Microsoft today unveiled the new company logo, the first major change in 25 years. This major change significantly happens right before Microsoft launches the newest version of its home and mobile OS platform, Windows 8.
“It’s been 25 years since we’ve updated the Microsoft logo and now is the perfect time for a change,” says Jeff Hansen General Manager of Brand Strategy at Microsoft. “This is an incredibly exciting year for Microsoft as we prepare to release new versions of nearly all of our products. From Windows 8 to Windows Phone 8 to Xbox services to the next version of Office, you will see a common look and feel across these products providing a familiar and seamless experience on PCs, phones, tablets and TVs. This wave of new releases is not only a re-imagining of our most popular products, but also represents a new era for Microsoft, so our logo should evolve to visually accentuate this new beginning.”
Microsoft logos in the ’70s and more recently.
“The Microsoft brand is about much more than logos or product names,” he added. “We are lucky to play a role in the lives of more than a billion people every day. The ways people experience our products are our most important ‘brand impressions’. That’s why the new Microsoft logo takes its inspiration from our product design principles while drawing upon the heritage of our brand values, fonts and colors.”
The logo is a composite of logotype and the symbol. The logotype uses the Segoe font, the same font Microsoft uses in their products as well as their marketing communications, while the squares of color in the symbol “are intended to express the company’s diverse portfolio of products.”
“Starting today, you’ll see the new Microsoft logo being used prominently,” said Hansen. “It will be used on Microsoft.com — the 10th most visited website in the world. It is in three of our Microsoft retail stores today (Boston, Seattle’s University Village and Bellevue, Wash.) and will shine brightly in all our stores over the next few months. It will sign off all of our television ads globally. And it will support our products across various forms of marketing. Fully implementing a change like this takes time, so there may be other instances where you will see the old logo being used for some time.”
“We’re excited about the new logo, but more importantly about this new era in which we’re re-imagining how our products can help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential,” he concluded.
Source: The Official Microsoft Blog
