Facebook just unveiled a new friends icon. The social network’s design manager, Caitlin Winner, wrote a blog post on Medium in which she opened up about the design process of the icon.
Facebook updates friend and group icons
Winner said Facebook’s previous male glyph featured broad, fully rounded shoulders. The female glyph featured an odd looking indentation on the left side, which was actually a marker for the male glyph to be placed in front of the female glyph. The symbolism of the female icon behind the male icon isn’t a positive portrayal in a modern society.
Winner’s new friends icon places the female and male glyphs equally in the front. She also modified the group icon to include the woman in the front with the rest of the icons. She said:
“As a woman, educated at a women’s college, it was hard not to read into the symbolism of the current icon; the woman was quite literally in the shadow of the man, she was not in a position to lean in.”
Facebook’s new logo
Facebook has been redesigning its logos in an effort to revamp its brand. The social media giant quietly updated its logo with a rounder-looking lowercase a. The new design is rather vague except for a few minor changes. The changes include a thinner font and a modern, fresh look. Facebook manages to keep its blue background with white lowercase lettering because that look is part of its brand.
The social media giant’s creative director, Josh Higgins, explained that they wanted to update the logo, not do a full redesign. The ultimate goal of the redesign was to make Facebook’s logo look more friendly and approachable, given some of the backlash the popular social media has received over accessing user’s private information.
