Firefox asks the public to help pick its new logo

Web browser Firefox is undergoing a rebrand, and has published two possible identity systems on its website, to gather the public’s feedback on the designs.

Firefox is owned by Mozilla, a free and open-source software company that lets people use its browser for free.

The rebrand comes as Firefox is extending its services from a web browser to other apps and services, including simpler screen-shot and file-sharing tools, and voice control and virtual reality tools that will enable people to access the internet, with the aim of “helping people to be more efficient, safer and in control of their time online”, says Mozilla.

“This new brand is an extension of the Firefox browser brand that will enable us to bring a whole family of new products and services to market in a way that builds on the established brand,” says Tim Murray, creative director at Mozilla. “[We want] consumers to identify and associate our new products and services.”

The current Firefox Quantum logo

Mozilla is leading on the rebrand, and originally commissioned three different design teams to create Firefox brand concepts.

This includes Firefox’s in-house user experience (UX) design team, London-based branding studio Hicks Design and San Francisco-based digital studio Ramotion.

Concept by Firefox in-house design team and Hicks Design
Concept by Ramotion

The ideas proposed by Firefox’s in-house team and by Hicks Design have now been merged into the first proposed design, incorporating influences from the existing Firefox logo and also fire imagery, says Murray.

Ramotion’s concept is the second proposed design, which uses a fire icon as inspiration and started with a “completely blank slate”, Murray adds.

The result is two design systems, incorporating a similar graphic style and colour palette, but with different icons and symbols.

They both use a bright colour palette of orange, red, blue, green, purple and pink, which is part of the Photon Design System – Firefox’s graphic and UX design guidelines.

Each system is centred around a main brand icon, which would be used across most marketing such as on app stores. This is an abstract diamond icon in one, and a fire icon in the other.

The design systems also include general purpose browser icons set in various colours, which would be used across desktops; special browser icons, to represent Firefox’s new browsers currently in development, including its virtual reality browser Firefox Reality and privacy-focused mobile browser Firefox Focus; and icons for new apps and services that Firefox is exploring. These are “metaphorical” and include rockets, foxes, keylocks, and mail symbols, alongside more abstract ones.

Murray says that both design systems aim to symbolise how Firefox is “fast, private and on your side”, as well as how it “puts people first” and is “socially responsible”.

The public are not able to vote but they can leave feedback in the comments section on the Mozilla blogpost detailing the two proposed brands, which will be used to inform further decisions, says Firefox. This feedback will be used alongside user testing and the design teams’ own insights.

Feedback could inform decisions around typography choices, graphic patterns, use of motion, the kind of events and partnerships Firefox may run, and more.

This open design process was first used by Mozilla for its own rebrand process in 2016, where design studio Johnson Banks created seven different concepts, which were then put to Mozilla staff and the public to provide feedback on.

The final design was revealed in January 2017, and incorporated the “://” symbols used in internet urls.

The final Firefox brand is expected to be revealed in the next few months. Leave feedback on the branding proposals here.

All images courtesy of Mozilla.

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14 responses to “Firefox asks the public to help pick its new logo

  1. Generic Clip Art voted for by Public Opinion…

  2. Wish everywhere user opinion should be welcomed this way! Imagine an experience without popups and video ads. Ha ha ha! Regards: http://www.bizzmanweb.com

  3. I really dislike the attitude of all companies that do this, let alone ones of this stature. Grow some balls, believe in your creative agency, if you don’t, get one that you do.

    Redesigning a company’s brand identity is a serious, delicate and complex process that must be taken with great care. By putting the entire affair in the public eye, not only undermines the passion, the expertise and the valuable time of the creative agency, but leaves itself open to a whole host of weird observations, dislikes and daft comments. If you’re not confident with the presentation, go back to the agency and get them to re-design and re-pitch. Gap, Pepsi and Sony tried a similar approach, lets just say it didn’t work out.

    This isn’t the ‘xfactor’ or ‘somebody’s got talent’. If you’ve got the right team working on your brand, leave it to them to demonstrate your vision.

  4. I would help by voting, if I could figure out which is worse.
    Not that it’s only temporary design, but it’s also past-decades temporary. It’s shutterstock items quality really.

  5. Completely agree with you Marc.

    Jesús Díaz | marroncreativo

  6. What a sad state affairs design has come to when we are reduced to this kind of thing. It would seem that no one has the brains or balls to make a decision anymore. It’s pathetic.

  7. No, Ramotion did not start with a blank slate… they started by evolving a current branding structure… badly. The colour hierarchy is crap and the iconography non-descript and Shutterstock-esque.

  8. It seemed to me they were doing this to reflect their brand rather than just for the sake of it and not having any conviction in their ideas. They do also say it’s not a vote and that the in-house team will still decide ultimately… Anyway, I vote system 2, no?

  9. Logo McLogoface

  10. It’s like they just gave up halfway through. The icons below a primary level, while beautifully crafted, are lacklustre at best.

    Losing design confidence (and probably some very unnecessary corporate involvement) they turn to the public in a) a pre-empt at a design overhaul backfire damage control, instead of b) finish the fucking brand. The colours, style, and everything else are all the same brand.

    tl;dr Combine them, make it better, and launch it.

  11. I never knew Mozilla tried out so many logos before coming up with the final logo. what do you think about performing this logo feedback using off-site platforms like PickFu.com and Google Surveys? Would that have ensured better results?

  12. Beautiful icons, the details completely describe the amount of work that Mozilla’s UX team put into them.

  13. Team RAMOTION! amazing work! clean and very effective! i vote for them.

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