No perching allowed

Jun 7, 2012read the 13 comments

Twitter refined its bird.

From the Twitter Trademark and Content Display Policy

This next bit, quoted from Gawker, made me smile. Per the illustration (above), you absolutely cannot:

Add a gray speech bubble next to the bird that makes it appear as if the bird is talking or smoking hookah
Make the bird be upside down
Reunite the bird with his bird family
Change the bird to a better color
Give the bird a small gray ledge on which to perch
Transform the bird into a bubble letter “t” or the word “twitter”
Give the bird eyes and legs and a song in his heart
Make the bird look the way he used to even though no one would notice

Full post on Gawker:
Is Twitter’s logo change the most revolutionary rebranding of the modern era?

A few thoughts from elsewhere:
A look at the new Twitter logo and what people are reading into it, Rob Alderson on It’s Nice That
Twitter Gives you the Bird, Armin Vit on Brand New
Twitter should have launched a new brand story, not just a new logo, Simon Manchipp on Design Week

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Update: 08 June 2012
Oliver Twardowski brazenly ignored the upside down rule with this rotation.

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13 appreciated comments, click here to add one

Abbas

I like it, but there’s no need for the branding fluff. It smacks of retrofitting a needless concept onto a logo that simply looked good.

Jun 7th, 2012
Lee Newham

Hmm, I prefer the original bird, it’s got more charm. Who cares if it’s made out of perfect circles, if anything it makes it more corporate, which I’d say is the opposite of what Twitter feels like.

Really it’s just a tightening up of the guidelines and they took a little time to tweak the logo.

The only part of this story that interests me is whether you can use any icon to link to twitter, or if they will become brand-fascists and dictate that everything has to be bland corporate rubber stamp graphics.

I like how Simon Manchip turned his article into an ad for Someone without really saying anything about the brand. I’m not sure what the brand story is for Twitter. I’m not sure where it’s going. For now it’s a simple, easy to use conversation tool that enables me to share problems, inspiration and stories that people who follow me will hopefully find engaging…and vice versa. I hope it stays that way without adding levels of complexity on the path to stock market flotation and imminent doom.

Jun 7th, 2012
Peter X.

It is a great improvement. Looks cleaner and more recognizable. Designers need to keep in mind that sometimes a complex logo can cost more to fabricate. We have an article on our blog that addresses the cost of real cost of logo design – http://www.wonderfulsigns.com/the-real-cost-of-logo-design/

Jun 8th, 2012
Niall

I think it’s tilted back too much. I’d tilt it clockwise a little or move the beak down a little bit.

Jun 8th, 2012
347

The new bird looks more corporate to me. I think the previous bird was better. The cartoonish look had more to do with the “tweet,” the gossip, the share. It seemed fresher, too.

Jun 8th, 2012
Ninh

I agree with Niall. It does seem like the bird is tilted back a little too much, like it’s about to do a backflip. Or maybe that’s caused by the rounded head. Color is a nice change.

Jun 8th, 2012
David Airey

There was quite a lot of unnecessary fluffiness to the description.

In a dramatic turn of events, Oliver Twardowski discovered the real reason why we can’t “rotate or change the direction of the bird.” (Post updated.)

Jun 8th, 2012
Peter X.

I think the tilted angle is fine – it looks as if the bird is chirping and talking. Now would it be nice to have an eye for the bird?

Jun 8th, 2012
Natasha McEachron

The new design isn’t much of a major shift but I do miss the birdie’s cute little cowlick.

Jun 9th, 2012
Kelly

I agree with Natasha, I think the little tuft added some character and the new angle of the bird looks as though it may be just about to fly into a window. However I like the new wing and head shape as well as the bird being slightly slimmed down. The new design does look ‘chirpier’ and I’m not too fussed about the colour change.

They are trying to take the Apple route, with the new guidelines about not being able to use the type versions anymore, just keeping it simple. I do like this concept but at the same time, I’m not fully convinced by it for Twitter just yet.

Jun 12th, 2012
Michael Evon

I kind of like the old bird. It had a little more character and didn’t seem quite as sassy as the new fellow. Companies seem to be updating their logos much more frequently these days, which is good news for the design industry.

Jun 16th, 2012
Chris W

Love the Gawker comments and Oliver’s batman twist.

Jun 20th, 2012
Chris

I think it’s interesting that as of 8/22/12, Apple’s website still displays the old Twitter logo.

Aug 22nd, 2012