If you’ve looked anything up online lately, you’ve probably noticed that Google has a new logo. As the second largest U.S. company, Google had changed its multi-colored serif font logo very little in the last 16 years. The new logo, rolled out in early September after an announcement that the company would be part of the holding company Alphabet, maintains the signature color scheme but with an updated, sans serif font.
The unveiling didn’t sit well with many who felt attached to the old Google, but others praised the more modern and sleek look. The debate got us thinking: What are a few reasons, in addition to company restructuring, that brands should ditch their logo for a shiny new one? We picked the brain of Bill Gardner, owner of Gardner Design and founder of LogoLounge, to find out.
Logos Are Like Fashion
Much like wearing parachute pants, scrunchies and shoulder pads would give you away as being stuck in the 1980s, the design elements used in your logo could do the same, says Gardner.
“If you were thinking about clothing, you would say, ‘I can tell that’s old because people don’t use that fabric anymore,’ or ‘that pattern happened then’,” he says. “Think about that in exactly the same way when it comes to logos. There are trends and tendencies in logo design that come in and go out of cycle.”
Most consumers won’t be able to tell you why a logo is outdated, but they’ll notice it all the same, says Gardner. For example, lines running through logos became ubiquitous in the 1980s following the use of stars with lines running through them in the 1984 Summer Olympics logo. While those lines once denoted speed and progress, having a logo like that today is like revealing a closet filled with polyester shirts to your customers.
LogoLounge’s annual trend report is one resource that can be helpful for deciding if the visual elements used in your logo are becoming faux pas.
Logo Trends Reflect Current Events
During the Enron scandal of the early 2000s, the financial industry was scrambling to regain the trust of consumers. “Transparency” as it related to corporations and businesses was a buzzword that came into its own during that time, shares Gardner. At the same time, Adobe Illustrator had just made it really easy for graphic designers to create transparencies in their designs. “Financial corporations were coming to creative and saying, ‘we need to look transparent,’ and designers were taking that literally,” he says.
What started as a design trend to help companies look trustworthy has become so widely used that it has lost much of its meaning and appeal.
“Thought there’s still some strength in transparency [in logo design], it’s not as strong as it used to be,” says Gardner.
Refining Maintains Relevance
While it may not seem obvious, iconic and seemingly unchanged logos are constantly being refined. For example, when Coca-Cola reevaluates its logo every few years, designers may slightly change the slant of letters, make it look more aggressive, thicken up the thinness on some of the thinner strokes, or extend the tails on letters, explains Gardner. Subtle changes can help a brand stay on trend and stay relevant over time.
“That does not mean you have to change your identity frequently, but it means you need to be a good steward of it,” says Gardner. “Even the most valuable and recognized brands are continually going through updates in order to maintain relevance of the audience.”
