
Designing the Facebook Company Brand - minimaxir
https://facebook.design/companybrand
======
jawns
Although a post about updated branding may seem benign, this is, I believe, a
response to critics who believe the company should be broken up.

For example:

[https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/03/opinion/facebook-
antitrus...](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/03/opinion/facebook-
antitrust.html)

[https://www.wired.com/story/tim-wu-explains-why-facebook-
bro...](https://www.wired.com/story/tim-wu-explains-why-facebook-broken-up/)

[https://www.cnet.com/news/can-facebook-be-broken-up-what-
you...](https://www.cnet.com/news/can-facebook-be-broken-up-what-you-need-to-
know/)

Facebook is hoping that by differentiating its company brand from its flagship
application, it will address the argument that many consumers of the company's
applications don't understand that those apps are all owned by one big parent
company, and that if they did, they might consume/behave differently.

I don't think this branding really makes any difference, except giving them
the ability to say, "Hey, we did SOMETHING."

But what I think we can say for sure is that this is not just a typical new
branding announcement.

~~~
MuffinFlavored
Why is the government itching to break up tech companies? I feel like it's a
bad idea for them to get involved at all.

~~~
baby
Seeing something similar happening in China (CEOs of companies that get large
are stepping down and being replaced by party members), I wonder if the US
model is similarly threatened by large companies.

If you think about it, corruption is legal in the US through lobbies, and the
larger and more powerful a company is, the easier it is for the company to
influence policies and how the country is being run.

~~~
MiroF
Pretty much every major republican thinker (and by republican I mean in the
tradition of republicanism, not the political party) has discussed the problem
that these concentrations of wealth/power have for stable societies.

~~~
philwelch
Most historical republics were defined and explicitly ruled by concentrations
of wealth and power--Rome, Venice, Florence, Genoa, the Hanseatic League.

------
oflannabhra
I know it is easy to be cynical on these types of "announcements", but I am
having a really, really hard time understanding how curved strokes (or any
branding decision) can result in empathy or "open space for peoples stories".

Empathy is a human characteristic. To think that a word mark can have (or even
_create_ ) it is patently ridiculous. In fact, I'd say it cheapens the meaning
of the word to the point where true empathy means less.

This press release contains a type of language specific to our current time
that will age like milk.

~~~
pembrook
You don't understand it because, like myself and most people on this site,
you're probably a hyper-rational engineering type. We gravitated towards
working in this field for a reason.

The rest of the world has very strong negative reactions when confronted with
a product branded like this: [https://www.vim.org](https://www.vim.org)

...and they have very positive reactions to a product branded like this:
[https://slack.com](https://slack.com)

How could the reaction be so different when we're just talking about a few
lines, curves, colors and aesthetics?

It turns out, most humans are emotionally stimulated by visual associations
and stories. This is the definition of branding. Empathy would be
understanding that most people are not like us.

~~~
pvg
_like myself and most people on this site, you 're probably a hyper-rational
engineering type._

I think you're both engaging in and are affected by mythologizing and branding
right in your comment so perhaps neither you nor the people you're referring
to are as 'hyper-rational' as you imagine. I doubt anyone is particularly
emotionally engaged by Slack's inoffensive hipster-corporatist design language
and for a work tool, that's probably both intentional and about right. Vim, on
the other hand, is one of the closest things programmers have to a full-on
impractical fashion trend, a sort of aspirational zoot suit. There are even
special ribbons for the pork pie hat:

[https://github.com/powerline/powerline](https://github.com/powerline/powerline)

~~~
pembrook
I think you are right! The whole identity of thinking of yourself as
"engineering type" is likely fulfilling some emotional need to belong to a
group you perceive as superior.

However, I'm also certain the hipster-corporatist brand aesthetic of products
like Slack is exactly part of the appeal. It definitely signals that slack is
a tool used by a certain "tribe." And if you aspire to be in that tribe, this
tool is for you. Call it the tribe of life-work optimizers and the open
office, if you will.

~~~
pvg
_And if you aspire to be in that tribe, this tool is for you_

Slack's branding certainly has a purpose but I think it's more about broad
acceptance than individual aspirations - it has to look like something people
use at work. There's a whiff of 'tech' and even playfulness to it but it's
sensibly calibrated to be business-anodyne. There is also an element of
edginess but it's neatly and entirely contained in the name. By this point,
though, 'Slack' has almost become a generic term for 'work chat' so there's
little danger anyone with purchasing authority is going to confuse it with one
of the foundational concepts of the Church of the SubGenius™.

Slack's branding is more akin to the logo you see on the side of the floor
buffing machine building maintenance workers guide around the office at night.
That's not there to inspire anyone to join the hardworking tribe of building
maintenance workers.

------
lostgame
Would’ve been better, IMHO; to pull an Alphabet and rename the company.

This reminds me a little of the ‘Apple TV’ vs. ‘Apple TV’ article running
around recently.

If Facebook wants to differentiate their company from their service, a rename
makes sense and also wouldn’t hurt their reputation when they create new
products.

~~~
bredren
I was thinking similarly. Not that it needed to rename it but that it was an
obvious option available.

I think the choice to keep the main company as "Facebook" could be seen as
hubris or overconfidence in the lasting trust in the name.

There's no question the company itself has been under attack for privacy,
impact on social behavior, its profit and negligence in running ads that
undermined integrity of the 2016 US Presidential election, and impact on the
open web by making FB logins a universal user auth federation etc.

So creating a new super company name, like Alphabet, which sounds a lot like
Altria (phillip morris) to me, that isn't directly tied to the other companies
would have been a sensible direction.

Since he's the ultimate decider, it's hard for me to see this choice
"Facebook's product: Facebook" as an extension of the personality and ego of
the guy at the top.

Which is to say, the company does not believe the brand has been significantly
undermined by various controversies. Or that it has but thinks it can recover
and is fighting back in a way by keeping the name.

And admittedly, I suspect "Facebook" and its companies have a better idea of
the moods of internet users than anyone else.

~~~
CharlesColeman
> So creating a new super company name, like Alphabet, which sounds a lot like
> Altria (phillip morris) to me, that isn't directly tied to the other
> companies would have been a sensible direction.

Kinda off-topic, but I feel like such corporate renamings should be illegal,
or at least heavily scrutinized and subject to regulatory approval. Brands are
socially useful to help track both positive _and_ negative perceptions.
Personal name changes often cannot be performed to "to avoid the consequences
of a criminal conviction" [1], and I don't think the a company should be able
to use them to avoid the reputational consequences of their actions.

[1] for instance:
[https://law.justia.com/codes/colorado/2017/title-13/change-o...](https://law.justia.com/codes/colorado/2017/title-13/change-
of-name/article-15/section-13-15-101/)

~~~
Andrex
People can change their names to avoid reputational consequences, and
corporations are currently considered as such.

Renaming a company also seems like a large hassle that is likely to get more
press and attention, not less. I'm not sure this is a legitimate fear.

~~~
bredren
I think if you ask 100 people what Altria is vs Philip Morris, most know and
have negative associations w the latter.

------
voldacar
> The brand comes to life in the context of people, cultures, communities and
> relationships.

What does this even mean? What kind of human could even write such a sentence?

~~~
petepete
Still got nothing on Pepsi

[https://www.goldennumber.net/wp-content/uploads/pepsi-
arnell...](https://www.goldennumber.net/wp-content/uploads/pepsi-
arnell-021109.pdf)

~~~
postsantum
Any context? Is it a real document or a parody?

~~~
gdubs
This is real. My personal theory has always been that they decided to
capitalize on the Obama For America campaign branding, typography, etc — and
then made this doc as a kind of “parallel reconstruction” of how they got
there.

------
notjustanymike
The "A" and the "K" are fascinating. Almost imperceptibly bent, they round and
soften what would otherwise be quite an authoritative logo. The "B" also has a
belly. The whole thing is definitely meant to look a little friendly and
approachable.

~~~
CharlesColeman
> The "A" and the "K" are fascinating. Almost imperceptibly bent...The "B"
> also has a belly.

What's interesting to me is why anyone would bother with tweaks like that. The
logo looks like a generic san-serif block letter logo, and I only noticed
those details after they were explicitly pointed out. Even after looking at it
several times, the bent lines register as _defects_ to me rather than as an
aesthetic design choice.

Could there be some legal basis to those tweaks, like to make the logo
trademarkable?

~~~
lm28469
> What's interesting to me is why anyone would bother with tweaks like that.

They probably spend millions in design per year and have to keep their
designers team working. At that scale nothing is left to chance, they A/B
tested their logos for months &. If it makes them looks .1% better and improve
signups by the same amount they're golden.

> I only noticed those details when they were explicitly pointed out.

And that's exactly how it should be, good design is imperceptible, bad design
sticks out like a sore thumb.

~~~
saghm
> If it makes them looks .1% better and improve signups by the same amount
> they're golden

I have trouble imagining that any sort of measurement tying signups to the
logo would have a margin of error smaller than that. I assume this is just a
made-up number to signify how much they care about slight changes, but I think
the general point that they realistically would have trouble getting any
amount of useful signal from slight tweaks like that still stands.

~~~
lm28469
> I assume this is just a made-up number to signify how much they care about
> slight changes

Yes it is, I have no idea what they monitored but I'm sure they didn't chose
randomly.

------
papln
All I'm seeing is a monolithic in-your-face all-caps block font that screams
BIG BROTHER.

Also it's a bit over-spaced and the letters swell outward as though it's
puffed up to look extra imposing and dominating the space around itself.

~~~
subpixel
Not just that, it's pulsing in a way that connotes "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid
I can't do that".

~~~
NoodleIncident
The "pulsing" is just a transition between the facebook, instagram, and
whatsapp versions of the logo. It's normally a single one of those colors (or
gradients, in the case of instagram)

------
johnbatch
This is probably a better link:
[https://facebook.design/companybrand](https://facebook.design/companybrand)

~~~
dang
Ok, we've changed to that from
[https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2019/11/introducing-our-new-
com...](https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2019/11/introducing-our-new-company-
brand/). Thanks!

~~~
NoodleIncident
Thanks for including the previous link in this comment, they're both good.
Seeing it in the context of their apps is definitely interesting

------
namanyayg
The logo is pretty bland (reminds me of Mark Zuckerburg, actually); but it's
definitely a step in the right direction to label all products under the
"Facebook" brand. Most people don't even know that Whatsapp and Instagram are
all owned by Facebook.

~~~
rvz
I've seen logos that were worse than natural disasters, but if Paul Rand were
to critique this "redesign", he would tell you that it screams treason in the
design world.

If Deiter Rams were to critique this he'd tell you that it so bad, that it
would be categorised under a new hurricane category since it is actually "re-
designed" the definition of a disaster.

Bad logos change to often. The 'F' logo stood the test of time and ticks the
boxes of Dieter Rams design principles which is respected globally by
designers. The last time Apple and IBM changed their logos was more than 40
years ago. If the "U B E R" capslock logo was dumped, so would the "F A C E B
O O K" capslock logo.

~~~
AndreasHae
> Bad logos change to often. The 'F' logo stood the test of time and ticks the
> boxes of Dieter Rams design principles which is respected globally by
> designers.

As far as I understood, the new logo will be used for the company itself, as
opposed to its core product - the Facebook platform - which is still going to
use the blue/white 'F'.

------
kgraves
> ...People should know which companies make the products they use.

I agree with this. This is a good gesture of FB warning new and current users
signing up/using the service with a screaming all caps logo, given the amount
of spying, data mishaps and misinformation reputation they are slowly accruing
over the years.

Other than that, this logo looks corporate enough that it should fit nicely
with Facebook Workplace's logo.

~~~
itsmhuang
They aren't acting on their own accord. This is fueled by a new law that
companies must clearly disclose what subsidiaries they own.

~~~
bryan_w
I'm curious also, what law are you referring to?

------
saagarjha
I’m all for more explicit disclosure of Facebook’s involvement in Instagram
and WhatsApp, but aesthetically…I’m not sure I like it. What was wrong with
the original logo and the “Facebook blue”?

~~~
tantalor
Blue is generally poor choice for logos, it is hard on the eyes.

Red is better.

~~~
Shish2k
Not to appeal to popularity, but if it's so bad, why do so many companies use
it?

Anecodtally - of the 120 icons on my phone's home screen:

\- 50 are blue-white logos (eg twitter)

\- 14 are red-white or red-black (eg youtube, netflix)

\- 12 green-white or green-black (eg, whatsapp, spotify)

\- the rest are a mixture of colours.

------
wespiser_2018
No doubt, this is truly great design work, kudos to that team! However, I
can't help but feel my massive distrust for the company overshadow this work,
and give me a very un-easy feeling about the true intentions of this entire
thing. For me, the "transparency" I want to hear about does not come from a
font, but from open sharing of advertising!

------
shaneprrlt
I'm not sure how well this will help differentiate the corporate entity with
the Facebook service from a public perspective. Might have been more effective
to rename the corporate entity like Alphabet did. Besides that, kind of boring
and looks like it was thrown together in 5 minutes, lol.

------
dmix
The multi-coloured gradient example on the Instagram app seems a bit odd to
me. Are they really going to change the colours of the company brand depending
on the context of the product/brand it's being used with?

~~~
aeyes
Yes:
[https://facebook.design/companybrand](https://facebook.design/companybrand)

> Instead of the company owning a single color, we designed the brand to be
> responsive to its context and environment. This system allows the wordmark
> to take on the color of our individual brands, creating a clearer
> relationship between the company and the products we build.

~~~
mrgreenfur
Isn't this against most brand consistency standards? I've seen so many
branding guidelines be very strict about changing colors/backgrounds.

~~~
hrktb
A side effect of that strictness is designers trying very hard to skip the
logo or move it in weird places when it doesn’t fit what they’re doing (for
instance a very warm, but light/pastel design. Marketing people often don’t
prepare for these cases)

Having freedom of colors helps a lot I think.

------
liquidise
I've believed for some time that part of instagram's continued success comes
from the average consumer being completely unaware that it is associated with
facebook in any way. This change risks facebook's controversies becoming
instagram's when consumers realize they could boycott both/either.

~~~
basch
is there even a statistic on the number of people boycotting facebook? id
imagine it to be infinitesimally small in the grand scheme of things.
partially because there isnt a single alt-fb they are all gathered in.

------
busterarm
Their font choice reminds me of the Fyre Media logo.

------
lone_haxx0r
Those pictures of happy people remind me of the E Corp commercial from Mr.
Robot[1].

[1] [https://youtu.be/FZuOFdHKtF8?t=19](https://youtu.be/FZuOFdHKtF8?t=19)

------
eganist
They added just enough of a curve to the 'A' and 'K' to irritate me, and not
enough for it to be actively noticeable.

[https://i.imgur.com/CmWWk2B.png](https://i.imgur.com/CmWWk2B.png)

------
d--b
I am not a design person and I usually think that design people know what
they’re doing. My opinion about design is usually as good as that of a 5-year-
old looking at a Picasso.

But, am I the only one to think that this is not very good? Shortening the
name to its equity ticker? What kind of message does that send to your users?
But beyond that, it’s all caps in a font that’s really not original. Is that
all?

This looks like it was made by a cheap automatic logo design app...

------
michannne
Great job! Hats off to them, I was only _half_ expecting a see a sentence like
"This truly captures the 'essence of Facebook', which we'll refer to as 'Mark'
throughout the remainder on this document"

------
ppf
In my experience, the more time the word "clarity" is used, the less there is.

------
kgc
This really reminds me of "Tables" from the Silicon Valley TV show.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWOGbu5BcT0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWOGbu5BcT0)

------
mattkevan
It’s clearly positioning for a post-Facebook future, separating Facebook the
product from Facebook the company.

Perhaps making it easier to sacrifice the product as it gets more radioactive,
leaving the company intact.

------
merty
They recently added splash screens to Instagram and WhatsApp apps which I
presume was a step towards smoothly introducing the Facebook company logo to
their app brandings with updates soon.

------
tomtomtom777
Why does following this link delete my history ?!?

After all modern ads and cookies on every site, they just keep finding new
ways to make my browser experience even bore abhorrent.

------
garrickvanburen
friendly, empathetic, and approachable...in all caps?

Not declaring a brand color and instead saying that it’s ‘empathetic to it’s
context’ is reminiscent of A Scanner Darkly.

------
elwell
I don't have anything insightful to add, but I dislike the wordmark
aesthetically. The concept of empathy = dynamic style is interesting to me
though.

------
kops
Instagram and WhatsApp are the bought step kids of facebook and by all
indications(ok just hearsay) are more relevant(read popular) than the original
product i.e. the facebook. A sound investment but I can imagine how it feels
for Zuckerberg. While recently trying to advertise on Instagram it became
evident how desperately facebook wants to put itself in front of these
products and brands. I kind of understand at a personal level but at the
business level it doesn't make so much sense. I almost feel sorry for
Zuckerberg. Actually I don't ;-)

------
agoodthrowaway
I’ve always associated all caps with shouting. Not sure how an all caps logo
with a few softening tweaks sends a message of empathy.

------
krm01
when big companies rebrand themselves it’s never about how their logo looks
like. It’s a tiny piece of the iceberg’s tip. FB is trying to change its story
and credibility with its users, advertisers and legislators. Im not very
confident they’ll pull it off, but if they do, it’ll be a historic turnaround
of events.

------
aklemm
The implication that Calibra belongs in the same league as the Facebook app or
Instagram is...premature.

------
pc86
> _and the subtle softening of corners and diagonals adds a sense of
> optimism._ [0]

Oh come on. Has anyone ever looked at rounded corners in a font and thought
"wow, that sure is optimistic!"

I'm all about custom design and thoughtful branding but let's not get
ridiculous about it.

[0]
[https://facebook.design/companybrand](https://facebook.design/companybrand)

~~~
ProbablyRyaan
Yeah, it's flowery-design talk but I'd argue these nuances go a long way
subconsciously.

~~~
orhmeh09
I’m unsure if you’re serious, but I’d be interested to hear an argument for
the subconscious nuances going a long way.

~~~
RandallBrown
I personally think Apple's designs are still considerably better than their
competitors.

Tiny subconscious nuance is one of those reasons. Did you know that their app
icons (and phones themselves) don't have perfectly rounded corners?

[https://hackernoon.com/apples-icons-have-that-shape-for-a-
ve...](https://hackernoon.com/apples-icons-have-that-shape-for-a-very-good-
reason-720d4e7c8a14)

------
joegahona
First sentence:

> Facebook started as a single app.

Is that even true? I thought it started as a website.

------
hagope
They should have also renamed the parent company to Face, Inc.

------
ezzzzz
Upon clicking the link, Firefox popped a notification saying that they had
blocked a 'social-media tracker' from running on the site. New typeface, same
tricks.

------
wyck
Well this is a mistake, not from a design perpective but from a brand one.

------
LeoNatan25
It’s pretty ugly.

------
whytaka
The Gap is back.

------
inputError
_itailan accent_

"Mama mia! It's a Fache Book!"

------
kd3
I'm all for this kind of FB branding on all of their apps. Will be easy to
know what not to use. Google should do the same.

------
notadoc
Design in 2019: CAPSLOCK

------
s5ma6n
This change was definitely needed after all of those fiascos to rehabilitate
their image. Google also did the same with the Alphabet company restructuring
before. Even though I dislike the practices they have with people's data, the
Facebook as a company has undeniably contributed a lot in other fields such as
deep learning.

