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The new Windows 8 identity...

Microsoft is soon to release Windows 8, not very exciting I know. However the new identity for Windows 8 logo designed by Pentagram partner Paula Scher has just recently been released into the public domain and its causing quite a stir in the design world. A snippet from the Microsoft blog about the new logo is below.

“We wanted the new logo to be both modern and classic by echoing the International Typographic Style (or Swiss design) that has been a great influence on our Metro style design philosophy,” reads a post on Microsoft’s Windows blog. “Using bold flat colors and clean lines and shapes, the new logo has the characteristics of way-finding design systems seen in airports and subways.”
The full blog is here http://bit.ly/AiPMeY

To me it looks more like a flag than before which is something they wanted to not be associated with and although the curved lines have gone helping the shape association so have the different coloured blocks which helped remove this resemblance. The logo reminds me of a double glazing window company, and the use of cyan doesn’t do this any favours. I can just imagine seeing this on the side of a van – imagine the 8 replaced by ‘& conservatories’ and I think it could work very well!

To be fair I think its an improvement on the version 7 logo which is looking dated and yes the new one is more minimal and refined which is a good thing however its very average and mundane just like Windows I suppose though.