Windows 8 logo: It’s a window… not a flag

New brand for a new OS

18 February 2012 0:42 GMT / By Stuart Miles

What's in a logo? Well a lot if you believe Microsoft, who on Friday rolled out a new logo for its Windows 8 operating system to go with its new logo operating system due out later this year.

Yep "it's a window... not a flag" we hear you cry. Funny because that's exactly the words the design agency supposedly used when pitching it to Microsoft.

It was designed by US agency Pentagram which, the story goes, was confused as to why the product was called Windows when the previous logo was a flag. And so Pentagram came up with the more window-looking design that replaces the previous logos that have been used since Windows 3.1 in the 1990s.

"The Windows logo is a strong and widely recognised mark, but when we stepped back and analysed it, we realised an evolution of our logo would better reflect our Metro style design principles and we also felt there was an opportunity to reconnect with some of the powerful characteristics of previous incarnations," writes Sam Moreau, Principal Director of User Experience for Windows at Microsoft.