The Twitter rebrand as X seems to be rolling on the way it began: a little chaotically. Despite Elon Musk saying that the crowdsourced Unicode X logo is temporary, the company has finally released a brand toolkit so that people can start to replace the Twitter bird.
With many people still calling the platform Twitter and still using the bird logo in posts and as the icon in their social media links, X will be hoping the assets, including the logo, lockups and post templates, can convince people to adopt the new name. The assets are available at... er.. about.twitter.com (see our Twitter logo history to see how the design has changed over the years).
The X post template seems to confirm Musk's plan tu change Twitter to dark mode by default (Image credit: X)
It was always going to be difficult to completely rebrand a live social media network overnight, but even X itself is struggling to be consistent. An X brand toolkit is finally available, replacing the former Twitter brand toolkit on the same Twitter URL. And if the text sounds a little strange it's because that's taken from the Twitter toolkit too.
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The new X brand toolkit (Image credit: X)
The description of the X logo in the brand toolkit reads "Our logo is our most recognizable asset. That’s why we’re so protective of it. Take a moment to think about how you apply it." That sounds almost tongue-in-cheek considering that the 𝕏 logo is a glyph used in several typefaces and which anybody can use freely as Unicode character U+1D54F.
The former Twitter brand toolkit page (Image credit: Twitter)
It turns out that's because X hasn't updated the text. Checking a past version of the site using the web.archive.org, we can see that it's left the same explanation from the Twitter brand kit, merely changing "Twitter" to "X". The name has been changed in the trademark disclaimer at the bottom of the page too, again despite the fact that the X logo is not a trademark.
Twitter has finally updated its brand assets page with files for updating the logo on physical and digital assets. And therein lies the problem because if I'd said "X has finally..." then it wouldn't have been as easy to recognise and understand. https://t.co/DpsYVPnH4kAugust 8, 2023
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You can now update the Twitter logo to the new X design on your website (I don't think there's any rush with this tbh) https://t.co/gPl7UmBko0August 8, 2023
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Some 'social media advisors' on Twitter, I mean X, have been urging people to "let the blue bird fly away" and update their logos. However, many users don't seem to be in a hurry, which isn't much of a surprise considering that people have been changing the X app icon back to the Twitter bird on their phones.
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Joe is a regular freelance journalist and editor at Creative Bloq. He writes news, features and buying guides and keeps track of the best equipment and software for creatives, from video editing programs to monitors and accessories. A veteran news writer and photographer, he now works as a project manager at the London and Buenos Aires-based design, production and branding agency Hermana Creatives. There he manages a team of designers, photographers and video editors who specialise in producing visual content and design assets for the hospitality sector. He also dances Argentine tango.
