Facebook Branding
Facebook, since Mark Zuckerberg started it alongside his Harvard roommates in 2004, has grown to become one of the biggest brand in the world. In May 2012, Facebook held an initial public offering (IPO) and it was valued at $104 billion, an amount which is the largest valuation that has ever been recorded for a newly listed public company.
Facebook Rebrand And Logo Change
The Facebook brand has undergone a lot of modifications from when it started, to become what it is today. Facebook was not always the visual brand everyone knows today and likes. The brand has gone through its ugly duckling times. The original logo which was designed for Facebook by Joe Kral and Cuban Council in 2005, got a facelift by Facebook in-house designer Eric Olson after 10 years.
According to Facebook, the original logo was more grown up looking. At the time, they had decided to use it because they wanted to be taken seriously by the world. However, now that they had become an established and recognised global brand, they decided to loosen the reins a little and take up a visual look of friendliness and approachability. Thus the logo was tweaked and updated to reflect those perceptions.
Some brand experts were worried about how the logo change would be received by users, seeing that they had been seeing the old logo for ten years. However, users have grown familiar with the new logo and almost cannot remember that there was a change just two years ago.
Visual Brand Uniformity
Asides this logo change, Facebook had an issue of creating a new logo and /or icon for every project and sub product, because they did not have a consistent and unified brand manual and guideline. The effect of this was easily noticed in a Google image search, where all types of logos for Facebook- in all shapes and sizes, would pop up.
Between 2012 and 2013, Ben Barry, a designer with Facebook, was one of those who led the creation of a unified brand. Ben Barry alongside Brandon Walkin and Jorn van Dijk, designed and created the Facebook ‘f’ favicon which became the official favicon. Ben Barry was also responsible for the creation of the icons for every sub product or brand, and the creation of a guideline for their use. This was how Facebook was able to unify its brand as pertaining to visuals.
Facebook’s Brand Values
The mega brand has five values. At Facebook, they:
- Focus on impact: thus they do so by solving the most important problems without wasting time.
- Move fast: Facebook has no fear of making mistake, they would rather move fast and break things than lose opportunities.
- Be bold: It is their saying that “The riskiest thing is to take no risks.”
- Be open: Access to information is a top priority for Facebook, for employees as well as users.
- Build social value: Facebook is keen on delivering actual value for the human society.
This social network which is the most popular of its kind in the world as of April 2016, must sure be doing something right about its branding.
