Windows 8 Logo Released – New Design from Olden Times

Most of us are familiar with the flag-like Windows logo – but now there’s a sleek, modern new logo for Windows 8. It may surprise you where the design idea came from.

Microsoft to the wrappers off the new logo on Friday for its Windows 8 operating system which is due to land out later this year.

But “it’s a window… not a flag” I hear you shout in amazement. You’re in good company my friends as they’re exactly the words the design agency supposedly used when pitching it to Microsoft.

The design is the work of US agency, Pentagram, who were apparently confused as to why the product was called Windows when the previous logos have all been, well, a bit flaggy.

Pentagram came up with the more window-looking design which will replace the previous logos that have been used since Windows 3.1 in the 1990s. The thing is that the new design as more in common with an old design.

“The Windows logo is a strong and widely recognised mark, but when we stepped back and analysed it, we realised an evolution of our logo would better reflect our Metro style design principles and we also felt there was an opportunity to reconnect with some of the powerful characteristics of previous incarnations,” writes Sam Moreau, Principal Director of User Experience for Windows at Microsoft.

If you have a look at the time-line below in the gallery you will see that the new Windows 8 logo looks more like a direct decendant of Windows 1.0. A throwback, if you will. It also lends itself quite nicely to the Metro tiles layout 🙂

Few remember the original Windows logo, yet we found it both refreshing and inspiring in relation to the work we have been doing on the Metro style design visuals. Using simple lines and clear straight forward concept, this logo reminded us of what a great and evocative name we have with “windows”.

The logo may hark back to a previous age but the new Windows 8 operating system is promising to be very ‘now’ – there may even be some team-work with Google Android in order to tackle the common enemy: iOS

Personally, I like the new logo – don’t you?