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A leading graphic designer explains why she loves Google's new logo

Graphic designer Debbie Millman loves for a number of reasons.

Perhaps the biggest is that the tech giant seems to be following in the footsteps of Beyoncé, who in 2013 released her fifth album, BEYONCÉ, quietly and without fanfare.

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"I love that they announced it in such a stealth manner," says Millman, head of the Branding department at the School of Visual Arts and author of "Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits." "When you get to be a certain size, the fact that you don't announce something becomes a new way of announcing it."

Google's new logo

But the aesthetic, as with all things design, is most important. 

google logo
Google

"I think it's really descriptive and telegraphic," she says, adding that the simplicity and elegance of the logo mirrors Google's quest for beauty in minimalism, beginning with the homepage itself.

"I think they've modernized the logo in a way that feels very true to who they are and what they stand for," she says.

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She points to the new logo's sans-serif font, which is a departure from the regal tails and curly-cues of Google's traditional serif font. Millman says this is a much more contemporary way to present the letters.

As Fast Company's Mark Wilson notes, the sans-serif font is more readily portable to the phones, tablets, and watches that today's users work with every day — rather than the old logo that looked most at home on a desktop browser window. 

The only announcement Google made about the logo was the company's signature Google Doodle.

In the latest Doodle, a disembodied hand erases the old logo and draws the new one in chalk. Those new letters quickly harden into solid colors and suddenly morph into four individually colored dots that melt into a lone G  — composed entirely of its former self.

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"It's a system now," Millman says. "The logo is a system."

Not that Google wants to broadcast that to the world. One of the world's most valuable companies still wants to speak softly and command attention, albeit understatedly. 

"Everybody has to stop and check it out," Millman says.

Just like they had to learn why Google changed its name to Alphabet earlier this summer. 

On February 28, Axel Springer, Business Insider's parent company, joined 31 other media groups and filed a $2.3 billion suit against Google in Dutch court, alleging losses suffered due to the company's advertising practices.

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