Go's New Brand • Hacker News Board

Re: Go's New Brand

#121

Post by mortdeus » Thu, Apr 26, 2018, 11:01 PM UTC

ben509 wrote: post #106

21 wrote: post #86

Reading the comments here makes it clear why most programmers should stay away from design. I've programmed for 20 years now, but that stupid gopher and the way it was everywhere was a serious put off for me on giving Go a look. Nerdy AF. Good riddance. I wonder if there was a huge internal battle between the brand savvy people which realized how terrible the gopher was, and the Go creators. Guys, don't be so stereot…

> ... that stupid gopher and the way it was everywhere was a serious put off for me on giving Go a look. Nerdy AF. Go is a programming language whose dominant demographic is nerds. > ... can you imagine for a second that gopher on anything Apple? Apple is a consumer oriented tech firm whose niche is high end goods. > Reading the comments here makes it clear why most programmers should stay away from design. You don't…

apple likes their own nerdy mascots. Note the devil horns are a shout out to the freebsd demon. People don't bitch about the python!

http://www.operating-system.org/betriebssystem/_english/bs-d...

Re: Go's New Brand

#122

Post by mortdeus » Thu, Apr 26, 2018, 11:01 PM UTC

Meai wrote: post #116

21 wrote: post #86

Reading the comments here makes it clear why most programmers should stay away from design. I've programmed for 20 years now, but that stupid gopher and the way it was everywhere was a serious put off for me on giving Go a look. Nerdy AF. Good riddance. I wonder if there was a huge internal battle between the brand savvy people which realized how terrible the gopher was, and the Go creators. Guys, don't be so stereot…

I had a bad reaction to it too but I think golang has probably crossed a certain threshold of adoption where if they want to grow even further they will have to cut into the market of the general population and those people definitely like that design more than the weird gopher.

no this is horrible

Re: Go's New Brand

#123

Post by wiremine » Thu, Apr 26, 2018, 11:03 PM UTC

Caveat: I'm a software developer who's worked in agencies for half of my 20 year career. A few thoughts:

1. Branding is hard: everybody things they can do it. Creative direction and art direction are really, really hard. If you haven't seen the "Make my logo bigger cream" video, go watch it, and then have some grace with the Go team. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgcX0y1Nzhs

2. A brand is WAY more than a logo. I get that's the first thing you grab, but the logo is just the identify of the brand. If you think it's all creative mumbo jumbo, I encourage you to go read Aaker's "Building Strong Brands" https://www.amazon.com/Building-Strong-Brands-David-Aaker/dp...

Go read the Brand Guide twice before you start throwing darts. https://storage.googleapis.com/golang-assets/go-brand-book-v...

Having seen 100s of these over the years, this is excellent work from people who honestly care. It also addresses almost every single negative comment on this thread.

I also like how they call out explicitely "The gopher is not a logo" which is entirely true. I think it's more of a "lovemark" (see https://www.amazon.com/Lovemarks-Kevin-Roberts/dp/157687270X)

It's not my favorite logo, but it's definitely on brand.

If the go team is reading this: it might help if you lead with the mark and the mascot together. I think the logo in isolation is what's generating the strong reaction.

Re: Go's New Brand

#124

Post by pdpi » Thu, Apr 26, 2018, 11:05 PM UTC

21 wrote: post #86

Reading the comments here makes it clear why most programmers should stay away from design. I've programmed for 20 years now, but that stupid gopher and the way it was everywhere was a serious put off for me on giving Go a look. Nerdy AF. Good riddance. I wonder if there was a huge internal battle between the brand savvy people which realized how terrible the gopher was, and the Go creators. Guys, don't be so stereot…

> can you imagine for a second that gopher on anything Apple?

You mean like Hexley, the Darwin mascot?

Re: Go's New Brand

#125

Post by philo23 » Thu, Apr 26, 2018, 11:05 PM UTC

21 wrote: post #86

Reading the comments here makes it clear why most programmers should stay away from design. I've programmed for 20 years now, but that stupid gopher and the way it was everywhere was a serious put off for me on giving Go a look. Nerdy AF. Good riddance. I wonder if there was a huge internal battle between the brand savvy people which realized how terrible the gopher was, and the Go creators. Guys, don't be so stereot…

https://webkit.org/blog/189/announcing-squirrelfish/

Re: Go's New Brand

#126

Post by signal11 » Thu, Apr 26, 2018, 11:05 PM UTC

zokier wrote: post #34

This makes me incredibly (to me) sad. The identity is so completely soulless, and the logo is the opposite of timeless, trying to grasp currently oh so hip and pop retro aesthetic. Nevermind that the retro logo and super sleek modern visual identity seems to clash with each other, both are abandoning the playfulness that was so prevalent before, most clearly evident in the various Go gopher illustrations. And its not…

Look at it this way, Google's making a commercial statement with this, that they think Go is important enough for them to brand.

It's like Duke and Java -- Duke still exists as a mascot. I suspect the gopher will be around for a long time to come. If anything this is a harbinger of Go becoming more mainstream than it is already (think TIOBE top-10).

Re: Go's New Brand

#127

Post by wiremine » Thu, Apr 26, 2018, 11:06 PM UTC

hashmal wrote: post #61

zokier wrote: post #34

This makes me incredibly (to me) sad. The identity is so completely soulless, and the logo is the opposite of timeless, trying to grasp currently oh so hip and pop retro aesthetic. Nevermind that the retro logo and super sleek modern visual identity seems to clash with each other, both are abandoning the playfulness that was so prevalent before, most clearly evident in the various Go gopher illustrations. And its not…

> I could imagine it working well for something else this sums up why this new brand isn't good.

This is true of ANY good logo before it gets traction.

There's nothing special about the Apple logo (or Apple as the name of a corporate name), for example. I mean, seriously, it's a clip art apple with a bit out of it.

What makes it a great logo is everything in your head and heart that is associated, good or bad, with that image.

Re: Go's New Brand

#128

Post by lnrdgmz » Thu, Apr 26, 2018, 11:19 PM UTC

platinumrad wrote: post #118

21 wrote: post #86

Reading the comments here makes it clear why most programmers should stay away from design. I've programmed for 20 years now, but that stupid gopher and the way it was everywhere was a serious put off for me on giving Go a look. Nerdy AF. Good riddance. I wonder if there was a huge internal battle between the brand savvy people which realized how terrible the gopher was, and the Go creators. Guys, don't be so stereot…

What the fuck does Renee French's work have to do with Pokemon or Star Wars?

What makes this reference even more bizarre is that Pokemon and Star Wars are incredible successful global brands.

Re: Go's New Brand

#129

Post by jehlakj » Thu, Apr 26, 2018, 11:23 PM UTC

Reminds me of a logo that was on a tv remote controller I used to have. Do they seriously think it’s witty to most people? All I see is a two letter word without any context or deeper implications. Okay, maybe the word is moving right. But that’s it.

Re: Go's New Brand

#130

Post by bitmapbrother » Thu, Apr 26, 2018, 11:23 PM UTC

jweir wrote: post #91

This won't make the language any better. It will make the language more approachable for new comers. The Go website is _almost_ as bare bones as it gets. It functions fine and we are familiar with it. But compared to say Python, the site looks pretty amateur. If you were to judge a language by its website, I'd say Python looks better. The new branding can lead the way to a more put together presentation, and that cou…

The logo is just the start. The website will also be refreshed.

The website will be getting a refresh based on the new design. Since we are making significant changes, we are also taking this opportunity to update our website infrastructure to support internationalization and multilingual to better serve our global community. The migration will happen in stages over the next few months starting with this blog.