New brand(redhat.com)
redhat.com
New brand
https://www.redhat.com/en/about/brand/new-brand
76 comments
I think the redesign would make more sense if you were to draw a diagonal line from the bottom of the "e" through the top of the "a", and write the words "DNA" at the left end of the line and "FUTURE" at the right end.
I'm not sure I'd go that far. It's clearly been tuned for the thumbnail version. I agree though, in that it doesn't scale up perfectly.
Amateur job or not, but… ok yes it’s a disaster.
It's writing. It's two short words. You can still read it clearly.
I think fonts are pretty neat in a "hey we can make things that look fairly different but are still perfectly recognizable as the same concept" way, like the different styles of house icons which all meant "go home" in HyperCard stacks.
I confess don't understand the extreme nit-picking about one line being slightly too far over. Or trying to explain alleged issues through strained metaphors. Yes, this lower-case "d" looks like it has a belly -- that is the shape of that letter! They all do.
They've got an entire operating system, and it's full of bugs -- as they all are -- and it has obvious and measurable problems that hurt usability. I'm not sure why a minor branding change justifies a blog post on their part, and I really don't see why unkerned text is "a disaster". I'm typing this in a <textarea> which (like everyone's 1960's-emulating terminals and 1970's-styled editors) uses monospaced fonts, which by definition cannot be kerned.
I think fonts are pretty neat in a "hey we can make things that look fairly different but are still perfectly recognizable as the same concept" way, like the different styles of house icons which all meant "go home" in HyperCard stacks.
I confess don't understand the extreme nit-picking about one line being slightly too far over. Or trying to explain alleged issues through strained metaphors. Yes, this lower-case "d" looks like it has a belly -- that is the shape of that letter! They all do.
They've got an entire operating system, and it's full of bugs -- as they all are -- and it has obvious and measurable problems that hurt usability. I'm not sure why a minor branding change justifies a blog post on their part, and I really don't see why unkerned text is "a disaster". I'm typing this in a <textarea> which (like everyone's 1960's-emulating terminals and 1970's-styled editors) uses monospaced fonts, which by definition cannot be kerned.
I find this way of dismissing things that other people care about as irrelevant quite arrogant. Yes, there are always "worse" issues. I could just as well write: We live on a planet full of environmental pollution, human rights abuse, and poverty. I'm not sure why minor usability issues in a relatively obscure operating system justify a comment on your part.
Typography is a venerable craft, and the new wordmark has technical flaws that one simply wouldn't expect from a high-profile project. This won't have disastrous consequences of any kind, but within the context of discussing a post on the new logo, calling a part of the result disastrous is, IMHO, appropriate.
Some people are genuinely interested in branding and typography, some are simply irritated by change, therefore it's common practice to introduce new branding with a blog post. You can see from the amount of comments that there are quite a few people who care about this.
Relevant XKCD: https://xkcd.com/1015/
Typography is a venerable craft, and the new wordmark has technical flaws that one simply wouldn't expect from a high-profile project. This won't have disastrous consequences of any kind, but within the context of discussing a post on the new logo, calling a part of the result disastrous is, IMHO, appropriate.
Some people are genuinely interested in branding and typography, some are simply irritated by change, therefore it's common practice to introduce new branding with a blog post. You can see from the amount of comments that there are quite a few people who care about this.
Relevant XKCD: https://xkcd.com/1015/
The terrible kerning is literally the first thing I saw when I opened the article. It's truly appalling.
To me it just looks like you're making stuff up.
Not a designer, so emphasis is on "To me".
So it's the hat but without the head? That's great actually, I wouldn't even have noticed it was new (in a good way, as in immediately recognized what it was), yet it's fresher and simpler, even manages to evoke a 3D shape feel at the top while being flat colored.
Good to see that new logos can also sometimes genuinely be a nice change!
Good to see that new logos can also sometimes genuinely be a nice change!
The head is shadowman. I think shadowman was edgy, which doesn’t really fit Red Hat’s status as the solid and boring Linux company.
Also people will spell Red Hat properly now (two words)
Also people will spell Red Hat properly now (two words)
"Red Hat" (two words) is almost a shibboleth for identifying RedHat employees.
You got me. RHCX during the Red Hat Linux 9 and RHEL 3/4 era.
Ha, didn't mean to point the finger at you. I just rarely notice it spelled with two words outside of official-ish communications where I assume people have been instructed on the spelling. But some Googling suggests it's not as rare as I thought.
Better article (despite taking 45s to load!): https://www.redhat.com/en/about/brand/new-brand
> We formed a task force to redesign it, bringing together people from different disciplines at Red Hat: graphic design, UX design, creative strategy, video, brand, product marketing, and more. And we worked with Paula Scher, a partner at design firm Pentagram, to help us focus. […] After 5 months of research, explorations, and brainstorming, the team found an elegant solution that still reflected Red Hat and could grow with us.
> We formed a task force to redesign it, bringing together people from different disciplines at Red Hat: graphic design, UX design, creative strategy, video, brand, product marketing, and more. And we worked with Paula Scher, a partner at design firm Pentagram, to help us focus. […] After 5 months of research, explorations, and brainstorming, the team found an elegant solution that still reflected Red Hat and could grow with us.
That website is extremely unhappy right now and is taking a full minute to load. I guess the cobbler's children have no shoes :-)
The page is blocking while loading their new logo svg.
If you block the request to `cms/managed-files/Logo-RedHat-A-Color-RGB.svg` it's working (apart from tons of tracking services)
Some giant white box pops up on mobile and blocks the content completely. WTF are they doing to their site?
On desktop, the page remains white and then the new logo fades and scales into place before the rest of the content appears. I assume they didn't test that on mobile.
That's at least 7 internal people -- probably more -- plus a pricey contractor, for 5 months. I wonder how much that cost? Sure, Red Hat's 2018 revenue was $3 billion, and this probably "only" cost a few million, but does anyone else find this slightly absurd?
For redesigning a globally recognized brand? Not at all. The old logo looked somewhat shady and not fitting into the enterprise world of IBM.
> We formed a task force to redesign it, bringing together people from different disciplines
Pro bono or de Bono? Did these people express emotions and feelings and share fears, likes, dislikes, loves, and hates?
http://www.debonogroup.com/six_thinking_hats.php
Pro bono or de Bono? Did these people express emotions and feelings and share fears, likes, dislikes, loves, and hates?
http://www.debonogroup.com/six_thinking_hats.php
That site is a disaster to try and read on mobile at the moment. The page jumps every few seconds as peices load.
Some people might be interested in the reasoning behind the change:
- https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/open-brand-project-what-probl...
- https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/open-brand-project-what-probl...
That's interesting. Glad that they mentioned that the old logo always felt "secretive and villainous" - it did to me, too, and struck me as strange why basically the most trusted Enterprise Linux system's logo looked shady and creepy like the incognito-mode guy in Chrome.
"secretive and villainous" is a great match for systemd. It's also pretty good for PulseAudio, NetworkManager, and avahi. These have all been heavily pushed by redhat.
You know they're all open-source, right? I understand and identify with your concerns - I've railed against systemd enough myself - but they all work (fairly) well and have made management/administration of systems cleaner and easier. I think that's why Red Hat's pushing them.
Lots of things from Red Hat are nominally Open Source, but you'd have to fork a massive project to get away from Red Hat's control.
A great example is GNOME adding a systemd requirement. The key developers are employed by Red Hat, and Red Hat chose systemd, so no consideration needs to be given to the possibility that a Linux distribution might not want systemd. This is how Debian was forced into systemd.
The projects very clearly do not give consideration to criticism. Choices are made by the Red Hat teams, and that is that.
A great example is GNOME adding a systemd requirement. The key developers are employed by Red Hat, and Red Hat chose systemd, so no consideration needs to be given to the possibility that a Linux distribution might not want systemd. This is how Debian was forced into systemd.
The projects very clearly do not give consideration to criticism. Choices are made by the Red Hat teams, and that is that.
It's called a successful countersignal. It says: "we commit to providing such an unmatched degree of pure technical excellence, openness and outstanding customer support that we can have a hidden/secretive white guy wearing a frickin' fedora hat as our literal corporate logo--And get away with it!" I'm sad and even a little concerned at seeing it go away.
It's nice to see a company redesign their logo for all the right reasons.
They were very open about the reasons, they are simple and make total sense. I like the new brand.
What’s almost as big as the logo is the change from Interstate to a brand new, open font. I love everything about this! I’ve always had a high regard for Red Hat’s branding and marketing.
I hadn't seen that 1995 elongated top hat. Bring that back!
Glad to see they kept the original essence and just seemingly updated it.
The association with fedoras in popular culture is not positive at the moment.
Why did they pass up the opportunity to make it a more stylish kind of hat?
Why did they pass up the opportunity to make it a more stylish kind of hat?
Replacing the classic fedora hat would probably result in mutiny.
You are correct. There are already plenty of unhappy internal Red Hatters mad at shadowmans departure, let alone the hat itself.
Personally I find the change crisp and modern, and the fact that it's a fedora is irrelevant. The company will definitely outlive the neckbeard fedora association.
Personally I find the change crisp and modern, and the fact that it's a fedora is irrelevant. The company will definitely outlive the neckbeard fedora association.
Especially since they're non-enterprise version of Linux is called Fedora.
I'm sorry, but what's the current fedora association?
A certain breed of neckbeard, at least that’s been the association the last 10-15 years. It’s probably more of a jokey reference these days though. Although red hats in general are also an unfortunate form of branding to be stuck with nowadays, not unlike the band Anthrax after 2001.
What would be more stylish? a red baseball cap?
I miss the shadow from the hat. The new logo tries to be very PC, conforming in all possible ways. At the end, it's just boring.
How is a new logo that depicts pretty much the same thing as the previous one "PC"? What does that even mean? Serious question
I get that any perspective of a logo is highly subjective, but can you provide an example or two that you consider to be not boring?
Red Hat is a mature company selling enterprise software, so I kind of expect their logo to be what it is.
Red Hat is a mature company selling enterprise software, so I kind of expect their logo to be what it is.
Looks more like a neckbeard fedora now. Probably did an analysis and found that winning points with the Mountain Dew and Doritos crowd was worth more than points lost for those who can’t stand them.
Edit: to put it another way, removing the face and putting in just the hat, puts more attention on the hat. And it looks more like it could be a trilby while the old hat was more of a classic fedora.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8gevn4/i-bought-a-fedora-...
Edit: to put it another way, removing the face and putting in just the hat, puts more attention on the hat. And it looks more like it could be a trilby while the old hat was more of a classic fedora.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8gevn4/i-bought-a-fedora-...
I don't know if there is a way out of that for them. There are probably more people who associate being unfashionable and eating unhealthy snacks with using Linux than an old fashioned hat.
Is the Mountain Dew and Doritos crowd still thriving? Maybe I have been sheltered living the last 10 years in west coast urban bubbles (with their various health conscious eating fads), but that phrase evokes a very dated, 1990s image to me. The successor would have to be a soy latte and a gluten free pastry, or something.
I had always assumed the RedHat logo had always been a trilby, and that they were somewhat "stuck" with it for tradition/legacy reasons.
I now see that only one of their three previous logos (excluding wordmark changes) has been a trilby, which would seem to make migrating away from it easier. Given the modern 4chan association, I wonder has there been anyone internally at RH voicing such a suggestion.
Also... while the new one is definitely an improvement on the last, their pre-97 logos were great!
I now see that only one of their three previous logos (excluding wordmark changes) has been a trilby, which would seem to make migrating away from it easier. Given the modern 4chan association, I wonder has there been anyone internally at RH voicing such a suggestion.
Also... while the new one is definitely an improvement on the last, their pre-97 logos were great!
[deleted]
Not sure if it's my display or something, the black ribbon on the fedora appears jittered when resized for the top navigation bar on their website.
Overall, I think the color is a bit too bright for me. I liked the 1999 version... that's just my personal preference.
But it looks pretty good as favicon.
Overall, I think the color is a bit too bright for me. I liked the 1999 version... that's just my personal preference.
But it looks pretty good as favicon.
This is great, still recognizable, flexible and somewhat fresh.
Compare to Slack’s logo rebrand: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18923719
Compare to Slack’s logo rebrand: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18923719
I like it. Better than many logo redesigns we’ve seen lately, and a much better fit to modern tastes than the previous logo.
As an aside, I feel strangely nervous to say I actually liked something on the internet. (I mention that because I got the same feeling after the GoT episode this weekend, which I really enjoyed). It seems that actually liking something (which is not the same as saying it has no flaws) just does not seem to fit with the modern internet vibe.
As an aside, I feel strangely nervous to say I actually liked something on the internet. (I mention that because I got the same feeling after the GoT episode this weekend, which I really enjoyed). It seems that actually liking something (which is not the same as saying it has no flaws) just does not seem to fit with the modern internet vibe.
Woah, that's a really bright shade of red!
I like it, FWIW.
I like it, FWIW.
So long, dinosaur giving a thumbs up.
Please change the URL to the website. White logo on a white background doesn't make sense.
They open sourced their new fonts: https://github.com/RedHatOfficial/RedHatFont
When it is distributed into other applications, do we have to call it Community ENTerprise Font?
Simpler is better for a logo -- I like it!
I'll miss photoshopping Michael Jackson's face under the hat.
I liked the logo but that red is too bright for my liking.
[deleted]
They switched from a T-rex to a hat. Makes sense.
Very flat
Did this website get re-implemented on IBM Websphere stack? It simply did not load for me.
I have a bad feeling about this.
Tl;dr - it’s a fedora lol
Maybe linking to the post talking about the brand refresh would be more insightful than the SVG?
https://www.redhat.com/en/about/brand/new-brand
https://www.redhat.com/en/about/brand/new-brand
Yes, thanks! We've updated the link from https://www.redhat.com/profiles/rh/themes/redhatdotcom/img/l....
love it
Just stare at it for a second, especially the Re-d coupling. It's unkerned. The 'e' is about to topple over to the right, 'd' looks pregnant, 'a' is too top heavy. There's no visual balance, rhythm or consistency to how "Red Hat" looks. It basically looks as an amateur job.
http://videos.cdn.redhat.com/NEXT/new-brand/Logo-RedHat-A-Co...