It's been a turbulent ride for Twitter users since Elon Musk took over in October last year, and the latest shake up concerns something that many users thought sacred – the iconic blue bird logo.
Musk first of all tweeted a series of posts referring to the 'X' and changed his profile picture to the logo, which shows a white outline of an 'X' on a black background. And now, that 'X' has been rolled out as the official Twitter logo.
As we outline in our Twitter logo history post, Larry the bird has been around since 2006 and appeared in the logo since 2010. That's a long time in the social media world.
Musk crowdsourced the 'X' logo from users on Twitter itself, promising that if someone submitted a design he liked, he would put it live. He suggested he would favour an Art Deco style, and people responded with X designs, many created using AI image generators.
If X is closest in style to anything, it should, of course, be Art DecoJuly 23, 2023
This form and colour of the logo remind me of the Matrix logo, or, I'll be honest, of a generic car logo. It has a masculine feel that feels like a big departure from the friendly bird we know and love. Let's be honest, it feels more like something Elon Musk would like.
To choose the new logo, Musk asked his followers for ideas and appears to have chosen one by @SawyerMerritt. Let's hope he knows his stuff when it comes to licensing a logo and was paid a hefty sum.
The 'X' is thought to point to Musk's plans to make a one-stop-shop app similar to WeChat, where people can pay for various services under one umbrella, as Twitter's CEO Linda Yaccarino explains:
X is the future state of unlimited interactivity – centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities. Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways we’re just beginning to imagine.July 23, 2023
The logo (and name) may also aim to connect the platform to the xAI logo for Musk's new artificial intelligence company, which generated much design debate just a week ago. Earlier today, we were still seeing Larry the Bird across Twitter, although Twitter employees were using the 'X' logo in their bios. But now, the new logo is in the official place of Larry. It seems this new look won't be as short-lived as the move to the Dogecoin logo earlier this year.
