February 2, 2010
The life & times of an internal company logo
Online Services Division logo
Final OSD logo. Light on dark (left), dark on light (right).
The Setup
Microsoft reorganizes teams and divisions regularly. It’s common for groups to draw up logos to reinforce their mandate. Shortly after I joined Microsoft, my organization became a part of the Online Services Division. And they, we, needed a logo. These kinds of logos are typically used for T-shirts, coffee mugs, water bottles, but mostly they show up in PowerPoint presentations and email signatures. I forget all the exact details, but the brief was something like:
New boss:
Can you make a logo for us? It’s for my boss’s boss’s boss—network infrastructure, internet, online services division, yadda, yadda, yadda…
Me:
Yes, I can do that!
New boss:
Ok, need it tomorrow, thanks.
Me:
Tomorrow?
Atlas, shrug ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Globe icons have been clear metaphors for the internet and networking since the early days—commonplace in operating systems, which meant developers would relate to it. I thought to myself, “supporting data networks, the internet, a globe, hmm, that Greek titan who was condemned to hold up the celestial heavens for eternity—Atlas!” And by Atlas, I mean the 45-foot tall, 7-ton sculpture parked out front of Fifth Avenue at Rockefeller Center. I saw it at least once a year when I’d go check out the Christmas tree.
Atlas statue at Rockefeller Center Sculptor: Lee Lawrie (1877–1963); Photographer: Another Believer / CC BY-SA
In any case, the metaphor of a person holding the weight of the world upon their shoulders was probably not the most original idea (sorry, Atlas), but time was not on my side and I went for it. After looking at globes, depictions of Atlas, and the clock, it was an easy decision to go with minimal, abstracted forms. Due to the ubiquitous nature of Symbol Signs, that’s where he came from. I did end up chopping off his hands and feet though, I wanted the circular focus to be on the globe and his head, which was a direct nod to the orange tittle, or superscript dot, of the “i” in the original Bing logo. Despite the fact that his head was an actual circle, while the tittle was a stretched, distorted circle an oval.
To unify images used on signs for transportation purposes, The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) originally commissioned the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) to design a library of universal travel and transportation pictograms.
Symbol signs
Visual study
Original Bing logo
“Helvetica” Atlas
Logo, complete
By the next day, the logo was out of my head and I was working on a new project.
About a year later, I randomly came across an article in The New York Times where they interviewed my boss’ boss’ boss. And there it was—my Helvetica-looking Atlas holding a network infrastructure globe over his orange head!
This got me thinking about how the things we make have lives of their own. Once their out in the wild—they’re out there! Sure, sometimes it’s a mere part of an internal presentation, or even a customized water bottle from your team-building event, but sometimes it’ll be a t-shirt or a billboard in Times Square. Either way, if we put 100% into the work 100% of the time, we should be ok in any case.
MEETS THE PRESS
THE NEW YORK TIMES · OCTOBER 29, 2012
Qi Lu, president of Microsoft’s Online Services Division.
Photo: Stuart Isett for The New York Times
THE NEW YORK TIMES · JULY 30, 2011
The team behind Microsoft’s Bing search engine includes, from left, Qi Lu, Brian MacDonald, Harry Shum and Yusuf Mehdi.
Photo: Stuart Isett for The New York Times
On a personal note, Brian MacDonald, featured closest to the penguin in the photograph above, rubber-stamped my full-time job offer despite a hiring freeze way back in 2011. Much respect Brian Mac, thank you!
Epiloque
In a strange twist of fate, a few months after making this logo, I transferred back to New York to work out of the Microsoft office on Sixth Avenue between 51st & 52nd Streets—a block away from 30 Rock and my main man, Atlas.
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