Xerox new logo looks like a beach ball


According to the NYT Xerox Hopes Its New Logo Doesn’t Say ‘Copier’ - well good news Xerox, it doesn't. It says "beach ball" or "hard peppermint candy" but not "Copier" or anything else you actually do.

"Our new brand reflects who we are, the markets we serve and the innovation that differentiates us in our industry. We have expanded into new markets, created new businesses, acquired new capabilities, developed technologies that launched new industries -- all to ensure we make it easier, faster, and less costly for our customers to share information." source press release

Sure, OK. Would you like a mint?

Update: My fave design-writer Armin at Brand New reports that one of the reasons Xerox did this drastic change was because it animates better.

I find it rather humorous — and please excuse me while I get my biggest gripe out of the way — that this logo "animates" better and how it's a key strength. Yet, the best that could be done (at least at launch) is this? Seriously?

Bonus points for :Conspiracy Theory No. 1: Kodak + Xbox 360 + X-MEN III.

* Fun headline on this logo: Who Did Xerox Copy? Everyone, It Seems - does it really look like the X-box logo?

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tod.brody's picture

Don't you also think it kind of says Danish Flag?

claymore's picture

Spherox.

Dabitch's picture

Claymore wins.

caffeinegoddess's picture

I swear it reminds me of some other logo...can't put my finger on it though. :/

tod.brody's picture

I guess beachball logos in are vogue.

Goldenboy's picture

It looks very much like the Danish flag. It could be a new logo for the Danish Soccer Association or maybe for the cherrywrapping company cherrox. But you're all missing the big mistake. The name! It's spelled wrong. It should be Zerox, right?
But to me it looks ok. I've already forgotten how the old one looks so they must be doing something right.
P.S. Many of you don't know this but Dabitch recently gave a lecture at Lunds University about the web 2.0-ification of logos. And the Xerox logo is a clear example of this. Maybe we could get Dabitch to show the powerpoi.... ehr. keynote presentation.

lordFredruk's picture

Looks like a boule ball to me. A game only old people with lots of spare time play.

tod.brody's picture

Excellent comparison! It does indeed look like a boules ball. A game I wish I had lots of spare time to play. I want to retire to Provence and stand around all day drinking Pernod and playing boules.

PDOG's picture

Xerography is a photocopying technique developed by Chester Carlson in 1938. The name xerography came from the Greek word xeros (dry) and graphos (writing), because there are no liquid chemicals involved in the process, therefore the spelling of the name Xerox is correct.

Jacques Meoff's picture

I hope they give out Xerox logo Christmas ornaments next year. I'll put it right next to my Konica Minolta logo Christmas ornament. Freakin' sweet. 

kurtberengeiger's picture

The wheel was invented a long time ago.

Dabitch's picture

Thanks for the background (geek) trivia PDOG.

As for my lecture at the Department of Cultural Sciences, where I indeed show a whole bunch of classic logos "web 2.0"-ified (not this one though) making them all bubble-gum colors, soft fonts, friendly spheres and with 3D shading or shiny surfaces and reflections - it wasn't actually about logos but "Graphic design and digital culture" and how digital design is taking over in the "real world". I won't post my keynote here though, since that thing doesn't work unless I'm jumping around all agitated and waving my arms about when I get upset about things like the new UPS logo and rambling on in the footnotes derailing my own train of thought. ;) You'll just have to head back to UNI if you want to see that. Ha!

Toste's picture

Balls.

andromeda's picture

I love the font actually, and I really like the lower case treatment.
It's the ball that feels out of place.

I can't link to a comment at Brand New, but I think this is what Toste meant to say. (image)

tod.brody's picture

I almost forgot the Master Card soccer ball logo. 

kamari's picture

People really seem to hate that ball, but think about it for a minute, we haven't seen how they will use this yet. Remember the universal bile spewed on the Sony Ericsson ball? Now that you find it on your phone, don't you think it's a very easy to identify mark and much better than having that long name spelled out?

I applaud the switch to lower case, and if they need more than a word mark which they have decided that they do, why not a ball? They have two X's in the name, of course they need an X in the ball, and the color has to be their red. How easy it would be to make a ball that looked like the red cross or some sort of warning, this does not. It's beach ball happy if you will. My only gripe would be that the font is too 'soft' and the r looks like a half n. I like the lower case treatment but I don't like how much it looks like "kodak".

Dabitch's picture

Dabitch's picture

If you like the font by the way, it's FS Albert.

JonathanSalemBaskin's picture

I find it odd that Xerox has gone about reinventing its business over the past few years, and did so successfully while still burdened by its archaic branding. For customers, employees, analysts, and anybody else who cared, what mattered was what the company was DOING -- its behaviors, whether in offering services or inventing new products -- and not necessarily, or particularly, the shape of its "x" or font used for its name. You could make the case that the company's branding has been arising 'organically' from its actions, and that the old "x" worked just fine for its selling intentions (the fact that some otherwise disinterested observer associates the old "x" with copiers, the 1950s, or life on Mars, is irrelevant, isn't it?). In fact, the old one at least had some heritage, some connection to a physical, historical past vs. the new logo, which screams of generic, vague invention. I've written about what Xerox COULD have done on the branding front at Dim Bulb, if you're interested: http://dimbulb.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/01/of-balls-and-ba.html