Recently, Live Bitcoin News reported that Facebook’s logo for its new Libra cryptocurrency was potentially taken from the logo of an online banking firm called Current. Both companies used the same San Francisco-based designer to make their logos, which explains why there could be so many similarities. Now, various brand managers and graphic designers are reacting to the look of Facebook’s new logo and Current’s complaints.
Facebook Is Only Guilty of Creating a Boring Logo
Designer Debbie Millman, who hosts a podcast called “Design Matters” and wrote a book called “Brand Thinking,” thinks that Facebook’s logo is very “generic,” and thinks they could have put a little more effort into making its look memorable. She states:
While it’s a solid, respectable mark that’ll probably look okay in a financial scenario of any sort, I would have liked it to have been something that embedded a little more creativity and spirit. It looks like something between a hamburger menu and an almost equal sign.
She believes Facebook really missed the opportunity to create something new. After all, it’s stepping into new horizons by creating a cryptocurrency, something it has virtually no experience in. This was a chance to create a unique, never-before-seen image for its unique, never-before-seen cryptocurrency, and she says the company failed in this respect:
I’m scratching my head and thinking, ‘Here’s an opportunity. You’re supposedly creating a new kind of currency. Shouldn’t you be creating a new kind of symbol that created intrigue and captured the imagination of the culture?’ It didn’t do that.
Regarding Current’s claims that the logo is a rip-off of its own, Millman says these things happen in the design world, and that most of the time, it’s completely unintentional, especially when the symbols or logos don’t have much to them. Facebook isn’t necessarily guilty of ripping off another company’s pictures or image, but it is guilty of creating a very “ambiguous” symbol that doesn’t signify currency very well. In addition, it possesses no “Easter eggs” that suggest the currency has anything special to it.
She uses FedEx as an example, which if you look hard enough, has a small white arrow in its logo to signify speed. In addition, Amazon has an arrow moving between the A and the Z, suggesting that customers can buy virtually anything on the site.
Regarding Facebook’s logo, she explains:
It’s completely generic. It’s the kind of thing you could see on a soft drink and think, “Oh, could it mean that it’s got bubbles in it?’
At Least It’s Simple…
However, she does comment that the logo has one thing going for it:
It doesn’t require a lot of explanation in terms of making it. It isn’t like the NASA logo, which is going to require really remembering the various elements in the mark. This is an easy thing to remember.