Just For The Hell of It.
Lotsa comments here about the new logo. Here’s my take on it.
Decades ago, the director of a design firm said, in regard to how he hires designers (it sums up my thinking perfectly): “I look for work I wish I had done myself.”
Is the new logo something I would want to lay claim to? Not in a thousand years.
Here are a few points made in the article: “Medium’s New Logo (2020) — Unfinished Ellipses Logomark” in the publication Medium Formatting.
“Anyone can have a voice on Medium, regardless of background, affiliation, or expertise, and share their thoughts directly, independently, and unfiltered.” Which is why I’m playing around with “Me” – Me and Medium. A natural, right?
At one point they went with a single M as an icon. “The capital M, a visual mark we wanted to hold onto.” Ah! A corporate look for “a platform for creators to express themselves.” Makes total sense to me.
The older logos: “. . . not particularly distinctive.” I agree.
“The logo should work in black and white.” I’d put it another way. The logo must work against a variety of mastheads. Therefore, I would have my logo sit on a white background, readable against any color or design.
Medium (naturally) wants “. . . a monogram to be used where the logotype is too detailed — social media avatars spring to mind.” Absolutely.
“The monogram does a good job of taking a step back on individual post pages, letting the writer’s own personality dominate.”
“. . . our old logo . . . felt accessible and gave a nod to our literary roots. Since we’re still the same brand, it didn’t feel appropriate to drastically change.”
When you have a lackluster logo, I say dump it.
“We built off the strengths of our existing wordmark and customized the letterforms to feel more inviting . . . The more significant change was the addition of a new symbol . . . The symbol, like our illustration style, is inspired by language and typography. It is born from the ellipses: a punctuation mark that represents an unfinished or impending thought, an idea to come, what’s next.”
Gobblegook, justifying a design that does nothing beyond taking up space.
“Our brand should never get in the way of yours.” The very size of the logo guarantees it will take a back seat. And style is never a negative, unless you get too zany with it.
I like the MED icon because it allows me to say: “Have you taken your MED today?”
I’ve tried my stand-alone MED at a teensy size. I say it’s as readable as the CNN avatar. If I ultimately decide otherwise, I’ll rethink it.
Medium is gonna do it their way. I just wanted to register my opinion.
Let’s see . . . Should I post this? Am I being an offensive jerk asshole? (I’m preparing myself to hear yes, yes, and yes-s-s-s!)
