
Facebook Visual Identity - yuvals
http://officeofbenbarry.com/see/facebook-visual-identity
======
robszumski
I really appreciated the spectrum[0] from informal internal usage of the brand
all the way to the hardcore, "on message" usage in the actual product.

Unless you're on the design team for a large company, it's easy to forget that
other people use assets differently and you can't just copy and paste
something from a hackathon poster into something that appears on the marketing
website.

The thought that goes into changes like this is deep and complex. It's also
not glamorous nor does it get prioritized often. Great write up.

[0]
[http://officeofbenbarry.com/images/portfolio/1200/benbarry-0...](http://officeofbenbarry.com/images/portfolio/1200/benbarry-000585.png)

~~~
bigtones
But if you look at the old wordmark and the new not yet implemented wordmark
side by side, you can barely tell the difference between the two after careful
scrutiny - and that is looking at both side by side blown up to big
proportions.

In real life no one will notice the difference. And the favicon is now flat
without a bevel. That would have taken about 10 minutes.

Seems like a lot of work for nothing in the wordmark change.

~~~
jpatokal
"What do you mean it took you a week to fix that bug? I checked the commit
log, and all you did was change a < into a >. That should not have taken you
more than 10 seconds."

~~~
suchow
The parent's claim was not that changing the wordmark was easy to do, but that
it wasn't worth doing.

------
Animats
Ah, uniform visual identity. See this video from 2005: "Microsoft Redesigns
the iPod packaging"[1] That's by Microsoft's own design team, struggling with
Microsoft's corporate identity.

Facebook's bigger problem is page clutter. I just counted 227 clickable things
on my Facebook home page, and I'm only scrolled half the way down. The
Facebook branding icon only appears once. If they left it out, nobody would
care, except that it's also the home button.

[1] [https://vimeo.com/65449742](https://vimeo.com/65449742)

~~~
gfosco
You scrolled half-way down to infinity? ;)

------
jlarocco
Do minuscule changes like these actually have any impact with users? To be
honest, I was struggling to notice any difference in many, if not most of the
before/after screenshots. I just can't see a typical user appreciating the
change, or even noticing.

There's clearly a lot of difference between all the icons, but even then
they're all clearly Facebook. I would almost expect the arbitrary icon changes
to confuse users more than the consistent style would benefit them.

~~~
ianstormtaylor
Instead of assuming that the changes that many, many visual designers advocate
for are arbitrary and worthless, try assuming the opposite, and then finding
comparisons that might explain how these kinds of changes could be valuable.

Is it valuable for programmers to discuss and refactor code to maintain a
consistent casing pattern?

Is it valuable for writers to edit books to make sure they use consistent
language throughout?

Is it valuable for industrial designers to iterate on the amount of tactile
feedback a dial gives?

Is it valuable for musicians to continue to tweak their guitar until they get
it to just the right tone for a song?

If none of those ring a bell, keep looking until you find a craft that you
feel you have a strong control of, and then find the equivalent comparison. I
guarantee one exists for every craft.

It's very easy for people unfamiliar with a craft to belittle refinement as
useless, but only because they have an underdeveloped sense of the impact of
the craft on how users/readers/listeners make decisions.

~~~
pestaa
Excellent comment.

As I understand it, they mostly did this for themselves. A change of one pixel
doesn't concern any user, but it communicates the pride you take in your work.

~~~
currysausage
_> As I understand it, they mostly did this for themselves._

Wouldn't say so. All these people do the best work they can - the average
consumer might not consciously tell the difference, but they will notice
carelessness, at least subconsciously.

Companies spend loads of money on Corporate Fonts. Most consumers will tell
you that they can't tell apart _Arial_ and any other sans-serif font; yet many
companies decide that a proprietary font is a vital identity asset. Doesn't
that say a lot about the meaning of typography?

The _Siemens Sans_ font [1] is particularly fascinating: It is a very subtle
modification of the ubiquitous _Frutiger_ font [2]; most people would probably
tell you that even _Frutiger_ looks like _Arial_ too them. And yet, Siemens
spent loads of money on _Siemens Sans Global_ , a version that _" includes all
of the world’s major script systems"_. Personally, I think that _Siemens Sans_
is maybe the most beautiful sans-serif font ever designed. See for yourself:
Do you feel a difference?

[1]
[https://www.urwpp.de/graphic/pdf/SiemensBooklet.pdf](https://www.urwpp.de/graphic/pdf/SiemensBooklet.pdf)

[2] [http://www.identifont.com/show?LY](http://www.identifont.com/show?LY)

------
mchristen
Would be nice if that site didn't hijack keyboard shortcuts for 'Back' and
prevent you from leaving the site.

~~~
Everlag
They hijacked left and right arrows for switching articles, a change which the
majority of users would likely agree is a 'good change'.

~~~
mchristen
Every other site that I've come across that uses a carousel seems to handle
not messing with my browser keyboard shortcuts just fine.

Alt + Left-Arrow is not the same key press as 'left and right arrows'.

~~~
geofft
Yeah, it seems mildly inconsistent. I think it's not _intending_ to pick up
Alt-Left, but it does sometimes.

------
arthurcolle
Anyone have any other good design blogs like this?

Really great process overall, really enjoyed this post. Thank you for posting.

~~~
atarian
Couple I know off the top of my head, will update if I think of more:

[http://new.pentagram.com/2012/02/new-work-
microsoft/](http://new.pentagram.com/2012/02/new-work-microsoft/)

[http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/new_logo...](http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/new_logo_for_yahoo_designed_in-
house.php)

------
beyti
Did anyone notice the like button with "Suka" on it. I knew "Suka" was a curse
in russian (due to gaming online) but couldn't find out it means "like" in
which language.

Anybody know anything about it??

[Edit] Nvm, found out it is in Indonesian.

------
dannygarcia
Surprised there was no mention of the Paper app.

~~~
joshschreuder
Paper was released in early 2014, and the author left Facebook in 2014. It's
possible they weren't exposed or only had limited exposure to the Paper app.

