I liked the new Aol. logo (erstwhile AOL www.aol.com). Apart from being young and funky what I really liked is the way the lower typography is used and with a period ("."). Period gives the logo a sense of mystery. To be very frank I like simplicity and mystery which the period brings. When we were working with the brand designer for the logo of my startup, Injoos (www.injoos.com) we finally selected the design which was simple with multiple dots. I have had many interesting discussions with people on what the brand stands for and the design aspects.
Humble and Nimble
AOL having separted now form the larger Time Warner entity is aspiring to connect back with it's customer base. It has been a truly humbling experience for AOL in the last decade when it market capitalization tumbled from $100Bn to now around $3bn. Also the challenge will now be to differentiate it self from the packs of Yahoo, Google et. al. and carve a niche for itself. I am getting a feeling of Dejavu having been part of AT&T earlier and having gone through such an experience. After it's merger with SBC and then rebranding it's service AT&T(www.att.com) became at&t. Recognizing that it is no more a monopoly and has to connect back to it's customer base in its new avatar. The new logo gave it a sense of being humble and nimble.
How AOL Logo has changed over the years
How AT&T's Logo has changed over the years
According to the CEO Tim Armstrong “There’s always something behind AOL. That’s the thing that we’re hoping to get across with our AOL brand. The AOL brand is composed of many different things.The nomenclature of the dot is what comes after the dot,”
Video showcasing the new AOl branding and Tim Armstrong's interview:
There have been many contrary opinions on this new redesign. Om Malik has described the new logo as; "It is ambiguous at best, and as sexy as the obese, shapeless humans living on Axiom, the flagship of the BnL fleet in Pixar movie “WALL-E.” on his Blog .
From my perspective though Hubble and Nimble is the way to go Aol.
Some related links:
AOl. branding stories
http://gigaom.com/2009/11/22/aol-reveals-lame-new-look-logo/
http://www.liquidbrandexchange.com/what-do-you-think-about-the-new-aol-brand/
http://design.weblogsinc.com/2005/11/22/at-t-rebranded-wait-no-reinvigorated/
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/dec2005/id20051212_770492.htm
