ANDROID: REBRANDED

Sundar Pichai recently became the lead of the Android team. I’m excited to hear his keynote address at the upcoming Google I/O 2013 (15 May). His work with Chrome has been incredible (Chrome may be Google’s most ground-breaking yet polished product yet). A lot of great things will be coming to Android now too—as it’s merged into the Google family more fully. (Below you’ll see a side-by-side comparison.)

In light of what’s coming, I did this Android logo redesign. Hopefully it accurately represents Android’s future.

The old Android logo feels unstable—like it’s not solid on its feet and its arms are hardly attached. Ironically, Android the OS has also been traditionally unstable. But it’s coming around. The new logo goes for the opposite. Its feet give it a strong foundation. The whole design is based on a solid square. The arms now feel like they’re integral rather than separate—Android is becoming a cohesive, solid OS.

I also tried to represent the rocket metaphor—you can see arms and feet, but you can also see, instead, wings and rocket thrusters—a dual-imagery.

Finally, and this might be the most urgent change, the color of the old Android logo doesn’t fit with Google’s other branding. But it’s a simple switch to give it an actual Google green that matches the rest of the brand.

I hope you like it. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Here’s to Sundar and the future of Android.

Want more? Read about the future of Google Music.