Is this unfortunate logo design the worst of 2021?

With the end of the year around the corner, we're reflecting on the many logo designs we've seen in 2021. From stunners to shockers, we've seen designs across the entire quality spectrum – and here's one that fell squarely into the latter camp thanks to its rather unfortunate resemblance. 

Calendar and scheduling tool Calendly revealed a new logo that was allegedly designed to the tune of $1.5M this year. Clearly the company was feeling flush – which might explain why the symbol looks so much like a birds-eye view of a toilet. We were truly bowled over by this design, and not in a good way. Not in a best logos of all time kind of way. 

Created by Pentagram, the new Calendly logo features a rounded hexagon inside a hollow letter 'C'. The studio says the new logo was designed to be “engaging, expressive and versatile,” and to reflect the platform's "intelligent design, improved workflows and incredible ease of use.”

But ever since the logo was revealed the internet has seen one thing. A toilet. The redesign reminded several social media users of Airbnb's controversial rebrand of 2014 – which, let's be honest, nobody is complaining about anymore. With that in mind, it's possible that the toilet association will wash away. That said, we're not sure we'll ever be able to unsee it.

And even taken at face value, with all toilet resemblances removed, the logo is a little too busy for our tastes. The combination of the round, curved 'C' and the hexagon is somewhat jarring – even messy. 

Indeed, from the new San Diego Zoo logo to Rolls-Royce's luxurious new identity, we saw plenty of sensational new brand identities from Pentagram in 2021, but the Calendly rebrand certainly hit a bum note. Still, even the biggest tech giants are prone to the odd logo mishap – just look at Google's Play logo design crime. If you fancy embarking on a design project of your own, check out today's best Adobe Creative Cloud deals below. 

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