While trying to avoid any unconstructive bashing of Myspace (I want to make valid points here not just have an unfair rant), it’s quite hard to articulate just how much of an epic fail I think the new logo really is. To avoid the easy rant, I’ve listed below the reasons why I feel disappointed in the new design, but just in case you don’t get to the bottom, I should point out I’ve not given up hope for them just yet.

Old logo:

New logo:

1. It’s vacated - The logo instantly says ‘vacant’ – this is where Myspace used to be. It seems almost like an inside joke from Facebook employees, with the new logo representing Myspace’s sudden absence from people’s thoughts, social lives and media schedules. In fact, as the logo is no longer recognisable as Myspace, it even suggests the joke ‘My-who?’

2. It’s not Myspace - In fact, they’ve physically removed the significant part of the brand name. Most brands wanting to reaffirm themselves would shout their names from the rooftops, but Myspace seems to have relaunched by pretending it never existed in it’s former self.

3. Is the removal symbolic? – At a time when Myspace are being forcibly removed from the internet by competitors, it seems crazy to do the same to your brand logo. It’s almost an admittance Myspace is just about evaporated, and they’re trying to symbolise that with the logo. Are they repositioning themselves as a fringe service, one where they don’t even have the opportunity to fully introduce themselves before being cut off by the bigger players?

4. It’s thoughtless, not simple – Simple is always better, you should always try to convey only one thought and then you’ll have the highest amount of people understanding you, but that doesn’t mean it has to be void of any thought. The new logo is merely a visual representation of the word. Imagine if Facebook redesigned their logo to an icon of a face and a book – it’s the lowest form of wit.

5. Where’s the music? – The original logo really wasn’t that bad. It was identifiable, the figures symbolised the network and the easy addition of headphones instantly represented what Myspace is good at – music. As Myspace’s only saving grace, I would have thought the obvious choice would be to continue this theme.

6. Reliance on UGC – The thought behind it is that the space will be populated by user generated content in a kind of Google Doodle way. Considering the extreme level of moderation and strict selection process required to do this, it will be more like an art feature than UGC. But apart from that, Myspace are effectively saying that the best thing they have to offer are it’s users (and their content) – but that’s not Myspace’s offering, that’s the user’s, which exist outside of Myspace too. What I want from a social network is functionality and ease of use – something Myspace don’t seem to be addressing by focusing on the mishmash of UGC that was almost once their downfall.

7. There’s a bad design stigma – bad design has already been represented by Myspace since it’s early days, with far too much creativity over the structure of the profile’s navigation to allow for a worthwhile user experience. Surely the new logo, which of course will attract more bad design comments anyway, only amplifies this by suggesting that it’s the UGC that will make this logo great?

8. Lack of synergy – Even a brand like Google is criticised for it’s constant recognition of significant dates by changing it’s logo – it goes against what a logo is suppose to be (a recognisable point of reference) but as Google keep it only to their homepage it’s generally agreed they can pull it off. Certainly on the Myspace domain the varying logos will be acceptable, but outside of that they’ll have to stay consistent. Meaning the vast majority of time, and certainly the times when the logo is suppose to be doing it’s most significant work, the logo will no longer be a platform for UGC and simply be a vacant space – losing the main reason behind it’s concept.

9. Open to abuse – Obviously all logos are – just look at the recent BP fiasco, but the the new Myspace logo is a gaping invitation to abuse as much as it is a platform for promoting user’s artwork. It’s only a matter of time before Myspace get the same treatment as Gap did and users can mash two images together to create their symbolic interpretation of Myspace.

10. Lost their way? – Lastly, as I think this won’t be very significant to many people, but I almost feel sorry for Myspace as I kind of feel they’ve really lost their way, and are maybe flailing a dead horse with a broken stick. It’s so different from the textbook company rebranding that I’m concerned they may actually have gone a bit mad. The Myspace offices must surely be a frightful place with reports of the company being worthless, big names walking out the door and Rupert Murdoch leering over your shoulder demanding an answer as to why his investment isn’t working. As bad as it sounds, is it possible this is a last ditch attempt by some Myspace execs to keep themselves in a job a little bit longer?

The over-riding theme here is that it’s different – it’s very, very different from anything that anyone would ever recommend. My opinions above are based on a limited education and personal taste, not on experience of what works, but I have to assume that the execs who decided on this rebranding do know what works, they just haven’t been lucky so far. Nobody can deny that in the age we live in anything can happen, and anybody can have a successful company.

Myspace isn’t trying to be a Facebook replica, they’re trying to carve out their own niche which will be into the unknown, and they’ll have to take a path that nobody has been along before – so no wonder we’re laughing at the tools they’re using to get there, I just hope they manage to see their effort through, whether they make it to the end or not.

Read the full TechCrunch article on the unveiling here.