What can you learn by studying the most progressive company in the world?
Google, the company that has become the key to information's front door, has changed its logo.
In hindsight, we should have expected this. After all, it’s been a few weeks since Google introduced a major restructuring through their new parent company, Alphabet. (Google’s new font, known as “Product Sans”, is the same used for Alphabet.) A new era, a new logo.
Here's a link to the blog post announcing the change, and the video that accompanied it:
It’s truly amazing to consider what Google has accomplished over the past 17 years. What began as a research project by two Stanford PhD candidates, has evolved into a publicly traded company with over 50,000 employees. But the sum is greater than its parts. Over the years, Google has transformed the world: It has made encyclopedias obsolete, while revolutionizing the fields of translation, communication, cartography, mobile technology...and the internet itself.
So what can you learn from Google’s redesign?
Here are three lessons:
1. Don’t be satisfied with the status quo.
Google is one of (if not the) most progressive companies on the planet. It's constantly striving for better.
Take the new logo, for example. The reason for the redesign wasn’t just to achieve a more modern look. As the mobile movement continues its rise, Google (and others) acknowledged that certain fonts, specifically serif fonts, are more difficult to read on smaller screens. Users can read Google’s new logo equally well on watch faces, mobile devices, laptops, or smart TVs.
Just one more step in the staircase of progress.
Lesson: There’s always room for improvement. Schedule time to examine what you’re doing right, and analyze what you’re doing wrong. Then, work to better yourself.
Google doesn’t get complacent. You shouldn’t either.
2. Not everyone will like it. Who cares.
A quick look at the comment thread of Google’s official blog shows that not everyone likes the new design.
That doesn’t really matter.
Consumers are extremely important, and their opinions should be respected. (You are designing for them, after all.)
But people, in general, are resistant to change. You have to make decisions based on what’s important to you. Others will adapt.
Lesson: Respect your users, customers, team members, and colleagues. But define your core values, and let those dictate your decisions. If you believe strongly that it’s time for a change, go for it. Don’t look back.
3. Simplify.
If you observe the evolution of the Google logo through the last 17 years, you’ll begin to notice something.
It actually gets simpler.
That’s nothing new; take a look at some of the most iconic brands of today. Nike. Starbucks. Apple. All of their current logos are simpler than the originals. The great artist and inventor, Leonardo da Vinci, put it best (over 500 years ago):
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
Anyone can take something simple and make it complex. The smart ones work on doing the opposite.
Lesson: It goes beyond the world of design: Whatever your daily work, look for ways to declutter, streamline and simplify. It will make life better for you, and those who work with you.
(If you’d like a reminder on just how much Google has changed the world, check out my piece on Inc.com.)
What do you think? Love the new Google logo? Hate it? Let me know in the comments section.
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