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Spotify Unveils A Bold New Brand Identity(fastcodesign.com)

over 8 years ago from Shaun Tollerton, Product Designer at ustwo

  • Sebastiaan de WithSebastiaan de With, over 8 years ago

    This is such a load of baloney that comes straight out of marketing and boardroom FUD campaigns. Many brands tweaked their brand to be equally recognizable, but graphically better or different:

    • UPS (arguably not 'better'; I preferred the Rand logo. But, more modern)
    • Apple (sub-brands: iCloud, iTunes)
    • Marriott
    • Holiday Inn
    • Black & Decker
    • Pandora
    • Facebook

    And you are telling me Spotify couldn't? Please. This was the one best time, arguably, to change the logo and redraw it to better fit the moniker of 'music company', and it's STILL a generic bubble with a bunch of poorly drawn wi-fi signal bars.

    2 points
    • Sam MularczykSam Mularczyk, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

      Agreed! But the history of the brand is important.

      A drastic change is a bit of a risk to take - especially in this case, when this icon is pretty much the only graphical representation of their product. Until now, Spotify's only had its iconic green - they've chopped and changed their interface and type choice so many times that this is the only thing that's remained consistent.

      Here in Australia - and all over Europe - Spotify runs massive print campaigns, sponsors music festivals and is used by mobile carriers as an incentive to sign up for data plans. An icon change would kill instant recognisation at this point, especially when Spotify is almost at critical mass. Plus, Spotify's userbase is already pretty pissed with their UI/UX decisions (see /r/spotify) - this'd just add unneccessary flames to the fire.

      The examples you gave are great ones, but are generally extremely established brands, not necessarily things you use every day. The exceptions (iTunes, iCloud, Facebook) did not made dramatic changes to their iconography after they accrued a similar userbase. Excluding iTunes of course; it still uses the music note, but went through a lot of colour/composition changes.

      I completely agree that the icon makes no sense, and could be changed, but why take that risk when you have millions of users - especially some that aren't so tech savvy? Suddenly changing an icon on all of their homescreens would mess shit up for a lot of people, especially older generations.

      A gradual evolution would be best, but I can't see what small changes would make it more like a music company. I'm not an expert, though. IMO, they should've changed it years ago when they transitioned from this...

      0 points