Gmailās red-lined envelope is one of the most iconic app logos of all time. But today thatās changing in favor of a logo that is decidedly moreā¦ Google-y.
Behold:
Itās just an M! For (g)Mail! With more Google colors now. It kinda-sorta still looks like an envelope, but itās less skeuomorphic and more abstract. Yay?
The change comes as part of G Suiteās rebranding into Google WorkspaceĀ and will be rolling out to users āin the coming weeks.ā Drive, Calendar, Meet, Docs, Sheets, and Slides are also getting new looks:
I donāt know about you, but Iām starting to worry a little that Googleās insistence in using its entire rainbow of colors throughout all its apps is actually starting to make them a little more generic āeven if they better match the brand identity.
Apparently, Iām in the minority. According to a feature by Fast Company, the new logos designers ārelied on regular user testing and feedback to guide their decisions.ā As it turns out, the envelope wasnāt āas critical to the design as they had anticipated. Instead, when they experimented with getting rid of the āMā and Gmail red altogether, they found people reacted negatively to those changes. So those aspects remained.
So maybe Iām just being a Luddite. Change can be good! And thanks to the new colors, youāll at least have absolutely no doubt that Gmail is, in fact, a Google product.
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