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Yahoo!'s "new logo"
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The Final Dakar
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Sep 5, 2013, 04:11 PM
 
Speaking of design...

How Yahoo Picked a New Look For An 18-Year-Old Brand | Digital - Advertising Age

Created exclusively by Yahoo's in-house brand design group and product designers, the new logo retains much of its predecessor's qualities -- the purple, the exclamation point, the varying letter sizes meant to represent a yodel's sound waves -- but simultaneously modernizes it and applies a classical aesthetic.

"This represents a significant evolution of the logo," said Yahoo CMO Kathy Savitt, who joined the company in September of last year. She outlined how characteristics inherited from the old logo have been tweaked. The purple is "far richer, deeper." The exclamation point has taken on a slender, rounder shape and will animate for three seconds ("half a yodel," per Ms. Savitt) after someone initially navigates to a Yahoo site.

Yahoo SVP-brand creative Bob Stohrer said the design team's aim was to create a logo that was "sophisticated with a wink."
"Honestly some of them could have used a random font generator. There's not a lot of discipline behind what they're doing from a design perspective. You can tell different designers are involved in the making of them," said Kevin Farnham, CEO of design firm Method. Mr. Farnham designed the new logo's predecessor alongside Geoff Katz while the two worked as art director and executive creative director, respectively, at San Francisco-based digital agency Organic.




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shifuimam
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Sep 5, 2013, 05:14 PM
 
I know that animated GIFs are making a comeback on imgur and the like, but an animated logo? Really?

Also, at least half of these would have been better options than the shit they settled on:

http://www.yahoo.com/dailylogo
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Laminar
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Sep 5, 2013, 08:09 PM
 
Day 7 is okay, day 10 is almost tolerable, the rest are awful.
     
richwig83
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Sep 5, 2013, 08:34 PM
 
No on uses Yahoo.... so it doesnt matter.
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andi*pandi
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Sep 5, 2013, 09:43 PM
 
Originally Posted by Laminar View Post
Day 7 is okay, day 10 is almost tolerable, the rest are awful.
agreed. I almost like 23, it has a fun Y... except the ! is weird.
     
shifuimam
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Sep 5, 2013, 09:45 PM
 
I'm a fan of 29, 19, 17, 13, 11, 8, and 2.

What they came up with looks like something my classmates in my Introduction to Illustrator class would have designed - a logo made with a built-in system font and a really shitty Photoshop filter.

I also like the smile in 25.

I don't know why they had to come up with a new logo in the first place. Coke kept trying to do that, but ultimately they ended up using a logo almost identical to the very first one they came up with.

ETA:

Speaking of new logos, this is pretty funny:

http://www.boredpanda.com/famous-logos-history-future/

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andi*pandi
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Sep 5, 2013, 09:46 PM
 
These aren't built in system fonts. Someone searched for "futuristic circus fonts" and this is what they got.
     
shifuimam
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Sep 5, 2013, 11:25 PM
 
That's almost as bad.

Using Papyrus, Handwriting Dakota, or Scriptina is unforgivable, though.
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Laminar
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Sep 6, 2013, 01:40 AM
 
Comic Sans bandwagon! Everyone hop on!
     
shifuimam
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Sep 6, 2013, 10:28 AM
 
Comic Sans has become a joke.

I still see professional advertising materials and logos that use Handwriting Dakota or Scriptina.

http://www.samuelbecketts.com/ << this place has great food and service and ambiance, but their logo (and Scriptina is all over their damn menu, too) just makes me cringe.
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ort888
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Sep 6, 2013, 11:38 AM
 
The thing about logos is that they are completely arbitrary. You can make 100 logos and show them to 100 people and they'll all pick a different one they like the best.

On the internet, everyone is an expert and no one is ever happy.

That said, Yahoo pretty much brought this on with this lame 30 logos thing.

Then again, people are talking about it, which is probably all they wanted.

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shifuimam
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Sep 6, 2013, 11:42 AM
 
Yeah, BF made that point last night - for a brand like Coca-Cola, the logo means a LOT. It's barely changed since the early 1900s, except in '86 during the New Coke fiasco.

For a brand like Yahoo, the logo has far less meaning. Yahoo's become less and less relevant as Google has taken over, and this was a pretty slick way of getting people to notice them again.

The logo's still hideous, though.
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The Final Dakar  (op)
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Sep 6, 2013, 11:44 AM
 
Originally Posted by ort888 View Post
The thing about logos is that they are completely arbitrary. You can make 100 logos and show them to 100 people and they'll all pick a different one they like the best.
Someone on another forum posted the work of Saul Bass and then I was like, "Jesus, we're really slacking."
     
shifuimam
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Sep 6, 2013, 11:47 AM
 
I also can't help but find humor in how this stuff is described now...

...whimsical, yet sophisticated. Modern and fresh, with a nod to our history. Having a human touch, personal. Proud.
Who knew that text could be proud of itself?

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar View Post
Someone on another forum posted the work of Saul Bass and then I was like, "Jesus, we're really slacking."
Just Googled him...seems like most of the logos he designed haven't had a need to change...
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Sep 6, 2013, 12:23 PM
 
Originally Posted by shifuimam View Post
Yeah, BF made that point last night - for a brand like Coca-Cola, the logo means a LOT. It's barely changed since the early 1900s, except in '86 during the New Coke fiasco.
And yet, in an alternate universe where coke or nike had completely different logos throughout their history, and then revealed the "swoosh" and the standard Coca-Cola logs we all know and love, they would be mocked for them. Because people hate change, and it's really easy to be a critic and the internet makes it really easy to make your dissenting opinion known.

Their logos are iconic because they are well known, not because they are good. It's no coincidence that all of the logos we consider the "best" and most iconic also belong to companies that advertise the most.


Originally Posted by shifuimam View Post
For a brand like Yahoo, the logo has far less meaning. Yahoo's become less and less relevant as Google has taken over, and this was a pretty slick way of getting people to notice them again.

The logo's still hideous, though.
Google's logo is pretty bad as well. It's not so much that Yahoos logo is hideous, it's more that it's just rather bland. And after all of this hype, they were begging for some mocking.

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The Final Dakar  (op)
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Sep 6, 2013, 12:27 PM
 
Honestly, the Meyer blog post explains everything. Yeah, there's always some backlash, but your basically putting it into a situation where people can't be right if it is bad.
     
ort888
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Sep 6, 2013, 12:38 PM
 
All I'm saying is that it's completely arbitrary. You can think it's bad, that's fine. I also think it's pretty bad.

There is this weird online community of design nerds who like to pick apart anything and everything, and while I generally keep up with the stuff and read it, a lot of the time it's pretty tiresome.

I make logos for a living, and I see the reactions and I see how 10 different people can like 10 different things. I see the process behind the scenes and I understand how things end up like they do. It's tough to get something good out there, because everything gets nitpicked and focus grouped into a bland mush. It's an unbelievably frustrating process... and I can only imagine how mch worse it gets when these huge companies get involved.

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Sep 6, 2013, 02:53 PM
 
Originally Posted by richwig83 View Post
No on uses Yahoo.... so it doesnt matter.
Yahoo Mail is still the most popular free web email service in existence.
     
ort888
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Sep 6, 2013, 03:20 PM
 
Their ad network is massive as well.

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subego
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Sep 6, 2013, 03:25 PM
 
I wish #1 banged #2, #3 banged #4, and then #1 banged #4 so #3 went to China.
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Sep 6, 2013, 03:32 PM
 
Originally Posted by subego View Post
I wish #1 banged #2, #3 banged #4, and then #1 banged #4 so #3 went to China.
Wrong thread.

I know but screw you
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Sep 6, 2013, 03:34 PM
 
Originally Posted by ort888 View Post
All I'm saying is that it's completely arbitrary.
It's not completely arbitrary. It's why people go to school and get paid good money to do this professionally. And while it is subjective by nature you can objectively critique it on its elements to make a logical argument.

Yes, I know, most internet trolls don't do that. I think we're capable of going slightly higher level here.
     
subego
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Sep 6, 2013, 03:44 PM
 
Originally Posted by The Final Dakar View Post
Wrong thread.

I know but screw you
Right thread.

In the other thread, I don't have to wish that happened.
     
ort888
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Sep 6, 2013, 03:58 PM
 
I'm not even really talking about comment board nitwits. I'm more referring to design nerds and bloggers.

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shifuimam
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Sep 6, 2013, 05:24 PM
 
Originally Posted by besson3c View Post
Yahoo Mail is still the most popular free web email service in existence.
Is it still bigger than Gmail? I did not know that.

I tend to make fun of people who still use Yahoo.
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besson3c
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Sep 6, 2013, 05:34 PM
 
Originally Posted by shifuimam View Post
Is it still bigger than Gmail? I did not know that.

I tend to make fun of people who still use Yahoo.

I think GMail might be bigger than Yahoo in the US, but Yahoo is the biggest internationally last I checked. Last I poked around the web app it seemed pretty nice too.

Yahoo owns Flickr and Tumblr too, in addition to a number of other web properties and dev tools. I think people underestimate Yahoo because it is no longer the search giant, but it is plenty big in other areas. It also seems to have fallen upon a lot of bad management.
     
shifuimam
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Sep 6, 2013, 05:39 PM
 
Wait....there are countries other than the US who use the Internet?!
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Laminar
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Sep 6, 2013, 08:14 PM
 
Wait, why is "new logo" in scare quotes??
     
besson3c
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Sep 6, 2013, 09:28 PM
 
Why aren't you in scare quotes?
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Sep 9, 2013, 09:44 AM
 
Originally Posted by Laminar View Post
Wait, why is "new logo" in scare quotes??
Because both terms are being used very, very loosely.
     
andi*pandi
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Sep 9, 2013, 02:39 PM
 
( Last edited by andi*pandi; Sep 9, 2013 at 03:00 PM. )
     
ort888
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Sep 9, 2013, 03:11 PM
 
This is really just because they had all of the fanfare leading up to it. If they just came out on some random day with a press release and the new logo, there would have been no reaction whatsoever...

Because the real problem isn't that the logo is terrible, it's just that it's so bland.

The truth is though, that none of this matters one lick. None of this negative publicity from the design nerd / tech head community amounts to anything. It's like a fart in a tornado.

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The Final Dakar  (op)
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Sep 9, 2013, 03:22 PM
 
Meyer fanned the flames with that blog post of hers, though. Now any CEO can have a new logo with just Illustrator 101 and weekend locked in with the design team!
     
andi*pandi
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Sep 9, 2013, 03:49 PM
 
I pity that design team. Imagine the CEO breathing down your neck while you're trying to design.

Wait, I don't have to imagine. That's happened to me. It sucks. AghhHH! <flashbacks>

Of course, that wasn't Melissa Meyers, but some small company schmuck, but yeah. You basically just become a human mouse. "Move it one pixel left. Try another font. I don't like our brand color. Mouse over the color palette until I say when."
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Sep 9, 2013, 03:51 PM
 
I pity them because you have to decide between telling your CEO she's nuts or your job security and general dignity.

I wouldn't be surprised if one or two jump ship after this.
     
ort888
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Sep 9, 2013, 03:56 PM
 
That pretty much describes every logo I've ever created.

Well, not so much the human mouse thing, I've done that too... but there are few designs that get out there without the grubby paws of tasteless CEOs and their army of lackeys who feel like they have to have an opinion on something, because if they don't then what purpose do they serve?

Typically we create about 5 or 6 logos for most things, and the joke always is, we know the client is going to pick the worst one... and the funny (or not so funny) thing is, they almost always do.

By the time my account manager, boss and client gets ahold of anything, it will be far far removed from what I would consider "mine" or "good".

I would bet that 99% of logos out in the world were created with less thought and consideration than this current Yahoo logo.

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subego
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Sep 9, 2013, 07:09 PM
 
This is pretty much all "hired gun" art.

And as much as I hate it, it is their ****ing money. They've bought a say.

Not that you're saying otherwise.
     
subego
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Sep 25, 2013, 05:54 PM
 
     
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Sep 26, 2013, 02:26 PM
 
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Sep 27, 2013, 09:56 AM
 
Originally Posted by subego View Post
What could he have possibly been doing that she actually felt compelled to respond?
     
subego
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Sep 27, 2013, 03:30 PM
 
No idea. I've gotta assume nothing that worthy, it's more how he set himself up for the unexpected.

Throwing out the unexpected is, as I'm sure you know, the fundamental building block of comedy.

Titty sprinkles.
( Last edited by subego; Sep 27, 2013 at 04:58 PM. )
     
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Sep 28, 2013, 01:56 PM
 
The real killer comment by Mayer is her mentioning how she love Adobe Illustrator. Your actual design software is SO far removed form the initial process of creating a new logo for an international brand that it's actually laughable.
This space for Hire! Reasonable rates. Reach an audience of literally dozens!
     
   
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