Discuss the Discord rebrand

[Sotenga]

3 hours ago, ReaperAA said:

 

I, for one, am actually glad that we have finally moved past the brown military shooter era and I hope it doesn't come back again.

A friend of mine coined the term "The Gears Years" for the seventh generation of console games when that sort of overhyped Oscar Mike horseshit was the foremost prevalent force in AAA gaming. I would say I don't miss that era, but we still got some good games during that time. It just felt overshadowed by stuff that deserved less attention.

 

BUT I heavily digress. I don't really have any opinion on the logo change, but I DID want to ask if Doomworld has a discord or has considered forming one?

[Bauul]

As someone who has used Discord every single day for years, I... literally didn't notice. I saw the note that they had changed the branding, and genuinely struggled to work out how. So my take is an overwhelming "eh".

 

Tech brands moving to simpler and simpler logos makes sense from a UI perspective: their logo is also their app icon. From that point of view, having something clear and simple with bold colors makes your app easy to spot in your peripheral vision when scrolling through your app list. 

 

Additionally, the rejection of the old inefficient skeuomorphic design with more space and function focused approaches would feel weirdly contested with an overly artistic logo.

 

However, that's all for software applications. Why someone like Pepsi would need to go down that route is anyone's guess, other than perhaps a bit of "me too" ism.

[Teo Slayer]

Em yeah, the old one was better

[roadworx]

18 minutes ago, Bauul said:

As someone who has used Discord every single day for years, I... literally didn't notice. I saw the note that they had changed the branding, and genuinely struggled to work out how. So my take is an overwhelming "eh".

honestly same tbh, i didn't even realize it at first lol. it took actual comparison photos to show the difference, and even then all i can see that's different is a slight change in color and a crappy font change

[SaladBadger]

the art style feels like that fake-feeling corporate art style, icon is weird, and I absolutely cannot for the life of me figure out what demographics they're attempting to target (presumably they want "all of them", but it feels too childish), but eh. After 4587569387 redesigns like this, it's kinda hard to get worked up. the amount of people complaining is nowhere near enough to get them to revert it, most people are probably just meh on the whole thing. 

 

I am, however, super interested in how many people doing something like this actually gets on your platform. There's a lot of rebuttals to the redesign anger like "imagine wanting to leave a chat program over some colors and icons", but the intention of changing said icons and colors is to get more people on the platform. Is there someone out there that's going "heck yeah! I wasn't sure about discord, but now that they turned up the saturation and added a weird trumpet-shaped character to the login screen, I'm now absolutely enthralled with discord!" And if so, I really want to know who this person is.

[⇛Marnetmar⇛]

1 minute ago, SaladBadger said:

I am, however, super interested in how many people doing something like this actually gets on your platform. There's a lot of rebuttals to the redesign anger like "imagine wanting to leave a chat program over some colors and icons", but the intention of changing said icons and colors is to get more people on the platform. Is there someone out there that's going "heck yeah! I wasn't sure about discord, but now that they turned up the saturation and added a weird trumpet-shaped character to the login screen, I'm now absolutely enthralled with discord!" And if so, I really want to know who this person is.

This is the question I want answered.

[1Destro3456]

I'm not really upset with the changes of Clyde (is that how the logo is the robot in the logo called?) and the changes on the font are weird, I guess, like it doesn't even change how someone will catch it better while browsing on the phone because it's not visible so I'm not even sure why they did that really. I don't really care anyway, not getting mad about it anyway.

[Dark Pulse]

The overwhelming solution to this is to click Clyde at the top of your channel/message buttons fifteen times so that you get some cute Japanese girls to say "Discordo!" every time you launch the program.

 

Congratulations, you have successfully defeated the minimalism movement.

 

And on the subtopic of Pepsi, sorry, I prefer that 1987-1998 look. Diet Pepsi's logo around that time was so wonderfully 80s, as well.

 

[Rei is now real]

I personally don't think most people should be angry about the new Discord logo, because its literally a stupid fucking logo.

Hell, I honestly like the new Discord logo, the font is meh, but everything else is alright. 

[Jacek Bourne]

If the next art trend is the opposite of the current one, then the next trend would be increasing intricacy. I would prefer that to minimalism because at least if overdone there’s something interesting to look at.

[SplinkWizard]

It took me 1 day to notice a difference, but now I can't unsee it. I liked the old font, gave that "gamer tech" feel. I don't care about the new logo though

[Gez]

1 hour ago, 1Destro3456 said:

I'm not really upset with the changes of Clyde (is that how the logo is the robot in the logo called?)

That's a robot? I thought it was a controller.

 

 

Anyway I don't care about Discord as I've never used it and likely never will; my understanding is that it's to IRC chat what Facebook is to forums and that gives me several reasons to not want to ever use it. But the video and the greater topic about soulless rainbow-hued flat characters with noodle arms being used to convey some non-threatening and inclusive and <insert buzzwords here> appeal to amoral corporations, that's something slightly interesting.

[1Destro3456]

8 minutes ago, Gez said:

That's a robot? I thought it was a controller.

 

Not sure what it is, I wanted to call him like something and for some reason character didn't come to my mind and it was robot lol

[Bauul]

2 hours ago, SaladBadger said:

I am, however, super interested in how many people doing something like this actually gets on your platform. There's a lot of rebuttals to the redesign anger like "imagine wanting to leave a chat program over some colors and icons", but the intention of changing said icons and colors is to get more people on the platform. Is there someone out there that's going "heck yeah! I wasn't sure about discord, but now that they turned up the saturation and added a weird trumpet-shaped character to the login screen, I'm now absolutely enthralled with discord!" And if so, I really want to know who this person is.

 

Discord have basically got the gamer segment all sewn up - they're the de-facto PC and mobile cross-platform choice for chat and voice, and with Sony planning on integrating them into PlayStation there's only so much more growing in the gaming segment they can do.

 

The next steps are likely people beyond gaming.  They're looking at competing with companies like Zoom and Microsoft Teams (why do you think MS wanted to buy them?).  If you're going to start positioning yourself as a general purpose community service for professional as well as amateur users, having overly gamer-centric branding isn't going to be of much use.  The challenge was to create a rebranding that existing users still recognize, but new users don't instantly think "oh it's just for gamers". 

 

This isn't about going after Discord rejectors, this is about setting the stage for going after completely different types of people in the next few years.

[NoXion]

Is a new name likely to be part of the rebranding? Because the literal meaning of discord is kind of an antonym to it's purpose. Or will that just be accommodated in today's corporate naming culture?

[Sunnyfruit]

The worst change ever is still the Google logo change.

Quote

At the Forty-second Street F station, in Manhattan, in a mosaic of a stone wall dripping with overgrown vines and flowers, there’s an eerily provocative Jung quotation: “Nature must not win the game, but she cannot lose.” That’s how I feel about history and modernity as represented by serif and sans-serif typefaces: elegant, organic curves and feet versus spareness and “clean lines.” Whenever a brand wants to freshen itself up, you start hearing talk about “clean lines,” as if a few gorgeous, old-fashioned letters were keeping us in the Dark Ages. Google’s new logo, announced and unveiled this week, is the latest victim. Its old logo’s typeface—reminiscent of literature, newspapers, printing—had a reassuring hint of history, paying its respects to what it had come to improve upon and replace. The letters’ literary old serifs were subtly authoritative: the sturdy, handsome “G,” the stately, appealing little “oo,” the typewriterish, lovable “g,” the elegant “l,” the thoughtful “e.”

 

The new logo retains the rainbow of colors but sheds the grownup curlicues: it now evokes children’s refrigerator magnets, McDonald’s French fries, Comic Sans. Google took something we trusted and filed off its dignity. Now, in its place, we have an insipid “G,” an owl-eyed “oo,” a schoolroom “g,” a ho-hum “l,” and a demented, showboating “e.” I don’t want to think about that “e” ever again. But what choice do I have? Google—beneficent overlord, Big Brother, whatever you want to call it—is at the center of our lives. Now it has symbolically diluted our trust, which it originally had for all the right reasons.

 

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/sarah-larson/why-you-hate-googles-new-logo

 

 

Minimalism is always appreciated when it retains a flavour of sobriety and elegance, but corporate minimalism seems to have much more to do with a work of control through infantilization.

[GraphicBleeder]

It looks... Too simplistic, and the letters look off.

 

 

But then again the last time I used Discord it was a really laggy piece of shit so I don't really care.

[VanaheimRanger]

 

 

[Doomkid]

This is only slightly on topic so please forgive me, but good lord I hate the ubiquity of Discord these days. There used to be IRC, TeamSpeak, Ventrilo and other competitors - it felt like a healthy ecosystem where no one titan ruled the landscape. Then Discord came along! 

 

You’re expected to not only have a discord account by default, but people assume that if you don’t respond to their PM within a couple days that you’re ignoring them (or worse). The density of messages can be overwhelming at times which ironically makes me want to check it even less frequently, compounding the issue. I never got this feeling with IRC, because if someone wasn’t online at that moment, you had to jump through hoops to leave them a message, but there were other means of doing so (Doomworld or other social media).

 

The “always connected, never alone” nature of it just gets to me and I worry that it’s forming unrealistic expectations of availability in the current under-30 generation. Instant gratification run amok! (Waves fist at cloud angrily)

 

I don’t want people to get the wrong idea - I love chatting with other Doomers and people in general. I just desperately miss the era when taking a week to get back to someone about something that’s meant to be fun and relaxing like Doom/maps wasn’t seen as a hostile act..

 

I didn’t think much of this thread when it was first posted, but at the moment it feels relatable:

 

 

There are only two reasons one might resort to ghosting: fear or disdain. When it comes to important matters, better not to make anyone guess which one of these two you got

This is one of those things that sounds so pithy and logical, until you think about it for two minutes and realise it doesn’t actually make sense. People are entitled to privacy, people are entitled to space, and they should only make themselves as available (or unavailable) as they see fit. The idea that not responding to every banal/overly-demanding PM is purely a result of fear or disdain is completely baseless - sometimes people just want to take some time to think before replying, if indeed they ever feel inclined to do so. But, this sentiment that not constantly engaging and being available must be the result of “disdain” is on the rise, and it frankly strikes me as mentally unhealthy, not to mention it’s simply incorrect (rarely has it been the reason I’ve not replied to someone or taken my time in replying. I have a busy life believe it or not, I just spend all the boring moments browsing Doomworld on my phone.. which can barely run Discord without becoming hotter than the sun)

 

I’d also like to point out how hilariously on-point this ancient thread by Capo was. Hate him or love him, the man knew exactly which way the wind was blowing 5+ years ago:

 

 

(Yeah, Yeah.. I know this rant goes well beyond the purview of this thread.. but I feel like the topic of the logo and art looking bland has been well and truly squeezed dry.)

[NoXion]

I dunno, I've got Discord but I hardly know anyone on it outside of my family, so getting a notification is a rare thing for me, and if it's not from my family, it will be from my real-life friend that I introduced to the program for the purposes of keeping in touch during the pandemic. The only others on my list of Discord contacts are a couple of people I met online and used to play Minecraft with, but haven't heard from in ages.

The Doom Discord is the only one I follow and I only do that for major announcements and stuff. It's good for catching up on the latest interview by Hugo Martin and so on.

Maybe it's just because I'm a Millennial Boomer, but my Discord usage patterns are something akin what I was like using ICQ or MSN Messenger back in the day. I don't remember there being this pressure to be ready to respond all the time, and I had more contacts back then too.

[roadworx]

4 hours ago, Doomkid said:

well-spoken stuff

tbh...i have to agree, but for different reasons. i'mma just put my response in a spoiler tag cuz 1.) it's very off-topic to the thread and 2.) i'm sure people are sick of hearing posts from me about adhd lmao

 

 

 

the expectation of people responding quickly has honestly made things way worse for me, and likely many others with adhd or other adjacent disorders. this is because of two aspects of the condition, totally unrelated, but both of which are worsened by the expectation of speedy responses.

to start off: adhd is a lot more than what people tend to think it is, which tends to be more along the lines of "i'm super hyper and get distracted by everything". unfortunately, the name is what contributes to this, as it's akin to calling something like autism "flappy hands speaking funny disorder". it's an impairment of the executive functions; i'll let this pic i took off google images explain what executive functions are cuz i'm too lazy to do it myself lol



 
the first thing affected by this societal norm which has developed alongside quicker means of communication is rejection sensitive dysphoria. because of our inability to properly regulate our emotions, if we feel rejected, we really, really feel rejected. the feeling is far more intense and comes much easier than it should, and it's not something we can control, even if we're actively aware of our reaction being far too dramatic. i'm sure that you can see where this is going; because we all expect one another to reply like our lives depend on it, if someone decides to take their time or prioritize other things like a normal human being, we immediately assume the worst (they hate me, they want me dead, etc) and feel absolutely horrendous. now, this would be the case even if we lived back in 2003 and we all took our time to respond to each other, but it'd be happening at a much lower rate than it does currently. the expectation has greatly exacerbated it unfortunately

the second aspect that's worsened is how quick we are to procrastinate. again, it's something we often can't control (at least, not without being medicated), and this unfortunately can lead to us not responding to others until way later if it's not something we're heavily invested in, sometimes never if our memory fails us. while this would obviously be a problem no matter the method of communication, it's especially a problem now with how quickly people expect a response. it leads to others thinking we're ignoring them when that's not at all the case. it's even worse because we expect a quick response and yet we can't even do the same for others. it's not only incredibly irritating, but it can also make people feel like shit as a result of them thinking they're just selfish n stuff.

honestly, a lot of things in society end up screwing us over, but this is a big one when it comes to social stuff. and it's made worse by the fact that we're all online, communicating with each other constantly (at least, us zoomers are). so this is happening far more often than it should for us and it's a massive pain in the ass
 

 

 

[SaladBadger]

19 hours ago, Bauul said:

 

Discord have basically got the gamer segment all sewn up - they're the de-facto PC and mobile cross-platform choice for chat and voice, and with Sony planning on integrating them into PlayStation there's only so much more growing in the gaming segment they can do.

 

The next steps are likely people beyond gaming.  They're looking at competing with companies like Zoom and Microsoft Teams (why do you think MS wanted to buy them?).  If you're going to start positioning yourself as a general purpose community service for professional as well as amateur users, having overly gamer-centric branding isn't going to be of much use.  The challenge was to create a rebranding that existing users still recognize, but new users don't instantly think "oh it's just for gamers". 

 

This isn't about going after Discord rejectors, this is about setting the stage for going after completely different types of people in the next few years.

I guess my confusion comes from... discord already felt that way? I think the most out-of-place element for it would be the wordmark, which used a relatively angular and sharp font, which yeah seems to clash a little with the theme, so I get why they changed it even if I think the new font is hideous. But the logo still looks like a game controller, even more so now, honestly.

 

But beyond that, the old branding already was trying to target more than gaming. I found an archive of the website, which I haven't looked at in years (which I guess does give an impression how much any of this actually matters...). The old slogan was "Your place to talk", the description mentions it's your place to talk whether you're part of a "school club, gaming group, worldwide art community, or just a bunch of friends wanting to talk". All the rebranding did was take this description and reformat it to fit the new "Imagine a place" slogan, changed the wordmark (which makes sense as mentioned above), changed the logo (I understand their rationale), and changed the colors and art branding, which is where things start getting fuzzy to me on how much this would actually attract new users. The rest of the branding is basically the old branding, but reformatted some to fit a new slogan. But they have the usage stats and I don't, so maybe it's a resounding success.

 

random edit: some people on the subreddit have noticed in a few places the old branding peeking back through again. Apparently for a while the google play page for discord was showing an alternate video with the new icongraphy and colors but with a new "your place to hang out" slogan, and there's a link hidden away on the website (a comma by the logo at the footer) that goes to an alternate home page with the "your place to talk" slogan. I wonder if this is just unfinished work, since there's a lot of rough places with the redesign where old elements show through, but who knows.

Edited May 21, 2021 by SaladBadger

[Gez]

44 minutes ago, SaladBadger said:

there's a link hidden away on the website (a comma by the logo at the footer) that goes to an alternate home page with the "your place to talk" slogan

Looks like the kind of things the web developers would do to quickly compare old and new, then forgot to remove when the new aspect went live.

[Major Arlene]

I do believe minimalist logos work best with digital media- too much noise in artwork makes it hard to translate to favicons for website tabs, etc. While I won't agree that every brand should go for minimalism with their branding, I do enjoy the cleanness of it, personally.

[Scypek2]

One of the least bad logo updates I've seen, I would say.

[DRM-MAN]

I didn't really notice most of the changes at first, but then I saw that the blurple that I was accustomed to was missing, in favor of a more generic blue color. It seems like they want to distance themselves from the whole gamer thing, but ironically, the logo looks more like a controller then the older one did, which makes it a rather half-baked attempt in my opinion.

 

I can live with the new look, but there is a rather vocal minority which can't handle said change, thankfully most people ignore them.

 

Overall, the discord "rebrand" isn't really an issue for me, although I will miss the old color and font, I can appreciate the thought that they put into it; I do wish that they would tackle some of the rather questionable servers and their content, but If they can do it one at a time, that would be fine as well, but maybe in the future, only time can tell.

[BaileyTW]

One thing I like absolutely hate is not the redesign but some of the other things that came with the update. Namely, streaming quality. Can't stream at a lower quality than than 720, which sucks for me and my absolutely horrible internet connection. Used to be able to stream all the way down to 144p, but now anything below some good internet having 720p streaming has been removed. Can't stream things, can't watch streams. Surprised they didn't go full 'gamer" and remove the 15 fps streaming option.