Microsoft Set To Rebrand Bing, Skype, And Xbox

Albert Shum, Windows Phone Design Studio General Manager, and Todd Simmons, Creative Director at Wolff Olins, announced at the Design Day 2013 Event in Norway that there will be some rebranding coming to Microsoft soon. There will be logo rebranding for several of Microsoft's services, including Bing, Yammer, Skype, and Xbox. They figured that since Windows 8, Microsoft, and Office all got new logos, why shouldn't these services?

All of the logos seemed flattened out, matching the design scheme that Microsoft is currently going with. The approach that Microsoft was trying to go for was to create products that feature similar looking logos, but are still identified as their own brand. Simmons, whose company has been working with Microsoft for quite a while, says that while coming up with Microsoft's new look, they were influenced by Nike's design. He says,

"We thought about Nike. When you experience the Nike brand in whatever form you may experience it, there's always a Nikeness right... you can certainly see it without the logo."

The focal point of this rebranding has to do with the consumers. According to Shum and Simmons, "people, reach, and choice" were the prime reasons for this change. They both want to align design, marketing, product, and branding all into one "harmonious" package. They wanted to stray away from Microsoft being just a big business with products, and be more of a business that represents the consumers that use its products.

In the presentation, Simmons and Shum provided sketches of what some of the new logos may be. In the video above, you can see the concept logo that they have for Bing. These new logo rebrands are all part of a process Microsoft calls "re-imagining" itself. Simmons says that the entire project is a huge risk, especially since they're rebranding products used by millions of people, but that you can't be innovative without taking a chance.

[via The Verge]