Yahoo unveiled a new logo today with a sans-serif font similar to the ones used in other companies’ recent image overhauls, but keeps its purple color and oft-maligned exclamation point. Don’t like it? That logo is just the first of 30 variations Yahoo will show off over the next month on its homepage and other sites before the final version is revealed on September 5 (so you’ll have plenty of other redesigns to make fun of).
The redesign isn’t a complete surprise. Last October, a TechCrunch reader told us that he’d been invited to take an online survey with a potential redesign that also featured a sans-serif font. Unlike the logo Yahoo showed off today, however, the updated logo shown in the survey had its purple color toned down to a quieter hue. The user survey came just after Yahoo announced its purchase of Stamped, the first of CEO Marissa Mayer’s acquisition spree.
In a post on the company’s Tumblr, Chief Marketing Officer Kathy Savitt said that Yahoo’s new logo “will be a modern redesign that’s more reflective of our reimagined design and new experiences.”
Under Mayer, Yahoo has been busy reinventing itself with a series of more than two dozen acqui-hires, the most recent of which was social browsing startup Rockmelt. As Alex Wilhelm writes, the company’s aggressive attempts to overhaul its operation has increased its workforce morale, but it’s uncertain if it will actually reverse the company’s declining revenue.
Furthermore, Yahoo still has to win over consumers. For example, many Tumblr users threatened to quit after Yahoo’s $1 billion purchase of the site in May and it’s still unclear how the company will handle adult content as it seeks to turn Tumblr into a platform for “brand advertising.”
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Playing around with its logo is part of Yahoo’s efforts to reflect “a renewed sense of purpose and progress,” but it remains to be seen if consumers are equally inspired.
