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Microsoft gets a new logo for the first time since 1987

seattletimes.nwsource.com

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Re: Microsoft gets a new logo for the first time since 1987

#161

Post by rhplus »

colanderman wrote: post #99
sudonim wrote: post #7

The logo is O.K. Their homepage http://microsoft.com looks like a mix between a "corporate" website template you'd buy for $50 and a domain squatting page with amazon referral links. Gosh I want to cheer for microsoft but they make it real hard.

Not to mention the URL… http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx , really? Have they not heard of internal/external URL mapping and Accept-Language? Not to mention it won't even load for me; I guess they don't cache this stuff either.

LCIDs in the URI remove ambiguity about which language to serve (do you use Accept-Language? Or IP sniffing? Or user prefs in cookies?), they remove ambiguity about which storefront to show for a market and - most importantly - they make alternate language/markets indexable by search engines because each has a distinct URI.

Why are Apple, IBM, Amazon, Google doing it if it's such a terrible design?

http://www.ibm.com/us/en/

http://store.apple.com/us

http://www.apple.com/ca/fr/mac/

http://support.google.com/adwords/?hl=en

http://www.amazon.ca/fr/

Re: Microsoft gets a new logo for the first time since 1987

#162

Post by [deleted] »

colanderman wrote: post #99
sudonim wrote: post #7

The logo is O.K. Their homepage http://microsoft.com looks like a mix between a "corporate" website template you'd buy for $50 and a domain squatting page with amazon referral links. Gosh I want to cheer for microsoft but they make it real hard.

Not to mention the URL… http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx , really? Have they not heard of internal/external URL mapping and Accept-Language? Not to mention it won't even load for me; I guess they don't cache this stuff either.

[deleted]

Re: Microsoft gets a new logo for the first time since 1987

#165

Post by seanalltogether »

narrator wrote: post #124

Anybody notice this is basically the AVG logo with the colors flipped around? See: http://www.avg.com/us-en/homepage

No, but now I see that the AVG logo has always been the windows icon, but with the colors flipped around.

Re: Microsoft gets a new logo for the first time since 1987

#166

Post by ThomPete »

ricardobeat wrote: post #147
ThomPete wrote: post #105

Many commenters here are predictably unable to look at this as the business decision it is. What people don't seem to understand is that the price of a logo is not based on how it looks. Aesthetics have nothing to do with this. It's based on how much the ability to make sure that the entire system is implemented properly is worth to MS. This is not a question about whether the logo "works for you".

It's a question of whether it works for everybody, and unless somente here wants to do free research, we can only extrapolate from our on perceptions.

No it's not a question of whether it works for everybody. The world is filled with successful companies with ugly logos.

The purpose of the logo is not to look pretty but to identify.

Re: Microsoft gets a new logo for the first time since 1987

#167

Post by drstewart »

nostromo wrote: post #163

Reminds me of Philip Morris' rebranding ( http://taxtrials.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/altria_logo1... ) Problem is, I'm pretty sure "Altria" was trying to be generic and forgettable.

It seems to be the common theme among all giant multinationals -- they're trying to soften their image by using pastel colors, rounded, clean fonts, minimalist shapes.

See also: BP, Walmart

Re: Microsoft gets a new logo for the first time since 1987

#168

Post by wgx »

Jabbles wrote: post #96
tptacek wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those are the Windows colors. They predate Google.

Oh. I wonder why Google chose those colours then? There was a rumour about their first server being made of various colours of lego bricks, but maybe someone put more thought into it...

Because it was designed by Sergey Brin[0], not a pro designer. They even had a Yahoo-esque exclamation mark in the beginning.

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_logo

Re: Microsoft gets a new logo for the first time since 1987

#169

Post by dhughes »

untog wrote: post #63
dhughes wrote: post #41

I can see the anti-Apple mentality of this. Apple icons are glossy this is flat. The icons on an iPad/iPod are small glossy "chicklets" but on Win8 they are flat and large tiles; no black space. I like the look and the design it's a nice change, as for the inner workings of the OS I have no idea since I only used it briefly in a (non-touchscreen) VM.

Different to Apple != anti-Apple I think it is a tremendous disservice to the amount of work that went into the Metro (or whatever it's called now) interface to describe it as an anti-Apple reaction. It isn't, and not everyone in the tech world bases their entire business around what Apple is or is not doing. It wasn't created to spite the memory of Steve Jobs.

I'd say different is anti-Apple when you're Microsoft and Apple is your primary competitor your goal is to gain customers, being the same doesn't make sense since it already exists.

A great quote I heard once (not sure who) to paraphrase: Trying to be as good as your competition just makes you equals. To be better you have to exceed beyond what is being done.

Re: Microsoft gets a new logo for the first time since 1987

#170

Post by astrodust »

trhtrsh wrote: post #91
astrodust wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It usually one in the top left corner, just as it always has.

That's an Apple logo, not on OS X logo. OS X logo is the giant X, which you only see on OS X marketing material, not on iPods.

Ah, in that case it shows up in the About screen and that's about it, huh?
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