Brands evolve over the years. Times change, and so does style. To remain on the top, companies change their look to match. Logos become smoother, cleaner, more modern, and more elegant. Google is no different. Since their founding in 1997, they’ve gone through 7 iterations of their famous, brightly coloured logo, with the seventh and most recent design unveiled only days ago on September 1^st 2015. In following the trend of their past few designs, they’ve made their logo smoother, flatter, and simpler.

Over the years Google have streamlined and updated their design. Their first logo in 1997 was almost tragically 1990’s. It looked like something a kid created from Wordart during a computer studies class in Primary School. Their second logo a year later showed glimpses of what their brand would eventually become, even though it had a slightly different colour combination. Their third logo, which lasted only a few months from October 1998 to May 1999, was much like what they had now, only with an exclamation mark.

It was from then on that they proceeded to remove features.  First they removed the exclamation point and slimmed down the typeface, resulting in a design that lasted for a decade. Then they reduced the shadows in 2010. In 2013 than they flattened the text to remove the subtle raised effect and eliminated the shadows completely. And now? They’ve swapped to a Sans-Serif Typeface, leaving a smooth almost cartoonishly rounded version of their logo.

In some ways it looks almost childish. I know when I first saw it; I thought it had been drawn from crayon. The smoothed off font seems to lack the dignity that their logos for the past decade had. But that’s all part of their master plan. A simple logo is more easily presented. With Google being accessible on all kinds of electronic devices worldwide, in a variety of shapes and forms, the new logo is meant to look sharp in any situation. From the largest to the smallest screen.  And with their new logo, comes smart new icons. Moving on from the almost bland looking G icon of the past few years, Google now sport a brightly coloured G featuring their four major colours.

Google says it’s to reflect their brand ethos. Simple, uncluttered, colourful, and friendly. Personally I think they might have taken that a bit too far, but I won’t deny that their logo matches what they’re selling. A nice simple logo can work wonders after all.

Tell us what you think over social media. Do you like the new Google design? Check out the new Google logo in action on their website: www.google.com.au