 03, 2012, 7:59 PM UTC

I don't find it appealing. The surface version of the logo, especially, bothers me; it feels off-balance due to the size of the geometric block and its placement.

Personal issues with the design aside, I also don't think the overall idea is any good. Microsoft as a whole doesn't need to be futuristic or hip or apple-ish. For its corporate customers especially, I think this would be counter-productive. Instead, they should take Microsoft Research and really DO SOMETHING with it. Such as attaching an accelerator of sorts, where small groups of entrepreneurs/innovators can take something MS Research has developed and see if they can make a marketable product out of it.

Surface really feels like the case in point here - they're how many years behind in finally releasing something to the consumer market? I remember reading that the cool desk in the The Island (2005, two years prior to the iPhone) was a MS research surface prototype or something; and yet it took them another four years to get a product out, and they priced it at 10k and sold it to phone retailers. Phone retailers! What the actual fuck?! Today, all of that seems to have fallen by the wayside in favor of tablets. It feels like MS is following the TSA model - wait until something big happens, then do something about it, instead of the other way around.

Anyway, if MS Research got a new logo that could be attached to semi-independent MS-funded experimental projects aimed at getting something to market, I could see a futuristic/high-tech branding being a useful thing to have. For MS in general, I don't.