Facebook confirmed in August that WhatsApp and Instagram were set for a name change as part of its efforts to be clear about the products and services it owns. Today, the social networking giant announced a new logo that it hopes will distinguish the company as a hollistic brand that encompasses the Facebook app, Instagam, WhatsApp, and more.
The new logo will go live over the coming weeks and it will be incorporated into Facebook"s products and marketing materials. The firm is also setting up a new company website.
The wordmark uses custom typography with rounded corners and capitalization, representing a distinction between Facebook and the services under its name. The company explains the idea behind the logo design in the following way:
"We designed the new company wordmark with clarity and openness in mind. It’s built on a stable structure through the use of consistent stroke width, harmonized capital letters and a horizontal emphasis. The generous spacing and open letterforms allow clarity at small sizes, and the subtle softening of corners and diagonals adds a sense of optimism."
In addition, the new corporate brand uses a responsive color variation that represents Facebook"s different brands: blue for Facebook and Messenger, purplish to orange for Instagram, green for WhatsApp, and more.
It"s no secret really that the social media giant is introducing a change to its suite of apps that will replace the traditional blue Facebook wordmark, which has been in use for the last 15 years since the company"s founding. In June, it started displaying the “from Facebook” branding on its services.
Regarding the new logo, Antonio Lucio, Chief Marketing Officer of Facebook, said:
"We started being clearer about the products and services that are part of Facebook years ago, adding a company endorsement to products like Oculus, Workplace and Portal...This brand change is a way to better communicate our ownership structure to the people and businesses who use our services to connect, share, build community and grow their audiences."
That said, it remains to be seen how this move will affect people"s perception of the company and its various products.