Why brands are abandoning their colors

[@TechAltar]

The Nebula / CuriosityStream bundle is no longer active. Instead, you can sign up for Nebula directly with my discount now for about $2.5 a month with a yearly plan, which includes Nebula Originals AND the whole Nebula Classes platform, too, including my own class. Sign up here: go.nebula.tv/techaltar If you like Japanese cinema, anime, etc., check out my latest Nebula original: nebula.app/technorama Nobody specifically sponsored this video, but Curiositystream has sponsored my channel before and I make money from you signing up, obviously.

[@yodesuyo]

Can you make a video about the true manufacturing costs of phones ad compare Apple, Samsung and Oppo for example. May people will be shocked to know how low iPhones cost compared to their high prices

[@sillyunderpants]

This was very well done 👏Thanks for making it 💯

[@AngryLad_80]

7:47 ANEEMAY

[@rustylarry7465]

@@AngryLad_80 loool

[@mlordwhiteslayerfromf.u.g]

Imagine not being able to pronounce ヱヴァンゲリヲン correctly it's pronounced Evangelion with a "g" sound, not a "j" sound.

[@neoqueto]

As a logo designer, this overview was spot on. There's nothing to add, it's perfectly and exhaustively explained, in a concise manner too. The only thing I'm going to say is that part of the reason for mass appeal of monochrome branding is that not every person wants a splash of "that" particular color on their smartphone and sometimes it largely depends on user/consumer preference, if them potentially disliking a given color is a point of concern, the safe (and boring) option is to avoid color altogether.

[@aishwaryalohi6366]

Hi, I’m currently searching for a designer to redesign a SaaS company’s logo. Can you please share a link to your portfolio?

[@kyoudaiken]

Could you please tell me where the simplification madness comes from and why it even started?

[@lordkrym]

​@@kyoudaiken The simplification was always going to happen. A lot of people attribute Apple's successful redesign as a catalyst. The main reason why every company is simplifying their logo is twofold: 1. They want to appear more modern to consumers that haven't brought any of their products. 2. They want to create an easily recognisable icon. This can be proven by drawing the Nike and Apple logo and trying to draw your local company logo.

[@kyoudaiken]

@@lordkrym To me this is just deterring because it's ugly.

[@lordkrym]

@@kyoudaiken Understandable, design is subjective to a point. Most companies go with the most psychological and scientific way to make profit. That's why I said it was inevitable.

[@sentinelcheese3420]

Loosing colours is the first sign a brand wants to look premium. The second will be simplifying their logo. Not just Apple but car companies like Nissan, Honda, Audi, BMW, Mercedes, VW, KIA, GM and Renault have all simplified their logos to nothing more than 2D monolith designs. Think by far the simplest logo would be HP. Literally just four lines running parallel. I'd like to see a follow up to this video regarding logo simplification as well and how that impacts us :)

[@PeteS_1994]

The things about this though, going out of the logo, is that phones have became more colourful compared to the 10’s. Does that mean they are less premium looking??? I think our definition of premium changes with each generation.

[@xelaander8429]

Yeah, I largely agree but the hp logo is shit right now

[@martinus_mars]

HP's logo looks the most premium while they make the absolute shittiest products, lol

[@gabrielsanchezcaballero566]

@@PeteS_1994 cheap phones are colorful. The most expensive ones are black or gray

[@lordkrym]

@@gabrielsanchezcaballero566 black, white and pastel colours * Not every company does this but the industry leaders tend to "borrow" successful concepts.

[@NinjaSynFrey]

For the favicon in browsers. Color is important because you cannot use monochrome since most modern browsers can switch between light and dark mode. This was something i realized while doing web dev stuff.

[@josephkennelly8953]

You can use SVG favicons to adjust to a device's light or dark mode, but that doesn't work with browser themes or even just incognito/private mode. Colour is simply the best way to keep the logo visible

[@lucas_doell]

additionally, you can put the logo on top of a contrasting square/circle, so if you had a black logo you could put it over a white circle so it still stands out

[@GiuseppeGaetanoSabatelli]

What? It's the exact opposite... lol. You would NOT want to use color because your arbitrarily chosen dark color would vanish against dark mode, and a light color would not mesh well with light mode. Meanwhile, Monochrome can invert for whatever makes sense on the mode. Just like the Windows logo on the start button in Windows 10. But Microsoft understands that colors are important, so Windows 11 is blue all the time. :D

[@NinjaSynFrey]

@@GiuseppeGaetanoSabatelli The start menu icon on Windows 10 is white and switches to black when light mode is set. Even if you use monochrome icons (like Apple's website), it is still hard to see in either theme. Meanwhile if you look at KZbin's icon for example. It has color and works regardless of theme. Same with Windows 11's start menu icon.

[@josephkennelly8953]

@@GiuseppeGaetanoSabatelli if you use, for example, Chrome on a Windows 10 PC with default settings then a black icon will likely work well, but as soon as the user installs a black theme in Chrome or switches to Incognito the icon won't be visible anymore. It doesn't matter if you're using an SVG that supports dark themes, as the flag that CSS checks won't be true. The ideal icon is thus one like KZbin's or Facebook's which have a distinct colour surrounding a monochrome symbol, ensuring that even in the worst case scenario of the browser tab being the same colour as the icon, the brand is still clear. A solid white or black background is the other option but it has a notable impact on look and feel which would be inconsistent with the design language of most brands.

[@unvergebeneid]

5:53 I love how the red Leica logo almost serves as an accent color there. They don't abandon their color, they don't simplify their ornamental font and yet they're the most premium you can get in the photography space. On the phone itself, however, the Leica font is very different.

[@beratbayram]

I think the reason is the same. Xiomi wants attention on Leica, so they made it colored to stand out from rest of the blackness.

[@mack.attack]

Well, the Leica logo is so tiny in this context you might not even see it, and it is very important to Xiaomi that you see it because it is costing them a lot

[@kanjosidr]

I miss the vivid colors of 90s and 2000s so much. The "clean", "premium" minimalism of today feels soulless, empty and somewhat snobbish.

[@Jonathan-nn8fe]

That's right

[@stupidvoiceofreason]

Я до сих пор не могу простить гуглу тусклые цвета вместо ярких в 12 андроиде

[@MuteCrimson]

tech peaked when we had transparent bright colors like the N64 or Mac

[@walidfakhfakh3660]

@@MuteCrimson no

[@clintgolub1751]

I certainly agree there’s definitely an element of “implicit” elitism or even classism embedded in these newer minimal designs. That being said, I am a fan of the design changes the late aughts and early 2010’s brought as opposed to the MASSIVE capitalized fonts every brand had back when I was a kid in the early 1990’s (Pepsi, Mountain Dew, KFC, and many other food/toy brands immediately come to mind here with loud in your fact typefaces and colors). That being said, I can pretty much guarantee, there’s probably some gen-z kid in their early 20’s who just recently graduated college as a graphic designer right now getting ready to disrupt the industry yet again. Someone who just *HATES* the “Corporate Memphis” style like we now see on Etsy, KZbin, and Apple/Google logos (you know, the geometrically abstract people of different styles and shapes painted in pastel colors on their smartphones next to cats and palm plants in 3rd wave coffee shops). 2010’s simplicity was only cool as contrasted to the materialistic excesses of the 1990’s just as 60’s modern designs were ‘edgy’ against 50’s materialism, Art Deco/streamline cool against early 20’s ‘loud and eclectic’ designs, and even late 19th-century gilded age ostentatiousness. Once everyone has embraced “modernity” and clean simple geometric shapes, it ceases to be subversive and counter-culture and instead is co-opted by the status-quo yet again for mainstream profit and becomes “kitsch” (side note: you can now find some of these ‘cool minimal’ fonts and designs on home decor @ Ross & T.J. Maxx like hashtags and phrases such as #YOLO #LivingMyBestLife #Ifyouknowyouknow 🤮). I’m sure the next trend will be going back toward skeuomorphic design in smartphone UI’s and more 3D detail in corporate branding while still keeping millennial-embraced minimalism in certain areas. I could be totally wrong here but that’s just what my intuition is telling me. Everything comes as goes in cycles as new generations rebel against their parents.

[@sodapone]

I do wonder why it is then that game console companies/brands still stick to having colours. Nintendo's logo is officially white-on-red, PlayStation's is blue, and while Xbox's officially isn't green anymore, in practice it still shows up in green very often. Perhaps it's to help make sure that copies of a game on store shelves aren't confusing with which platform they're for?

[@asz1029]

My best guess would be that game console companies want to communicate that they are fun, not that they are premium, but hopefully a graphic designer can come here and chime in.

[@johannesziaether3916]

Well they're for gaming, they should be playful and also easily distinguishable especially that there is only 3 big companies Blue Sony Green Microsoft Red Nintendo It helps giving life to their branding and identity in general They don't need to go premium because their market knows them very well and who's looking for a gaming console isn't going after luxury, they're going after fun.

[@mark030a]

@@RovingFox The latter hurts as an old Windows Phone user...Xbox Live was absolutely genius on there and was way ahead of its time!

[@doctorsilva1345]

PlayStation got rid of their colour logo back in 2009 with the PS3 Slim. Now it's just white and ugly as fuck. The PS logo with it's colour looks so much better.

[@mark030a]

@@doctorsilva1345 It has a sorta flair to it (propably cause I've already gotten used to it) but I agree, still love my PS2 with the rotatable colorful logo!

[@won1853]

The video makes some good points but as Korean I couldn't help but notice one major flaw: It's ignoring the fact that the Samsung brand is much bigger than just Samsung Electronics. I checked the homepages of Samsung Life Insurance, Samsung Securities, Samsung Heavy Industries, Samsung C&T, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Samsung SDI, Samsung Biologics and Samsung Medical Center. They all used the blue logo or a variation of it. The Samsung baseball team's colors are blue. Out of the whole Samsung Group, Samsung Electronics, Samsung SDS, Samsung Card were the only exceptions for some reason. If there's a trend, it seems to be limited to certain industries, i.e. consumer electronics.

[@Embargoman]

The LG logo is unique to say once it was known as Goldstar I remember that brand in affordable Korean electronics, but now as LG got along the way it stand out from the crowd. Samsung use the have the three star logo and then an oval blue it need to be retro fitting in some way. Japanese companies are know to say Panasonic has blue but to say all this being called premium is something out of the ordinary.

[@Nintendofan4000]

Nintendo seemingly ditched colors in their branding regarding their company logo during the Wii and Wii U days. Now, starting with the Switch, it is very difficult to see their company logo without a red backdrop. Based on this video, it seems Nintendo wanted a much more aggressive look universally after the Wii U's commercial failure.

[@Chiny_w_Pigulce]

Possibly, but the main problem with Wii U was that its purpose was unclear, it was a very confusing product and people didn't know whether it's a new Wii, an add-on or maybe a controller for Wii.

[@FarmYardGaming]

^Marketing material kept talking about the new controller (which is apparently cool but it ain't no Switch), so when they tried marketing it to core gamers people were a bit baffled to say the least Inb4 someone brings up the Switch themes

[@n1t_]

This is the nerdy shit I love your channel for. On a quick look you don't think about it twice but it's cool to see how much more is in something as trivial as "colors". Also just text fonts is an entire science for itself being marketing or designing

[@TechAltar]

Glad you liked it!

[@aimanrahman5768]

Nerd all the way

[@XER0GRAVITY]

Hence why a lot of brands have moved towards Sans Serif logos

[@UploadsInChrist]

HEY HE IS NOT A NERDY

[@xoxoheartz]

@@XER0GRAVITY ngl tho serif is more sexier

[@PearCoin124]

i really love "outdated" feeling logos and UIs because they just feel better to me

[@LifeofBrad1]

Same. They felt more cozy.

[@ChandrakinAgashe]

Another thing you in a way covered in simplification point, is that as brand matures and becomes known, first thing they start dropping from the logo is geometry including 3d effects and also color glows. These may still look appealing in certain context but cost more to print or make for banners / storefront name and also less recognisable to human eye from distance. Black & white has the biggest possible contrast for human eye (w/o being irritating to look at) and combined with simple more elegant shapes increases chance of recognition by onlooker from greater distance than it would otherwise

[@arradrahman8383]

I never knew the colours on a logo had symbolic value. It makes a lot of sense why after seeing the video. Keep up the great work!

[@dcarbs2979]

@@choppings54 Blue around food also has the oppsite effect / or make it feel unappetising. Away from food, it's used to be corporate and seen as safe and traditional.

[@lapiswolf2780]

Making everything monochrome makes it harder to distinguish for me. I really like the colors, even for premium products. It feels like they are telling us: "Please buy our premium products. Also please don't notice that we exist. :3"

[@OmegaWolf747]

I miss the bright colors too. I liked Apple's old 80s logo. It was fun.

[@Khikemax]

The power of exclusivity

[@umamifan]

What?

[@massetozacarias5693]

That's colour theory, certain colour combinations makes you feel a certain way

[@tjenadonn6158]

If you think about flags or coats of arms as almost the first logos and brands it makes sense. Imagine how hard it would be to tell the countries of the world apart if all the tricolors went monochrome. Color is the only reason you can tell the red, white, and blue jack of the UK apart from the red, white, and green jack of the Basque Country, or the green, white, and orange vertical tricolor of the Republic of Ireland apart from the blue, white, and red of France or the black, gold, and red of Belgium. Even non-national movements which want real sticking power tend to go with flags rather than logos: as you can tell by my profile pic I'm an Esperantist, and despite efforts to introduce new logos for the movement none have superceded la Verda Standardo. These are some of the most beloved, iconic, and fiercely protected logos in the history of graphic design, and a big part of why they work is color.

[@danishmalik2185]

Things i didnt know i needed to know and was intrested to know. This is exactly the type of content I subscribed for years ago and I’m glad it’s paying off everytime

[@TechAltar]

Glad to hear!

[@thepanda8941]

ahh Exactly, u just saved me from typing the same comment😂

[@user-ejxomyq]

Brand logos are getting so oversimplified to the point where they're removing colors.

[@Draber2b]

Soon only one or a few letters will be left xD Huawei will get simplified to H Apple will get simplified to A That's the last step I can think about.

[@LifeofBrad1]

@@Draber2b Yeah. Google has been doing that for over a decade now.

[@pokepress]

One of the first things that sprang to mind was actually the “Pokémon” logo used in western countries. Per brand guidelines, it’s supposed to be blue and yellow in any context where color printing is used, and historically, with just a few exceptions, it is. However, Legends Arceus uses a much more muted color scheme. I assume they at least tried the standard colors at some point, but the final version uses white with some blue and green. It’ll be interesting to see what they do if/when another Legends game comes out.

[@fayelinae]

I hope Polaroid never abandons their rainbow colours. It's so refreshing seeing a brand sticking to their origins. I'm guessing they don't even need to look premium, since everybody knows instant photography is just for fun and nothing to be super serious about. But they do actually make the best instant cameras. After 50 years, they still work like a charm.

[@freelancerthe2561]

I read that poland, and for a second I imagined a world where all the flags were monochrome

[@kennylex]

My theory is that printers and colors now is such a big scam that no one is rich enough to print colors.

[@Lolkork]

I guess that makes sense. I really hate monochrome colors for icons and such tho, it makes it much more difficult to find stuff at a glance. Quick settings on phones and the Windows 10 settings page come to mind.

[@MonochromeWench]

Thinking long term in a way brands never do, they can some time later bring back retro branding as a special event to create a sense of longevity, reliability and always being there

[@macsound]

Number 1 reason companies make their logo monochrome - they can use it on any product of any color. The 6 color logo was a breath of fresh air, but could you imagine a Bondai Blue iMac with a 6 color Apple?

[@Yarnooee]

except nintendo. they were abandoned their red color in wii era, and now their website just flourishing with red.

[@amirbahalegharn365]

this channel should really have above 1million subs..it's known for many,have been tagged by big youtubers in multiple videos, but still the subs aren't showing it's worth which is insanely an impossible feat that probably youtube is the real culprit here for not recommending it to tech users feeds

[@armadillito]

@idk what to put here one of the few channels I might consider the using the bell for

[@armadillito]

@idk what to put here I should probably ask TechAltar for commission payment for this service

[@CaesiusX]

Interesting. Video essays like this are why I like KZbin. _Congrats on the Nebula series!_

[@TechAltar]

Thanks! :)

[@SurmaSampo]

Monochrome branding which is the cheapest option being perceived as premium is hilarious.

[@Petrol_head44]

Another point can be added is colour of phone. When these brands were new they used to have many unique colour options. Like I remember early experia with purple colour, s or note series with dark blue or navy blue colour, early redmi phones in India had yellow, white, orange, red colour options. Early realme phones had green, red, blue colour options. Until 2018 we had crazy back finishes with different colours which is completely gone now. Now its all subtle colours like black or grey or silver. Almost 99% flagship offer matt black as standard colour. I really miss the old colours.

[@Alias_Anybody]

Other people will disagree but I personally like the concept of going with only 3 colours per model, usually black/grey, white/silver and one strong popping colour like yellow, fire red, ice blue or purple. Majority will go with black anyway and a unique special colour gives the model some identity.

[@madkhaliqfarhan]

To be very honest, you can just replace the matte black color of your phone with your favorite personal color in a hardware store...

[@marseillejoh]

@@madkhaliqfarhan jokes on you for thinking I have money for that.

[@LifeofBrad1]

Tbf, you can just put a cover on your phone in your colour of choice. Like, I have a black Sony Xperia X Compact, but I put a blue cover on it for a pop of colour. Also because the phone has a lacquered texture, which is a magnet for fingerprints.

[@plagiats]

There is one reason that you overlooked, and it might seem silly at first but considering the amount of papers these companies print with their logos on it, it's really cheaper to have a black and white version. Also ensures the invoices coming from an ancient system that does not fully support color logos are still passable and don't require pre-printed paper. Sure, everything is moving towards PDF invoices, but still at the end of the day there are still tons and tons of pages printed with a logo in a corner.

[@itryen7632]

If only companies had the balls to use logos that looked like they belong to a Japanese fighting game from the 2010s

[@CKT1138]

Understanding fully the strategic reasons behind it, I still can't stand the trend.

[@tetzet3254]

Whenever I see Oppo green store my mind always think "ohh the store who sell overpriced mediocre specs phones.

[@Zearz_Id]

Same bro

[@junipeayt]

same with huawei

[@mndkv2747]

literally this oppo vivo is only promoted in few channels...

[@FTL1511]

And spies 👏😂

[@FTL1511]

Most if not all phone brands are overpriced but at least Samsung and Apple don't come with spies and classic Chinese build quality.

[@mk_rexx]

Meanwhile, Google removes their color-coded products like everyone else, but puts ALL their colors to almost every product which doesn't makes sense to wjat I learned n the video because it's harder to see them in a sea of apps in the drawer.

[@レイ-x7d]

To me, I think Google wants their products to seem uniform with the color pallette they keep using on every app icon of their products. Like, when you look at an app with their usual blue, red, yellow and green colors on your app drawer, you'd immideately think "Oh, this is a Google app!" but then you'd have to look at the shape to make sure what Google app it is. In my opinion, they want you to quickly distinguish which apps are Google apps instead of which apps are Gmail/Maps/every other app of theirs.

[@LethalBubbles]

I figured it'd just be for uniformity. Brands have been simplifying their logos for some time now and this is a logical progression in that trend. The reason for the simplicity is quickness in cognition. With uniform colors, they can blend together like a list.

[@lamaglama6231]

I personally don't like the current monochrome design a lot of companies go for. I don't care about their logos though. If they want to appear premium (or boring) in their logos so be it. But making all your products boring is a trend I hope is soon over.

[@Raja995mh33]

When it comes to Apple, it actually feels like they are more colorful than ever - including their logo because apple just hasn't one logo anymore. They have like a dozen that they specifically use for what it needs to be. Be it the "lock" when they talk about security, being green when they talk about the environment or being a drawn one when they talk about the Apple Pencil or whatever. And well on all Apple products the logo also is always the color of the phone while many other manufacturers - no matter which phone color - always have a white or silver logo. And tbh, Samsung, vivo, Oppo etc. didn't switch to monochrome to become more like a "premium looking brand", they simply did it because apple did it. If Apple switched to like a faded color with 3D elements or whatever you can 100% be sure that the others would do the same.

[@0x1EGEN]

A lot of the simplified branding began when flat UI started trending. Fun fact is that Android first started using flat UI because Google's vice president at the time felt that Apple's iOS was too skeuomorphic. Although actually Microsoft was ahead of everyone with Windows Phone 7 back in 2010 which had that infamous flat tile UI and monochromatic icons.

[@pacomatic9833]

And in Apple's case it looks great

[@theblah12]

Ultimately, as much as we can try to justify the design decisions tech companies make in a more “scientific” manner - the usual answer is simply that Apple did it first. Or sometimes Google or Facebook when talking about software. It’s all about what’s fashionable at the moment - in 10-15 years time the trends will probably be completely different and we’ll be trying to justify why every company now has glossy 3D logos or something.

[@compostofficial]

Compost will NEVER abandon their purple!

[@LinusBoman]

Excellent summary and case study! Yes black and white to signal premium (especially with the emphasis towards black) has been a design trope for many decades. I actually wonder where it began - I imagine it would have been high fashion that led the way there (Chanel, etc) but I could be wrong. I wonder how much longer this trope can last with everybody following the same trend - that's the issue with trying to signal exclusivity, it can't be done if you look like everybody else.

[@anubhavsolankey]

Awesome video, as a student of brand management and a marketeer, the analysis and insights make absolute sense!

[@jonumand]

Fun fact: Color-meanings are culturally decided

[@dsdy1205]

Certainly not all? Some colors derive their meanings from nature, like red symbolising danger

[@jonumand]

@@dsdy1205 In Mexico, blue is accosiated with mourning - whereas in Ukraine, it can symbolize healing.

[@neoqueto]

@@dsdy1205 exactly, red - blood, danger. Blue - sea, sky, ambition. Green - grass, leaves, nature. And so on.

[@hellothere4858]

@@dsdy1205 meaning can be derived from nature but what is kept, agreed upon and how that changes over time and the direction of that change is cultural. Like red being the colour of good luck in china, which I don't think you can derive from the danger association

[@neoqueto]

@xikarra ok I made it confusing, there's universal color psychology, and there's cultural color psychology. Red wedding dresses are distinctively cultural.

[@traplover6357]

Love that there's no bias for or against either styles in the video. Compared to other videos describing trends in brand logos

[@Moodboard39]

Cuz not everyone is objective

[@paragmallick6427]

Brands are now catching up to minimalism but 20-30 years later they will get back on to their old logo.

[@hyzenthlay7151]

In gaming with the 3 main console brands you have Nintendo which has kept their iconic red colour except on rare ocasions, Xbox which has shifted to an equal use of monochrome and their iconic green since the Xbox One, and Playstation which use their blue colour as a background colour mainly, but have all but lost their 4 coloured logo since the PS3 Slim.

[@NovelNovelist]

"You know this right?" TBH, I've never heard of Oppo or the 4th company you mentioned that looks like "Mi"...and I also had no clue red was Huawei's color. The Samsung blue looks familiar and right on screen, but if you had asked without showing me anything, I think I would have guessed orange was their color...so nope, I really don't know those company colors! :P

[@Psycandy]

it's the same reason why cars are abandoning colors. Monochrome is corporate, without emotion, so people are less likely to object to a car's color if there is none. What this ultimately means is that brands (and cars) have no upgrade path, no way of refreshing the look. Apple's typeface dated quickly, so it was removed in the refresh. Now Samsung could have used that blue ellipse to be lime green, red, flat, 3D, glossy, neon, chrome etc. and still retain their identity across the divisions. The options to refresh are limitless. Without the ellipse, it is no longer a logo (like the apple), it's just the name of the company - no big loss if the logo sucked but decent logos are the cornerstone of the brand, particularly if they incorporate the national flag colors.

[@ventilate4267]

Google being the biggest exception to this

[@vkohli17]

There is something oddly satisying about hearing Marton say "Well, lookie lookie!" at 5:56

[@TechAltar]

You're welcome :P

[@aniquinstark4347]

Taking away corporate identity while also lowering quality of products is a great way to lose all customer goodwill

[@yumri4]

Really this is why scalable vertex images is a thing. You can scale up and down the 2D image while keeping the image the same. SVG is still a thing used a lot by brands like nVidia and Intel for that reason. It works better with less corners and less colors but it can scale up and down from big and small so it can go onto their chips to on a sticker for your computer or even a logo for a store to present their product. All using the same logo file. Not having to recreate the file every single time is a good thing. Having to remake the file like firefox with the .ico file for its icon being a bitmap not vertex was a big hassle and didn't work well as screen got bigger and it got stretched due to it. As svg and eps are good for that though svg is more popular of the 2. The brands changing colors seems stupid as it means another change for everything they have their logo on. Bigger brands with more places with their logo will cost more to change. If it all references 1 file in 1 server then it is cheap but most also have a physical presence some where which will cost more money then just paying a visual designer to draw an image in vertor graphics.

[@trevorsoh2130]

Nicely observed! I’d add that a logo is increasingly needing to work seamlessly with all other elements as a package and so being able to move colours from the logo into other elements reduces the heaviness of a design and let the overall expression of a website or product or brochure speak as a unified whole.

[@iffy_too4289]

This really seems straight out of a lecture on marketing and brand perception/awareness. That isn't a criticism, it's very interesting.

[@quixomega]

I'm not sure you're right on this being based on companies branching out and becoming bigger. There is a big trend toward monochrome logos these days and even small companies are doing it too.

[@neco5740]

For a second as the SAMSUNG logo flashed up I thought my device was out of power

[@PasanJayaweeraYashoda]

With watches, this is exactly opposite (at least in the new trend of luxury watches) they wanna look as blingly as possible

[@dcarbs2979]

I did an entry-level graphic design course recently. One of the first things they taught: "good design looks good in black and white". Implying if you need the colours in the logo, it's bad design.

[@divinusfilius3771]

I was wrong about nVidia, them too have certainly gone silver/monochrome. They only use green on their product launch promotional sites and materials, but the logo has lost it's greens!

[@mrgurulittle7000]

Sharp and Panasonic still use their colors. I appreciate companies who stick to their identity.👍

[@freelancerthe2561]

Tangentially related, but there was this thing a while back where the effectiveness of color schemes were tested by arranging a series of vertical color bars. Anime and Comic fans went nuts with this, as color choice usually plays a big part in character design. I consider this a litmus test for exception branding, where if your brand can be recognized by just the two or more specific shades of color used in the logo, you've done something insanely well. Theres also a "Corporate music" video done by Tantacrul, where things are becoming non-distinct, and neutral.... and probably most important.... inoffensive.

[@notsofriendly2643]

Why are brands abandoning their colors .... June: Hold my beer

[@m_aminoracousticmusic6312]

First time on this channel, gotta say that i like the way you pronounce words because i’m not a native speaker of english but i understand your video without using subtitle 👍🏼🙏🏼❤️ it might help my listening tests for college, thanks

[@malikfaisal416]

3:17 I think that is the best short explanation of why modern logo design becoming more and more abstract and simplified

[@Moodboard39]

Love abstract

[@whatspoppin5545]

Very interesting video! However, what about brands that don’t produce physical products, such as the Firefox web browser you showed at the beginning of the video (or RStudio as another example)? What makes such brands go simple with their logos when they have no products they need to account for and they don’t necessarily need to establish a premium look?

[@Nerwesta]

The analysis is spot on, I have a "premium" Xiaomi and there wasn't at all any occurence of this colorful logo be it on my smartphone or the case itself containing all the materials and charger. It was just a monochrome MI.

[@williamgularso]

damn that first original samsung logo looking like the ten rings flag type stuff, pretty badass

[@Henthrad]

5:51 leading up to "lookie, lookie" - love it! 💫

[@kexcz8276]

5:15 Dolní Vítkovice steel mill complex, Ostrava, Czech republiv, LOL :D , nice detail :D . And also, amazing video, explaining it! ;) . Its true that some logos become too simple ( Firefox, Renault, Nissan... :( ) , but some are totally ok( Samsung, Sony), or even better (Škoda, Pepsi...).

[@hallelion]

I was hoping to see Microsoft mentioned here as well. They use colors for most of their branding (website, physical stores), yet they are well-known (for better or worse)... except for their physical devices (Surface line, Hololens, Xbox consoles), which usually just has a mirror metal finish emblazoned on the device itself.

[@YouTubeUserLol]

Beautifully explained, thank you!

[@semi59o]

Worth mentioning that aesthetics of people can be shaped through time and scenes. If you ask some ancient people, a black and white style monotonous color scheme would probably not be their choice. Printing Apple’s logo on an A4 paper with a mediocre printer will also not be that cool. It’s both the trend (aka Apple’s success) and phone material / product demo scheme that pushes this black and white combination “high-end”.

[@ChadWSmith]

Except in June, when every company is a rainbow.

[@malikfaisal416]

5:18 Speaking of ugly color in logo/brand, Shopee (Singaporean e-commerce) has the most ugly obnoxious orange brand color. They shove as many orange on every advertisement they made, the model wear orange clothing, the shipping boxes in bright orange, the delivery man wearing orange jacket, the running text/banner also orange (I'm only talking about the color that is bad, aside from many other things they do just equally as bad). From them I realized just how ugly orange can be when combined with other color, it's a sore to the eye.

[@d9zirable]

Well orange is very eye-catching so it's a win for their marketing

[@malikfaisal416]

@@d9zirable Yeah I guess, airplane "black box" is orange for a reason

[@madkhaliqfarhan]

But still, if Samsung still uses blue everywhere, wouldn't it look nice?

[@Moodboard39]

​@@malikfaisal416do what works for them genius ...not how pretty the colors looks...I don't think they care

[@protocetid]

Monochrome is so dull and I miss how ornate logos used to be. And woah at Ryanair using yellow to look budget, maybe I’m weird but I like how the yellow accent looks.

[@newecreator]

That misleading Firefox graphic is annoying. That last logo is not even used in the browser itself.

[@d9zirable]

True, it's blatant propaganda from Google diehard fans that want to see competition die in the browser market. Remember what happened with Internet Explorer? They don't.

[@plixplux]

Maybe it's because I'm a child of the 80's, but damn, I hope you never lose your very vibrating color choices Marton =)

[@sai_69]

Short but crisp, amazing work.

[@zack6012]

I figured I would take a guess before watching the video. I'm thinking abandoning the colors may help with copyright/trademark infringement stuff. colors and shapes are probably harder to uphold in court. someone can use a slightly different blue, slightly larger oval in the opposite direction, with the name Somsong. they can leech off of samsung's brand recognition to sell fake electronics. How do you draw the line that the somsong indeed was in violation of the trademark? when does the logo stop looking like samsung's and where does it start? A simpler design is easier to uphold I'm assuming. only a font and word.

[@Addchannelname]

the thumbnail is every company on 1st July

[@nakdickson]

I thought you were just tech guy. You just proved you know more about brand identity design as well 🙌

[@samuelg9115]

I just noticed the red button to subscribe turned out white and black ;) I love your video about the cost of cars, I'd be glad to hear more about the subject!

[@WarioSaysSo]

Samsung, Nintendo, Sony PlayStation, Volvo, Peagot, Apple, Microsoft, Firefox, sport logos etc-etc. Yeah they are taking away colors, minor details and simplyfies EVREYTHING that gives/gave them there identity. In my opinion, evreytrhing now just looks bland, uninspired and boring.

[@--2]

Well, the Apple logo at-least hasn’t been simplified (besides color)

[@WarioSaysSo]

@@--2 Well it survives better at least

[@net28573]

They can lose their color but I hate the flattening of everything, I miss shadows.

[@toshineon]

Maybe this just shows how easily I fall for marketing, but I feel like I notice brands less often after they do this sort of thing. Just like how I used to always pay attention to what brands of phones people had, but after most smartphone manufacturers started to use such similar designs, especially now that almost all phones look exactly the same from the front, I no longer take notice of what kind of phone people have. Say what you will about wether that's a good or bad marketing decision.

[@madkhaliqfarhan]

Wow... You used to stalk on people's phones? You're so lucky that they don't give punches or even slaps on your face...

[@toshineon]

@@madkhaliqfarhan So you just punch anyone that happens to look your way? I'm not saying I was sitting and just staring them out.

[@darkguardian1314]

T-Mobile Hot Pink and Coke Red... IBM Big Blue... They’re all,part of their identity. I realized many Japanese companies like Kyocera are colors based on their National flag red and white.

[@eddiestilll]

techaltar's content quality just keeps getting better and better :)

[@devdershs5743]

Our aesthetics are now essentially blocky minimilastic to extreme and now colorless...says a lot about our civilization...just my opinion

[@lucadonzelli2711]

I've never heard the word anime pronounced like that before

[@kirilvelinov7774]

Did you know? Fan TV logo was red on their website but the screenbugs were light gray/silver

[@kirilvelinov7774]

But they use red text boxes

[@zUltra3D]

Can confirm Xiaomi's case My Redmi Note 10 came with an orange Xiaomi logo yet my 11 Lite NE came in a sort of monochrome design (the box is white with gold text so the logo was also white and gold)

[@Thron2111]

I like that apple goes back to colorful with there new iMacs and their pride logo and bands for the apple watch. I hope others follow.

[@anglo-saxonconnor817]

They put all the colours onto their products cases nowadays. A colour brand will simply melt and blend into their cases nowadays.

[@GreenBlueWalkthrough]

Yeah for my company's logo G&B is a badge of honor like a flag when it's on a product or elewhere it's supposed to be eye catching and feel you with emotion of what you expernced with he brand before... Why big companies don't under this aspect of logo design I have no idea.

[@Moodboard39]

Big companies don't care about that lol 😂they care is profit

[@halfbakedthought]

Techaltar is basically the video We did not knew we wanted, Also first comment for the first time for me after more than 10 years of youtube

[@neilarmstrong6702]

the name is TechAlt*A*r. don‘t know if he is happy about being called „Alter“, considering he’s german ;)

[@patman_for_sure]

Congrats ^_^

[@burritosforlater]

to adapt us further into our dystopian nightmare of grey slacks and matching yeezys?

[@CCShakeCat]

Anyone miss the old McDonalds buildings? They look like a disparity home now, but before, it was like This playful house where everyone is welcome

[@aditya_on_youtube]

There was a lot of footage Nehru Place! All the video clips to show examples of busier spaces with Oppo and Vivo's colourful logos were from Nehru Place in Delhi, which is just a couple of kilometres from my home.

[@TheMRock888]

I also think that after they become a big brand used by millions, if not billions of people, they don’t want people to realize they are being passively brainwashed by the logo, so they transition to a more monochrome and seamless one. The company doesn’t want people to notice that they are seeing that logo 20+ times a day, always being reminded of that company, never forgetting, and slowly but surely wanting to buy from that company to “fit in” with society.

[@errinwright]

At first I was like "whats the gundam doing here? I love gundam scifi" then at the end I learned about the scifi and anime interest and now im definitely a big subscriber!!

[@SlimothyJimothy621]

Out of spite imma make a logo with like 3 different colors

[@Ayrton866]

This is quality content. Answering questions I didn't know I needed answers to.

[@ExylonBotOfficial]

Have you changed the way you do animations recently? For some reason they look particularly good in this video! They're always good, but I really liked this video's style

[@tp_exe]

logos now adays: just add some text bold it make the color white or black *this looks great*