Yahoo! to rebrand after 30 days of change

For the average user there’s little difference between products offered by Yahoo! and by market leader Google. Yahoo!’s position is largely dictated by brand; or rather by Google’s superior brand.

There has long been debate over Yahoo!’s identity. Long before Marissa Mayer moved into the big office, questions were asked about the longevity of Yahoo!’s branding.

Amongst Mayer’s considerable achievements with Google, it’s probably her oversight of the legendarily minimal layout of the Google homepage that convinced Yahoo! to recruit her. It seems that the Yahoo! board has been eyeing a redesign for some time.

Shortly after Mayer’s installation as CEO, Yahoo! tried out a rebrand. In retrospect it appears that Mayer was engaged in some kind of power struggle over whether or not to redesign the company logo because a year later, following a successful redesign of their homepage, Yahoo! have announced that a new visual identity will be launched on the 4th September.

[We] want to preserve the character that is unique to Yahoo! — fun, vibrant, and welcoming — so we’ll be keeping the color purple, our iconic exclamation point and of course the famous yodel. After all some things never go out of style. — Kathy Savitt, Yahoo! CMO.

To celebrate Yahoo! are running with a different logo every day, for 30 days. Their new “Yahoo! 30 days of change” video hints at some of what’s to come.

Kathy Savitt, Yahoo!’s Chief Marketing Officer, has said that the 30 logos are “our way of having some fun while honoring the legacy of our present logo”. And one can’t help but wonder if these 30 logos are rejected designs from the rebrand process — a couple look similar to the beta-redesign from 2012; in which case it’s a fascinating look at how a corporate behemoth perceives itself.

Yahoo!’s homepage featuring the first of 30 logo redesigns.

Reportedly a “modern redesign that’s more reflective of [Yahoo!’s] reimagined design and new experiences” the new logo will be revealed on September 4th. In the meantime you can view all of the temporary logos, a new release every day, on the Yahoo! Tumblr site; or simply head over to yahoo.com for the latest iteration.

Do you think Yahoo! needs to rebrand? What approach do you think the new logo will take? Let us know in the comments.

WDD Staff

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