Seven point Seven

There’s no doubt that the Google logo has come a long way since being introduced nearly 15 years ago. For the better part of a decade, I have been in favor of eliminating the drop shadow and reducing the depth and pronouncement of the bevel/emboss. I was happy to see both of these changes finally arrive to some degree in the 2010 version of the Google logo.

I’d like to offer my suggestions for how to continue refining the Google logo while keeping with the general direction of these and other trends. The first step would be to increase the sophistication of the color scheme by focusing on a two-color logo, rather than a multicolored logo. Something like this—

There is a certain whimsy that Google culture fosters that I believe is retained in the use of two primary colors, while at the same time keeping it from being too playful or too kindergarten-ish, as might be the case with a multicolored logo (I’m looking at you too eBay.) Furthermore, Google is known primarily for their search engine, and the two o’s in the alternate color are an abstract representation of eyes searching. Plus, I’ve used blue, a trustworthy and stable color, paired with a golden yellow, which evokes intelligence and optimism.

After everyone became accustomed to the color change, we’d revisit the font itself, until we arrived at—

This may seem like the most dramatic change, and I’m sure there would initially be some resistance to the disappearance of the capital G, but I believe it fits with some graphics that Google has introduced recently that feature the lowercase “g” instead of the capital. This is essentially the Catull font (the font of the current Google logo) without the serifs. This keeps the essence of the font inact to preserve familiarity, while at the same time removing serifs that have a rather antiquated style to them.

There is some room here to shape the “l” and the “e” in a slightly different fashion, and I’ve paid more attention to the “goog” portion as that is occasionally used as an abbreviation for Google. In fact, the “goog” portion could survive as its own logo (and a symmetrically pleasing one at that.) 

This version of the logo could stand for a relatively long time. There is the option to introduce one more subtle change afterward so we have the following, shown alongside a black and white version—

The depth and visibility of the bevel in the letters is only subtly present in this iteration. Like the previous version, there is no longer any drop shadow. For the previous version and this one, I’ve also used the same circular shape for the o’s and the upper part of the g’s for uniformity and a highly abstract sense of “binary.”

Whenever I see the current Google logo at a small size, I find that the capital G is far too thin in some places. I believe this logo scales much better.

There you have it! These drafts are a little rough around the edges and there are a few things I would tighten up in each of the versions, but you get the idea. Let me know what you think, Google.

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