Wednesday
07Jan2009
A new logo for the new MyFonts
It may not come as a surprise that the old MyFonts logo — designed in 1999 — was originally only intended to be a temporary placeholder. Nine years later, MyFonts has worked closely with Underware to finally create a new official logo to accompany the new MyFonts website.
Developing an official logotype for an organization that deals with fonts is an extremely daunting assignment… no matter what the solution is, it is bound to be scrutinized as some kind of ultimate statement about superior fonts and typography.
To approach the task from the most obvious angle, one would probably try to find a solution which could represent a wide range of styles in one logo. For example: using multiple fonts, or varying the positioning and weight within the logo to convey a sense of typographic diversity.
When reinventing the MyFonts logo, we experimented with similar approaches, but ultimately decided to express something more than the idea that MyFonts is just a place with a bunch of fonts. In our minds, MyFonts — and particularly the new incarnation of MyFonts — represents not only the largest collection of fonts in existence, but also a place where the user is the center of attention, and the creative spirit thrives.
Underware's long time fascination with optical illusions and ambigrams fit perfectly with the goal of creating a more conceptual logo — one decisive wordmark that could also express supplementary ideas about creativity, individuality, and DIY productivity.
The new MyFonts logotype is made with a broom instead of a brush. It has a secret bonus for those who get it, but still functions as a contemporary hand-painted logo for those who don't. As any detailed explanation would ruin the magic, we'll leave it at that.
— MyFonts & Underware

January 7, 2009 at 1:18 AM
Reader Comments (5)
What a great new logo, and of course a great improvement. Good choice to have a handdrawn font to give it a personal and humanistic feel. Well done!
All the best
Petra
I really love the new logo: contemporary, fresh, memorable, with "individual"ity to boot. And I think I now get it.
HAND painted, eh? =) I love it.
I'm loving the new logo... great letterforms with nice movement to them. BTW, I don't get it.... but I want to. I see what you did with the My.. which is cool though. I'm stuck on the broom reference.
Underware did a awesome job on the new logo. And bigger it's even better. Love the new (beta) version of the site too.