When Did Logos Get So Friendly?

Google updated its logo earlier this month. You’ve surely seen it by now, but let’s take a closer look: It retains the primary colors and playfully tilted “e” but introduces a new typeface. Called Product Sans, the update disposes of serifs, those flicks on the ends of letters, and uses fatter strokes reminiscent of kindergarten lesson books. The spaces within the two “g”s and two “o”s are near-perfect circles. “We think we’ve taken the best of Google (simple, uncluttered, colorful, friendly) and recast it not just for the Google of today, but for the Google of the future,” brand executives wrote in a launch announcement.

Google also stumbled into a trend. “A lot of companies have used what we call humanist sans-serif fonts in the past two years or so,” says Hamish Smyth, associate partner at the design firm Pentagram. A new go-to style, he says, is round and squat rather than angular or elongated. Startups such as Oscar, a health insurer, and Casper, a mattress e-tailer, use similar circular lettering. In July, Facebook introduced a roomier look. And Pentagram recently helped 92-year-old Amalgamated Bank revamp its image with a curvy, all-lowercase nameplate.