15 years on, Facebook unveils a new logo. Here's why
Facebook, which started as a single app 15 years ago, now offers a suite of products, including WhatsApp, Instagram, Oculus, and more. The new logo is an attempt to differentiate the corporate parent from its apps, including the social media platform.
In a major change to its visual identity, Facebook has introduced a new company logo with simple bold, capitalised text that will be used across its portfolio of apps.
The company is also rebranding its app, and said that it is further distinguishing the Facebook company from the Facebook app. This means that Facebook, the social network, will maintain the same blue-and-white look we have been seeing for years.
Facebook wants more people to know that it owns Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus while still maintaining a distinct identity for its main app. The new capitalisation and typography format for its company name uses capital letters and a shifting colour scheme that highlights the dominant colours of the Instagram (purple) and WhatsApp (green) logos.
"Our main services include the Facebook app, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus, Workplace, Portal and Calibra. These apps and technologies have shared infrastructure for years and the teams behind them frequently work together," the company said in a statement.
"We started being clearer about the products and services that are part of Facebook years ago, adding a company endorsement to products like Oculus, Workplace and Portal. And, in June, we began including “from Facebook” within all our apps. Over the coming weeks, we will start using the new brand within our products and marketing materials, including a new company website," the company added.
Antonio Lucio, Chief Marketing Officer of Facebook, wrote in a blogpost that Facebook started as a single app and now, 15 years later, it offer a suite of products that help people connect to their friends and family, find communities and grow businesses.
Facebook, which has around 2.8 billion users globally across its family of apps, clocked $17.6 billion in revenue during the quarter ending September 2019.
"The new branding was designed for clarity, and uses custom typography and capitalisation to create visual distinction between the company and app," the blogpost said.
It will be interesting to see how cosmetic rebranding is going to help Facebook in next few years. The company has been under heavy scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators following incidents of user data breach and allegations that the platform was being used to spread misinformation during the 2016 US elections.
(Edited by Teja Lele Desai)
