One of the last mischief Musk did was chasing Twitter’s bird. The Twitter bird, which we have seen almost since its release, has now left its place to a big italic letter “X”.
Twitter’s logo and its famous bird have changed many times before. But a change as radical as Elon Musk’s has only happened once. Until today…
The first name given to Twitter was “Smssy” and its first unofficial logo was:
However, this name was changed before the app was released. The logo written “Twttr”, which you have seen above, has never been used officially.
The first official logo, on the other hand, was a plain “Twitter” text created with the font we are all used to.
The company purchased a small light blue bird design from Designer Simon Oxley soon after it got its new Twitter logo. This bird logo was the first version of the bird that would eventually become Twitter’s symbol:
It seemed quite logical that Twitter’s symbol was also a “bird”, since its symbolic meaning was freedom and it had been used as a means of communication many times throughout history. However, this bird had another meaning. The name “Larry” was given in honor of Larry Joe Bird, one of the star players of the NBA.
Although not included in the logo, the design of the bird named Larry was very important. It needed to eat a few more bakery breads to become a stand-alone logo one day. For this reason, it was redesigned first in 2007, then in 2009 and 2010.
In the next logo, this time Larry was also present.
Twitter changed a few more designs before taking it to the final form we remember. The design you see above was the platform’s logo from 2010 to 2012. As you may remember, the company name being written on the logo was a very famous trend. Nike, Pepsi, Starbucks and many other brands have included the brand name in their logo for a long time.
This is exactly what happened on Twitter. First the name of the platform, then both its name and symbol were included in the logo.
When we came to the final design, only the bird remained in the logo.
Moreover, the most birdlike bird ever was this last logo designed in 2012. On the other hand, Twitter’s last logo was also renamed and changed from “Bird Larry” to “Twitter Bird”.
Martin Grasser, one of the designers who designed Twitter’s iconic bird, both said goodbye to his design and explained how this design came about.
https://twitter.com/twitter/status/16832660386020624
“Today, we say goodbye to this wonderful bird.
It was designed in 2012 by a small team of three: Todd Waterbury, Angy Che and Ben.
The logo is designed to be simple, balanced and legible, with very small dimensions, almost like a small “a” or “e”.”
Martin Grasser adds that Twitter’s previous bird design looks more like a “little accident”, but Jack Dorsey wants a simpler and more bird-like design. Therefore, the design team consisting of three people aimed to create a simple and perfect bird.
Here are the first sketches of Twitter’s logo, which will remain unchanged for 11 years:
Before designing Twitter’s famous bird logo, Martin Grasser drew a lot of sketches. In the continuation of the post he made in the past days, he shared some of the first sketches of this famous logo with his followers on Twitter.
The last two of his sketches (above) inspired him for the final logo: a small, bulging belly and a side view of the bird. Twitter’s new bird was starting to emerge, but it needed to be able to look like a decent bird on all screens and at any size.
The design team is also like Pepsi and Apple; decided to create the logo using circles. The 15 circles, formed almost in golden ratio, were placed on top of each other, forming the entire body of the bird. The little blue bird, with its head facing upwards, symbolizing freedom and communication, every little detail of which has been carefully designed… Twitter has not made any changes to the logo for 11 years, as this logo is easily understood by everyone and has become known by the whole world.
Until Elon Musk changes it, of course.
There were many reasons why Twitter has used the same logo for many years. The logo was almost perfectly aligned with the golden ratio, easy to understand, and had positive associations. Moreover, everyone knew it was the “Twitter Bird”. This is one of the greatest achievements a brand can achieve. However, Elon Musk changed this world-renowned logo and replaced it with the “X” symbol, garnering a great reaction. You know that he never leaves the “X” symbol, but we will wait and see if the letter X will also be lucky on Twitter.
You can find the latest developments about Twitter’s new logo in the following content:
You can also check out our content about Elon Musk’s obsession with the “X” symbol:
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