Or 140 characters at least. This week twitter unveiled its new simplified blue bird logo, giving Larry a revamp, (named after basketball player Larry Bird). From now on, this bird will be the universally recognisable symbol of Twitter, scraping the other variations which have been used over the past from years, from the lowercase “twitter” to just the “t” to other blue bird variations.
With the folks at twitter stating in a blog post: “This bird is crafted purely from three sets of overlapping circles — similar to how your networks, interests and ideas connect and intersect with peers and friends. Whether soaring high above the earth to take in a broad view, or flocking with other birds to achieve a common purpose, a bird in flight is the ultimate representation of freedom, hope and limitless possibility.”
Twitter also released a set of rules on how and how not to use the new bird and an introductory video.
Do:
• Use our official, unmodified Twitter bird to represent our brand
• Make sure the bird faces right
• Allow for at least 150 per cent buffer space around the bird
Don’t:
• Use speech bubbles or words around the bird
• Rotate or change the direction of the bird
• Animate the bird
• Duplicate the bird
• Change the colour of the bird
• Use any other marks or logos to represent the brand
It’s a minor tweak, looking extremely similar to its predecessor, but has no hair and is tilted slightly upwards. With twitter set to hit the $1billion sales mark by 2012 its fitting the new brand image is looking upwards.
Having fundamentally changed the digital landscape the new logo simplifies twitters identity as a brand image and still does just what the old one did, so not a major overall or revamp of twitters intrinsic identity, just a simpler, more elegant and prettier bird which makes the previous ones look more adolescent.
I’m a fan but my one and only grip – Larry’s lost his hair, and the twitter bird is bald.