Established in 2004, by a young Mark Zuckerberg, in his college dorm at Harvard University. The online social media service is now worth billions and is one of the most recognisable brands in the world.
For the younger generation, having grown up with technology, Facebook was once one of the biggest mobile and desktop apps there was. However, in recent years a lot of young people have switched from the platform to other social media sites such as the popular photo-sharing app, Instagram. Which, in 2012 Facebook acquired for 1 billion dollars in cash and stock.
Facebook has unveiled its updated company branding (not to be confused with the Facebook app logo redesign earlier in the year) to be clearer about the products that come from Facebook.
Antonio Lucio, Chief Marketing Officer at Facebook said:
“We’re introducing a new company logo and further distinguishing the Facebook company from the Facebook app, which will keep its own branding.”
The new visual branding features the company name all capitalised in “custom typography” and uses the signature colours of its other popular apps such as Instagram and Whatsapp.
Antonio Lucio also continued to say:
“People should know which companies make the products they use. 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.”
In June of this year Facebook began using “From Facebook” within all of its other apps and over the “coming weeks” we will start to see this new brand within its apps and other marketing materials. This will also include a new Facebook company website that is not to be confused with the “Facebook” app.
Visually the new logo may not be that interesting and may look boring to some, but for a corporate parent brand, this branding is perfect for what they are wanting to achieve. Being a parent company and not a consumer-facing brand, taking a step back and letting its other consumer brands take centre is an effective way to distance the company from its apps and create any firebreaks should they need.
To some people they may look at the logo and see a basic font, however, it does have its little quirks, which are quite unique. For example, the letters “A” and “K” slightly bow; and the rounded corners on all the letters complement each other perfectly. Being a huge corporate brand, introducing these softer elements make the company appear more friendly and approachable.
However, taking into account over the last few weeks, month and even years, Facebook has received its fair share of controversy. This new rebrand is possibly a way for Facebook the “company” to separate itself from other parts of the business, as a way of saying “yeah Facebook (the app) may have its issues but Facebook (the company) is doing great.” With all that said, this is simply a way of Facebook saying that Facebook is not entirely defined by “Facebook”. It’s a simple change but one that will protect the parent company from any controversy.
What are your thoughts on the new rebrand?
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