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| The old guy used Optima, too |
After months of hype, questionable marketing spend, and 30 days of
‘meh’, Yahoo! has unveiled the next big move in its ambitious transformation: a
slimmed down logo.
Honestly, the new logo reminds one a lot of fonts used in the 90′s,
especially the stock beveled and glossy fonts that appeared on the internet
portal GeoCities, where many of us first learned to build these funny things
called ‘web pages’. Unfortunately, this is no longer the 90′s and this logo is
feeling pretty dated.
The logo is set in Optima, a 1950s humanis sans-serif designed by
Hermann Zapf with a flavor of purple called Pantone Violet C.
It has a distinctly old-fashioned-internet vibe when it comes down to
it. The slightly tilted exclamation point remains…an exclamation point. In case
you’re wondering, it was tilted by exactly nine degrees. Many were hoping that
it would go away. One other thing retained is the slightly larger ‘O’ at the
end of the logo. This has long been taken to be a poeic representation of the
famous Yahoo ‘yodel’ from its commercials.
The old Yahoo logo, though dated in its own way, was also chock full of
whimsy. The new emblem feels buttoned up and slimmed down. Perhaps the company
is trying to project a tighter, more controlled image now. In that, at least,
it may have succeeded.
In case you miss the new gif-based image in the top left corner of the
screen, the playful exclamation point dances around the Y-A-H-O-O like a lost
Pixar lamp looking for its home. Gifs are something Yahoo has heavily adopted
since its acquisition of Tumblr, and is no doubt aimed at catching the sleep
eyes of millions of netizens waking up to a brand new day.
In 2009, Yahoo shuttered GeoCities, which it had purchased ten years
earlier. That was also the year that it picked purple as its new color. Though
the logo is said to be a ‘nod’ to the company’s history, its original color of
choice was red.
