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Microsoft has released a public beta version of Office 2010 for download. It features a new logo and a bunch of new icons for the standard Office applications.

Love them or hate them? Check them out and let me know what you think.

The Office logo

First, let’s take a look at the Office logo and its recent evolution from the ‘jigsaw’.

On the Microsoft development group’s blog, the thinking behind the new logo is explained:

The logo has evolved, moving from the original four colors that signified Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook to a mark that fully embraces the Office orange brand. The logo also completes the evolution from the puzzle pieces last seen in Office XP to a mark that conveys energy, impact, and connection.

Given Office has grown beyond four core applications, unifying the brand into a single colour makes sense. The sharpening up of the four boxes and more consistent gradient also works to freshen up the logo.

The application icons

While the Office logo has been spruced up a little and is unlikely to cause too much offence, the same can’t be said of the Office 2010 application icons. I expect these will cause a stir among the graphically-inclined.

Here they are:

On the Microsoft blog, a User Experience Designer explains that:

The new icon designs respond to research that informs us that users can more easily associate icons by letter and color than by abstract design. We’ve adopted an alphabet system to bring a more uniform approach to the wide variety of Office family products.

It’s hardly startling to find out that a figurative design element (such as letters) will will work better than an abstract one.

But hang on, there’s three icons that feature a great big letter “P”. Having cast letter-association aside, Microsoft presumably believes that users will be able to identify these “P” applications by their (rather abstract) illustrations and the colour teal, olive green and orange.

Good, bad or indifferent – does it matter?

The Office 2010 logo is an incremental improvement, but an improvement nonetheless.

But there’s very little I like about the Office 2010 icons. The typeface is blocky and the serifs are crude and inconsistently applied. There’s too much going on in each icon with multiple gradients in the lettering, background and illustrations. They look, well, ugly.

Two questions:

• Good, bad or indifferent – what do you think of the Office 2010 logo and icons?

• Given Microsoft Office’s position as the standard office suite for most PC users, does it matter?

PS. You can also join in a discussion of the Office 2010 icons over on the BuzzLaw Facebook Page.

Tags: graphic design, icon design, logos, microsoft