The Twitter brand: a historical past By Joseph Foley printed 19 March 23 Graphic Design The unique Twitter brand regarded very completely different.

It might sound that the Twitter brand in its present type has been round eternally. The blue chook design is well-known and has even survived Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media platform – at the least for now. However the unique Twitter brand was very completely different certainly.

Whereas Twitter is now synonymous with blue – in additional methods than one after the rollout of the Twitter Blue paid verification service, the model’s colors have been virtually a soapy, slimy inexperienced full with a water droplet impact, for some purpose. Right here we take a more in-depth take a look at the Twitter brand historical past from 2005 proper via to the current day. To study extra about brand design, see our information to design a brand. And for extra social media brand histories, see our items on the YouTube brand and the TikTok brand.

The primary Twitter brand: 2005 – 2006

Is that this the emblem for a detergent? A sewer-based platform online game possibly? No, bizarrely that is the primary Twitter brand. Fairly a number of of the tech and social media giants we all know immediately had very completely different logos earlier than they got here to be well-known (simply see the Google brand for one more instance). The Twitter brand is one other such instance. This brand by no means made it into public use, and we predict that is simply as properly.

Twitter was based by Noah Glass and Evan Williams, who ran the San Francisco-based RSS-syndicated audio and video listing Odeo, Biz Stone and Odeo worker Jack Dorsey, who got here up with the concept for what was initially deliberate as an inside messaging system for the corporate.

One shock within the early brand designs – apparently created by Stone himself – is the identify. Initially Twitter was going to be referred to as Smssy (sure, actually), after which Twttr. A number of designs had the tagline ‘An Odeo thingy’. The primary tweet posted on March 21, 2006, was a message from Dorsey that learn “Simply organising my twttr”.

The primary official Twitter brand: 2006 – 2010

The primary official Twitter brand to achieve the general public confirmed the ultimate identify “Twitter” in mild blue. The font was designed by Linda Gavin, with easy, rounded sans serif shapes that merge collectively, with a white define making a bubble-like impact. It was very a lot of its time. The corporate additionally purchased a small graphic image of a light-weight blue chook from Simon Oxley on iStock for $15. Named Larry after the basketball participant Larry Chicken, this wasn’t a part of the emblem initially (one thing prohibited by iStock), but it surely appeared as an icon on the web site.

The Twitter brand evolution: 2010 – 2012

Based mostly on the present chook picture, Biz Stone designed a chook that Twitter may name its personal. It had wings, a big white eye, and a pointy tail. He handed the concept on to designer Philip Pascuzzo, who took it up and, together with Douglas Bowman, refined the design, making a chook that Twitter may add to its brand. The logotype was additionally up to date and simplified with the marginally childish-looking white define faraway from the sort. 

The Twitter brand immediately: 2012 – current

Lastly, by 2012, the Twitter chook brand had grow to be so properly recognised that the corporate determined it may stand alone. It had reached the standing of the Nike swoosh. The phrase ‘Twitter’ was faraway from the emblem, the blue color was modified to #1da1f2 and the chook was refined by Martin Grasser in what was one among his first jobs after graduating from the Artwork Heart Faculty of Design.