Google’s new logo announcement had no explanation. Look back at the logos of Google’s past to draw conclusions about the purpose of this development.
The unique “Google Doodle” tactic
Why companies refresh their brand
As time moves on, companies are often forced to evolve to avoid fading into obscurity or even extinction. For many, this means offering new products or services, changing marketing tactics to reach the target market, or even rolling out a new logo and branding. But for large companies like Google, a brand so universally used that it became a verb, the motivation is often different.
Google just revamped its iconic “G” logo for the first time in almost 10 years, and while the changes are subtle, it offers a fresh perspective on the platform used by hundreds of millions of people worldwide. The former version of the “G” was made up of a sans-serif font and included four familiar colors: red, yellow, green, and blue in uneven sections. The updated logo features the same four colors but more evenly distributed and blended into a gradient. As one of the most well-known brands in the world, why would Google make this change? To find the answer, we’re taking a walk down memory lane.
The logos of Google’s past
When the platform was created in 1995, the developers originally named it “BackRub,” a literal reference to the way the algorithm worked; the way it “ranks” a webpage is by determining its value and authority through backlinks. The “BackRub” logo was a classic red with a blocky sans-serif typeface, but it didn’t last long.
In 1997, the name changed to the famous “Google,” deriving from the word “googol,” which is the term for the number 10 to the power of 100—almost as if the developers knew just how successful the search engine would be. Along with this name change came a new logo, a colorful and very 90s design made through the free editor called “GIMP,” a.k.a. “GNU Image Manipulation Program.” The letters in this logo are three dimensional but also somewhat squished, a “passable” design until it was changed in 1998.
The 1998-1999 logo keeps the colorful energy while becoming significantly more readable. The serif typeface—popular at the time instead of the more common serif fonts for accessibility reasons—simply spelled out the company’s name. The “G” and the “l” took on a lime green, the first “o” and the “e” reminiscent of the “BackRub” red, the second “o” a bright yellow, and the “g” a solid blue. (If these colors look familiar, that’s because they are—the brand didn’t stray too far away from the shades in any of its following logos.)
Briefly in 1998, Google added an exclamation point to the end of its name in the logo, replicating the popular “Yahoo!” brand. There also is a noticeable drop shadow, further defining each individual letter in the logo. This logo, although two-dimensional, feels like it rises off the page, and the letters each have shades and highlights that add to the character of the logo. The classic colors remained, although they got switched around, most significantly the two “G”s matching with the dark blue. Although the company dropped the exclamation mark, the color pattern remained.
In 1999, Google chose a new serif font to represent the brand, Catull BQ. The “e” also gets tipped back in this iteration, unlike the previous renditions, a characteristic that remains to this day. Like the previous version of the logo, this design feels like it pops off the page, although this approach feels much sharper.
This version lasted until 2010, when the company released a slightly less defined and detailed version of the logo—the highlights and shadows were less stark, and the letters no longer popped off the page like its predecessor.
In 2013, the typeface and colors remained, but the logo became even more flat, aiming to take a more minimalist look. The shadows and highlights were completely removed.
The next big change was in 2015, when Google switched from the beloved Catull BQ serif typeface to a sans-serif one created just for the brand, called “Product Sans.” The main reason for this switch was to better accommodate legibility of the logo on smaller screens. The colors and their order remained the same. This year was also when the singular “G” icon was developed, the same font as the capital letter in the logo but using all four of the brand’s signature colors.
For the first time since 2015, the “G” icon changed, taking on the changes mentioned above.
The unique “Google Doodle” tactic
When we’re talking about Google’s evolution of logos since, it’s essential to mention “Google Doodle.” These are the temporary alterations of the brand’s logo for holidays and special events. The first Google Doodle in 1998 was a celebration of the event “Burning Man,” featuring a stick figure character standing behind the second “o”—supposedly to let users know that the co-founders were taking a few days away from the office to attend the festival, a creative take on the typical “out of office” message.
Over the years, the Google Doodles became more interactive, allowing users to click the temporary logo to learn more about the significance of that day. As of 2024, the Doodlers team created more than 5,000 designs for the company’s homepages around the world.
This temporary logo change may seem antithetical to brand consistency, but this effort nudges people to pay closer attention to the brand and engage with it in a fun and creative way. The company has also encouraged users to submit their own illustrations as a part of a Google Doodle contest, featuring the winning designs on browsers across the globe. Because Google is such a well-known brand, it has the opportunity to stretch the boundaries of its branding, although it usually incorporates elements of the familiar logo, such as fonts and colors.
Why companies refresh their brand
The evolution of Google’s logos tells a story about the past nearly 30 years. It’s representative of where the company started and how it has grown to fit changing ideals that prioritized design accessibility and keeping up with trends. As new audiences, like Gen Alpha, begin using the search engine, there’s almost an expectation for the company to shift its branding to align with their preferred visual experiences.
The original logo made on a free design platform would not have worked if it launched today, but it represented Google users of that era—young people using the platform for the first time. Now, the logo uses its bold colors to stick to the brand’s roots while changing other elements to best suit a mid-2020s style, vibe, and function. Today’s users have higher expectations of the tool, and we’ve seen more logos than ever before—as one of the most viewed brands in the world, we anticipate Google to be ahead of the curve for innovative design.
There are many reasons why a company might refresh their brand, but it’s often the sign of some sort of evolution, including:
- Evolving to better match customer perception.
- Evolving to better match the company’s goals, efforts, or offerings.
- Adapting to a changing market or competitive landscape.
- Reflecting organizational changes necessitating branding updates.
- Improving brand messaging.
- Larger budget to hire in-house designers or out-of-house team to re-brand.
It’s important to note that this effort is a refresh, not a rebrand. A refresh keeps the brand’s core identity and instead updates the execution, modernizing visual elements, whereas a rebrand is a strategic shift for a brand to have a new identity.
Although Google didn’t explicitly highlight the meaning behind the new “G” icon with the smooth gradient, we can conclude that the company is trying to fit in with changing perceptions and trends. Gradients aren’t new, but they’ve been becoming more trendy over the past few years and are expected to gain popularity in the future. They offer a smooth transition between colors to provide an interesting visual experience on websites, packaging, and logos.
The world is constantly changing, especially with the digital-first perspective that’s taken center stage over the past two to three decades. As audiences change, it’s up to companies to decide what’s important: keeping the same branding they know and love, or making updates to suit an era. Neither of these answers are right or wrong, but one thing we do know is that we’re excited to see how Google decides to evolve its image over the next thirty years.
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