HackerVibes
Google has released a new logo for its popular Chrome browser. However, there is a catch; you might not notice the difference.
Eight years after retouching the Chrome logo, Google has decided to do a redesign. If you look really hard, you might spot the differences, but a Google designer, Elvin Hu, takes us through the thinking that went into the new appearance.
Hu took to Twitter to explain why Mountain View changed the logo, writing up a thread.
The differences come down to two main things; shadow (or lack of) and brightness.
Google eliminated the shadows between the different colors, which previously made them appear to be placed on top of each other. Now, the logo looks flat, a change that brings it closer to the company’s new design direction. Also, the center circle looks bigger, although the difference in size is almost unperceivable.
The logo’s red, yellow, and green colors are now brighter or more vibrant. However, that might have been an effect of the shadow elimination.
Hu points out another ‘issue’ with the old logo that many people would not have noticed without his Twitter thread. It seems the design team realized that “placing certain shades of green and red next to each other created an unpleasant color vibration.”
The team fixed this by implementing more subtle color gradients. So, no color vibrations to terrorize your tender eyeballs.
Hu said the team considered using a white line as a border between the colors but discovered it made the icon smaller, making it harder to notice the logo among other Google icons.
Meanwhile, the design team was diligent enough to include an interesting feature; the primary Chrome logo will look different based on where you are accessing it. If, for example, you are on ChromeOS, you will see a more colorful logo that matches the rest of the logos in the OS. However, you will notice a slight shadow on macOS that makes the logo appear to pop out of the dock.
On Windows 10 and 11, there is a more noticeable color gradient that blends well with the rest of the icons in the popular operating system.
The first time Google adjusted the logo was in 2011, when it centered the circle in the middle. The next refresh in 2014 made the logo even simpler and flatter.
If you are eager to see the new Chrome logo in action, you can jump on Chrome Canary, the developer edition of Chrome. But if you are content to wait, the new logo will be made available to everyone in a few months.
