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Redesigning the Windows Logo

windowsteamblog.com

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Re: Redesigning the Windows Logo

#121

Post by politician »

vacri wrote: post #120

Using bold flat colors and clean lines and shapes, the new logo has the characteristics of way-finding design systems seen in airports and subways. Bold colors? As in plural colors? That's the first place they've failed. And trying to emulate an airport's system for moving people around is bad from the outset - those things are meant to be simple and boring. They do their task by being unambiguous, uniform, simple...…

Well, really, why shouldn't an operating system be "simple" and "boring" and "bland"? I don't need an exciting OS -- it needs to be dependable.

Re: Redesigning the Windows Logo

#122

Post by lbotos »

astrodust wrote: post #116
zaidf wrote: post #38

Paula asked us a simple question, “your name is Windows. Why are you a flag?” I have never really asked myself that question as a consumer. I have never felt "confused" that the logo is NOT a window. I have just generally liked Windows, the operating system, and have become fond of the brand after 15 years of use. This assumes that your logo MUST be a literal representation of your name. I'm curious to know why. With…

Microsoft makes the fatal error here of listening to what customers say and not what they are saying . They do this all the time and it's why their products tend to be train-wrecks, design by committee, functions by consensus, with little personality and zero fit and finish. This logo is an abomination. It is the kind of thing a first year design student would come up with after a weekend bender and their assignment…

The mark was done by Pentagram (http://www.pentagram.com/), one of the top design firms IN THE WORLD. I don't know how you'd plan on giving the "flag" more "polish"... Making brand marks is a LOT harder than you make it out to be. I'm not a fan of the bright blue variant but I think the mark it does a great job matching the Metro aesthetic and will be old news by the time windows 9 comes out anyway.

Re: Redesigning the Windows Logo

#123

Post by rayhano »

ender7 wrote: post #33

I've actually grown to like the monochrome treatment of the Windows 7 logo: http://www.seeklogo.com/images/W/windows-logo-C2E55C2526-see... It looks quite nice on the back of monitor screens, for example. The extreme fake parallax in the new logo just ends up making it look unbalanced to me, like it's about to fall off my screen. I understand if they want to go all "Swiss" on the next logo...but if so, they shouldn't…

Surely that new logo is meant to be animated...

Re: Redesigning the Windows Logo

#124

Post by Avshalom »

literalusername wrote: post #50
joezydeco wrote: post #8

"By that, we mean it does not try to emulate faux-industrial design characteristics such as materiality (glass, wood, plastic, etc.)." Is "materiality" code for "skeumorphism"? Either way, it's a big middle finger to Apple.

Ever since Windows 3.1, I viewed the faux 3D window decorations as an insulting waste of my processing time. The Windows logo was merely an extrapolation of MS's attitude that "Now that we have such powerful computers, we can merrily waste all that power with this increasingly bloated but supposedly impressive OS." That attitude was not unique to them, at all. Apple has been equally guilty of it for longer than Micro…

As far as I know minwin was completely successful, just also completely misunderstood.

Minwin was always just the name of their kernel refactoring project, it was never supposed to be shipped as a separate product.

Re: Redesigning the Windows Logo

#125

Post by Avshalom »

chrislomax wrote: post #83

In the nicest possible way, I'm actually bored of this metro look already and it's not even released yet. I find that logo boring, some squares with a warp on it. I know it doesn't have to be over complicated but I don't think there is any imagination there at all. The blue is not very strong either, the branding it quite weak. Just my opinion, which I am entitled to before anyone starts giving me grief!

Somebody famous once said something along the line of "Art gets more beautiful with age. Fashion gets uglier"

I really like metro as an idea but in practice it feels like fashion.

Re: Redesigning the Windows Logo

#126

Post by lupatus »

If it didn't say "Windows 8" next to it, I wouldn't have known that it was the Windows logo.

Frankly, it is kind of a let-down. The Vista & Windows 7 "pearl" logo is cool - it is flashy and is artistically impressive with it's lighting effects on the rounded semi-reflective surface. It draws the eye to itself. The new logo is a bland blue monochrome square whose slight tilt causes the eye to passively move right over it without notice.

Is this the first hint that Windows 8 is an operating system to "pass" on instead of adopting?

If Microsoft wants this operating system to grab market share, a bland Germanic logo that tells the user "don't mind me, but your next exit is in half a mile" is a poor first step at grabbing the market's attention, IMO.

Re: Redesigning the Windows Logo

#128

Post by icarus_drowning »

literalusername wrote: post #50
joezydeco wrote: post #8

"By that, we mean it does not try to emulate faux-industrial design characteristics such as materiality (glass, wood, plastic, etc.)." Is "materiality" code for "skeumorphism"? Either way, it's a big middle finger to Apple.

Ever since Windows 3.1, I viewed the faux 3D window decorations as an insulting waste of my processing time. The Windows logo was merely an extrapolation of MS's attitude that "Now that we have such powerful computers, we can merrily waste all that power with this increasingly bloated but supposedly impressive OS." That attitude was not unique to them, at all. Apple has been equally guilty of it for longer than Micro…

I'm upvoting just for your edit, as I think disagreement via downvotes is a bit childish and all too common.

Having said that, I doubt Microsoft is moving in a direction an Arch Linux user would call "minimalist".

Re: Redesigning the Windows Logo

#129

Post by icarus_drowning »

What makes the new Windows logo appear so weirdly revolting to me is the fact that it is minimalist, but not distinctive. Contrast this to the simplified Apple logo that one sees upon booting OS X-- minimalist, but entirely distinctive.

The new Windows logo is a weirdly parallaxed set of rectangles. Nothing specifically diacritical at all.

EDIT: I think this is why the monochrome Win7 logo that has been posted here is better. It is distinctly Windows, building on decades of brand identity, and a truly unique and iconic. It is almost as if the "flag" shape that Microsoft seems so eager to drop is perhaps their greatest asset.

They've missed the point: minimalism for the sake of minimalism isn't "better". Simple is simple. Beautiful is beautiful.

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