‘I love the negative feedback’: Musk dumps Twitter’s bird for ‘X’

afr.com:

Elon Musk said his social media platform will retire its widely recognised blue bird logo, and eventually the Twitter name, as part of his relentless effort to overhaul the company.

Amid a series of tweets asking users whether the brand should change its default colour from blue to black or white, Mr Musk added: “Soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds.”

Twitter’s instantly recognisable logo. Reuters

Mr Musk said he would replace the famed bird with an “X”, which would match his early payment processing company X.com and the recently named parent company of Twitter, X Holdings. Mr Musk has spoken repeatedly of his hopes to make Twitter part of an “everything app” that would include a payment system as well as communications.

“If a good enough X logo is posted tonight, we’ll make go live worldwide tomorrow,” Mr Musk tweeted on Sunday in the US. He later added, “I like the letter X.” He suggested putting the ideally “Art Deco”-style logo against a black backdrop, teasing such an image in a picture and short video.

Later on Sunday, he tweeted that the interim logo “goes live later today”.

Mr Musk’s announcement caught Twitter employees as well as users by surprise. At midday, the company’s webpage on branding still declared: “Our logo is our most recognisable asset. That’s why we’re so protective of it.”

Branding experts and former employees, including some Mr Musk elevated before dismissing, were openly critical of the decision.

“Looking forward to Elon stans explaining to me how destroying a universally recognisable brand is a smart business decision,” tweeted marketing entrepreneur Ben Parr, president of Octane AI.

Ex-head of product Esther Crawford tweeted: “Corporate seppuku: