AOL recently revealed it's brand new logo as it separates from parent company Time Warner, on December 10th, and becomes a wholly new and independent entity. The new mark was created by Wolff Olins, who have been on a tremendous tear as of late for creating identities that have design blogs everywhere incensed and confused as to how some of these identities ever see the light of day.
The new mark is no longer uppercase “AOL” now it’s title case “Aol.” with a period. This new mark is suppose to communicate a solid departure from it's corporate parent and is now committed to position itself as a solid player in creating a platform for a content-driven organization. The AOL press release states:
AOL today previewed its new brand identity for its future as an independent company committed to creating the world’s most simple and stimulating content and online experiences.
The new AOL brand identity is a simple, confident logotype, revealed by ever-changing images. It’s one consistent logo with countless ways to reveal. The new brand identity will be fully unveiled on December 10, when AOL common stock begins trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
“Our new identity is uniquely dynamic. Our business is focused on creating world-class experiences for consumers and AOL is centered on creative and talented people — employees, partners, and advertisers. We have a clear strategy that we are passionate about and we plan on standing behind the AOL brand as we take the company into the next decade,” said Tim Armstrong, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of AOL.
Currently, here seems to be a lot of haters regarding this new mark and the consensus seems to be quite negative.
My take on this new logo? I like it. It's clean, simple and going away from it's corporate roots and aligning itself visually with the newly structured company's new promise of being content-driven. I don't mind the font or the period as it's a nice base for Aol.Personals, Aol.Autos, Aol.Classifieds etc. It also makes a solid statement with the period as Aol. being the definitive online destination and one of the first players as a global internet provider. The graphic elements floating behind the Aol. logotype are interesting - a simple and engaging visual cue as to what we can expect from this new company. Nice going, Wolff Olins.
