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Yahoo isn’t exactly a popular company these days. But while it’s been down for a long time, it’s not out of the game yet, and today the company is here to remind everyone of that with a new logo that practically screams out (in a newly selected hue of purple): “We still exist and have somehow not imploded like a decayed, hollowed-out husk of a dying oak tree!”
The new logo looks to paint a fresh start for the long-beleaguered company. Designed by Pentagram (the firm behind the bold, sans-serif designs for Citibank, New York City’s OMNY system, and the Cooper Hewitt museum), the new Yahoo logo marks the first redesign for the company since its big overhaul under the leadership of then-CEO Marissa Mayer in 2013.
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The new logo lacks the personality of the 2013 design, with a lowercase, sans-serif type that makes it resemble a startup that’s just bought its first print ad campaign on the subway. The only real distinctive quality here is Yahoo’s iconic exclamation point, now at an even more aggressive angle that suggests that it is trying to run away from the rest of the logo. ( Pentagram explains that “the ‘y’ and ‘!’ of the logo are both set at an angle of 22.5 degrees, a forward tilt that suggests a sense of momentum and excitement.”)
Yahoo, after a decade of waning relevance, tried to reinvent itself in the early 2010s by bringing on a new CEO, buying companies like Tumblr and Flickr, and beating Apple and Disney to the punch with original streamed TV programming. But Mayer’s changes didn’t save the company. Tumblr and Flickr now have new owners, the TV and news initiatives crumbled, and Yahoo itself was sold to Verizon. It’s barely a flicker of its former self, notable more for the sales and scandals around its products than any actual impact on the world of technology at large.
Along with the new logo, Yahoo also announced an updated version of its flagship Yahoo Mail app (which the company is presumably hoping that customers have forgotten saw all 3 billion of its users hacked in 2013, and which was scanning users’ emails for data to sell to advertisers as recently as August 2018). The new app features dedicated tabs for attachments, deals, and a “Grocery View” feature that shows grocery discounts nearby. There’s also a new one-click unsubscribe option, along with a design that features the new logo.
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