While the goal of a vibrant metaverse remains more theoretical than imminent, the rebranding still gave Meta some momentum as it now seeks to shift its focus to artificial intelligence. The transformation signified the company’s aspiration to shift from a social media platform to an enterprise focused on the metaverse. When Facebook rebranded itself as Meta in 2021, it was part of a comprehensive, strategic and long-term plan. Oddball branding is hardly unusual for a big tech company. To me, the logo looks suitable for a metaverse strip club or a dating app for robots. That shade of blue makes you feel calm and serene black conveys sophistication and mystery.Īnd yet even people who know nothing about design are poking fun at the logo’s simplicity and unprofessional execution. It’s minimal and modern – and a stark departure from Twitter’s iconic blue-and-white bird. I would describe the new logo, submitted by a Twitter user, as a white-on-black, sans-serif X consisting of two strokes. In 2000, the founders of PayPal ousted him as CEO for trying to change its name to “X,” his Tesla models are famously named S, 3, X and Y – which displayed together basically spell out the word “SEXY,” and one of his many children is named X on his birth certificate. X might strike you as a weird brand name, and the change may seem to have happened out of the blue, but Musk has long been smitten with the letter. But because these changes go deeper than most, I believe the risks of damage to the company are greater.

Logos and brand names change all the time and rarely cause this much commotion. I’m paying close attention to this corporate pivot because I’m a scholar of design who researches social media and brand campaigns. Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey signaled that he was finding the uproar overblown. It’s hard to find anybody praising the change so far, except perhaps some of Elon Musk’s most devoted fans. For the most part, longtime Twitter users are unhappy at what they perceived as another unnecessary change that’s eroding their enthusiasm for the social media platform. The reaction has mainly been a mix of ambivalence, ridicule and scorn.

Ditching the company’s well-known logo and changing its name to a letter often associated with danger, death and the unknown is only the latest user-aggravating step CEO Elon Musk has taken since he bought Twitter in October 2022 for US$44 billion. Twitter has swapped the fluffy bird that used to symbolise the social media platform for a spindly black X.

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