Microsoft’s recent unveiling of the new logo for Windows 8 has drawn some criticism from reviewers upset to see such a sharp break from the flag we’ve been used to all these years. It certainly does mark a sharp break from the Windows we have come to know. Despite many of the critiques, however, it does an excellent job of highlighting the change in design philosophy that Windows 8 is meant to usher in, especially with regard to the Metro style interface.
The use of a simple logo relying on nothing more than clean lines and perspective purposefully breaks away from earlier efforts to duplicate physical textures and appearances according to commentary in blogs by both Microsoft and design firm Pentagram. The Windows 1.0 logo was the last time we really saw anything so basic from the company. Since then every subsequent choice has highlighted the improved graphical capabilities of the system, adding colors and visual effects as time went on, eventually culminating in the recent Aero style logo seen on Windows Vista and Windows 7 systems. At this point they had included everything from simulated icon motion to complex lighting and glass-like textures. It gets increasingly hard to impress with higher quality graphics these days, though, and it’s fairly simple to see why Microsoft would consider a break from the progression necessary. Like the Metro style in general, the newly released Windows 8 logo drops the act and embraces what they are calling an “authentically digital” appearance.
It is worth calling some attention to the appearance of the “window” in the logo itself as well. The fact that the dimensions are roughly equivalent to modern widescreen monitors of the sort that users are likely to have on hand as well as the tablets that the new OS is designed to accommodate is probably unremarkable for the most part. It is, however, angled away from the name of the operating system here, drawing attention from the text. In a lot of ways, this is really what Windows 8 is going to accomplish should Microsoft’s efforts prove fruitful. A change in perspective that draws user attention away from the operating system itself by being simpler and more usable than the other options.
The basis for most of the criticism, aside from simple distaste for such an understated design, appears to go along with criticism of the Metro style itself. Those who are convinced that it will be a short-lived and disappointing experiment are obviously irritated that the company is placing so much faith in their new interface as to make their logo clearly referent to it. It demonstrates a commitment to moving forward abruptly rather than having Windows 8 be just another iteration of previous Windows designs. We can look forward to more information about what accommodations have been made for non-tablet users when the consumer preview is released on the 29th of February, but there is little chance that Microsoft will willingly make a change back into a desktop-centric type of Windows no matter how much initial discomfort reviewers express.