Infotex’s primary base of WordPress sites are not affected by this but do check your external systems.
First developed in 1995, Java is a popular programming language that you may be using without even knowing it! All Android phones are based on the Android Runtime which is itself a derivative of Java.
Java is a very structured language known by developers for embodying Object-Oriented-Programming methods and being platform agnostic, i.e. code written in Java will run equally well on Windows, Apple’s MacOS, Android phones and a plethora of esoteric platforms.
At one point it was commonplace to embed Java “applets” into web pages, however due to the power of Java this was found to be a very risky practice and modern browsers do not permit this.
In computing most systems output status updates for diagnostic purposes, some systems make these available to users while others hide them from public scrutiny by writing to logs thus allowing developers to understand what went on when something failed.
Log4J is a utility overseen by the well known Apache Foundation which is coded in Java and is designed to process log requests either from Java applications or third parties and can apply a raft of highly complex rules to understand when a status update is routine vs. critical in nature.
Because it is so powerful yet easy to configure, this has been used in a wide variety of purposes, both bundled with Java systems and deployed to process logs from other systems (one example might be to take web server logs and promptly raise a support ticket when certain classes of error occur).
There is a highly publicised bug in Log4j from version 2.0-beta9 – 2.14.1 which is technically known as CVE-2021-44228 but more commonly by the nickname “Log4Shell”.
This was announced on 9th Dec 2021 before its maintainers were even aware of it, it appears attackers had been taking advantage of it for at least a week prior and as such is given the “Zero-day” moniker and scores the highest possible severity rating of 10/10.
Basically, on systems not configured with formatMsgNoLookups, the vulnerability allowed an attacker to create a request which would be processed by Java’s Naming & Directory Interface (JNDI) and would cause the server to make an external request and potentially execute code provided by a third-party attacker. That’s about as bad as things can get when a system is intended to process logs that anyone can initiate in web scenarios.
There are already reports of attackers using this bug to run bitcoin miners earning money for the attacker on afflicted servers.
Fixes were provided by log4j’s maintainers in version 2.15 with a subsequent release to more fully disable potential attack vectors in 2.16.
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) estimates that there are hundreds of millions of devices that are (or were) vulnerable to Log4Shell.
Infotex’s core online platform is WordPress which runs on a PHP platform and none of our log processors run log4j, nor do our client servers have Java installed.
As such our primary base of client sites are not affected.
Since the news of this vulnerability broke on Friday our team reached out to a number of specialist suppliers who offer services (e.g. custom search facilities) to specific clients which could be impacted and have received confirmation from those suppliers that fixes are being, or have already been deployed.
We have also evaluated a number of tools that we use internally (Log4j is also in use on some desktop utilities although the window of opportunity for an attacker there is minute as those systems are not available for attack online) and we have installed updates where applicable for these tools.
We frequently recommend Cloudflare as a security & performance option to clients and it is worth noting that any websites with Cloudflare’s WAF deployed were protected from attack soon after news of this issue broke as they enabled an emergency firewall rule to block potential exploits.
If your website is managed and hosted by Infotex then the likelihood is that you do not need to take any action. If you have websites hosted by anyone else, then you will need to check with those respective hosts to clarify their position. You should also check that you do not have any vulnerable installations of Log4j on your desktop or devices within your business, as it can be utilised in desktop programs.
There are several resources online trying to pull together software vendors statements clarifying whether any updates are needed etc.
One such list can be found at: https://gist.github.com/SwitHak/b66db3a06c2955a9cb71a8718970c592
Keeping your computers and website safe is a constantly evolving challenge and requires co-operation from all parties and this demonstrates the need to know who provides what and ensure that they are managing those systems effectively.
We have collaborated with Suffolk GP Federation to design and deliver a brand new system, designed exclusively for Podiatrists in order to:
This past week, the team travelled to Liverpool to officially bring the new self referral platform to market at the Royal College of Podiatry conference, held at the legendary ACC Liverpool venue. This gave us an excellent opportunity to engage with potential buyers, and users to further strengthen the system.
The College of Podiatry conference is the largest of its kind in Europe and we showcased our exciting new system, designed to improve outcomes and support the patient pathway as well as deliver practical help for clinicians.
While there, we offered live demonstrations of the platform, both the administrative back end including how clinicians could tailor the system to their specific particular practice and also the pathway through which the patient is guided.
“This system enables those with the greatest medical need to access podiatrists with the right skillset to give the best care for that patient. All the while reducing the number of wasted hours, improving patient outcomes and giving the patient agency over their own care pathway. This makes life easier for GPs, Podiatrists and most importantly patients.
The brilliance is in how adaptable this is. The different elements can be customised to then suit the needs of the service. During the pandemic Suffolk GP Fed had to drastically change how we handled our podiatry caseload. Despite everything we were still in a position to give advice and support to new patients, and focus our resources on saving the limbs of those most in need all thanks to our referral system.”
Philip Holloway – Podiatrist / Suffolk GP Federation
We also ran a prize draw in which entrants had to guess the right answer to a footie question! Overall, it was an excellent show and the podiatry community are a fantastic bunch to be around.
Though created specifically for Suffolk GP Federation and podiatrists, the bones of the system offer a very solid and exceptionally efficient pathway for any customer or patient type via full end to end onboarding, assessment, appointment scheduling and appropriate advice.
It is a clinician lead system design, and can be adjusted exactly as required. All outcomes are based on carefully planned question sets which you can alter to support your clients and practice behaviours.
Please contact the team to book a demo.
The year is 1991, Operation Desert Storm is in full swing in Iraq, the Soviet Union is being dissolved, the Channel Tunnel has yet to open, and Tim Berners-Lee announces the World Wide Web project.
Against this background a computer science student studying at the University of Helsinki, Finland, called Linus Benedict Torvalds posts to a NNTP usergroup (a precursor to web forums) on 25th August 1991:
“Hello everybody out there using minix –
I’m doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won’t be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing since april, and is starting to get ready. I’d like any feedback on things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat (same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons) among other things).
I’ve currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work. This implies that I’ll get something practical within a few months, and I’d like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions are welcome, but I won’t promise I’ll implement them 🙂
Linus (torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi)
PS. Yes – it’s free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs. It is NOT portable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably never will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that’s all I have :-(.”
His new Operating System was initially only permitted for use on hobby machines with restrictions against use in commercial environments.
Oh, how the world has changed beyond Linus’s wildest dreams!
Fortunately in the last 30 years, Iraq has returned to a relative peace, the Channel Tunnel has come to take around 1/3rd of the passengers travelling from Dover to France, the World Wide Web project can be considered a success with around 2 billion sites now online, and Linus has relented to allow commercial activity based on his operating system!
His “hobby” operating system has now become “big and professional” itself, powering the majority of websites in use in 2021.
In 1996 Linus Torvalds proposed a contest to design a logo for this new operating system, which he suggested resemble a penguin “stuffed to its brim with herring”. Thus a black, white and yellow penguin designed by Larry Ewing came to symbolize the operating system and was subsequently named Tux (purportedly standing for Torvalds Uni-X).
Linux is open-source software meaning that anyone can download the entire source code from www.kernel.org and anyone who has created an account can propose amendments to the operating system, which is one reason it has been so successful.
The size of the code has increased significantly over time, from the mere 7,400 lines of ‘C’ code in version 0.11 to around 17 million lines of code in the current version, yet the structure of the two codebases is very similar. All the additional code is there to incorporate features such as native containerisation, virtualisation support, and the ability to run on an amazingly wide range of hardware.
Linus himself still plays a major role in the direction that Linux takes. Given the size of the project and the number of contributors, there are several managers who oversee specific areas of development, but anything outside of that requires Linus’s approval, even today.
Where Linux differs from its competitors such as Microsoft Windows is that it requires such low levels of system resource (CPU / memory etc.) so it can run in a wide variety of systems – including TV’s, car dashboards, even household fridges! It is also more stable than most other alternatives, with servers rarely needing a restart except for the installation of security updates – try running Windows 10 for a year without rebooting!
Infotex has been running various versions of Linux on the majority of our web servers for more than 20 years, and some of our staff use it on their desktop computer as well.
We’ll be raising a glass to Linux on the 25th August to celebrate Tux reaching its 30th birthday, and we look forward to celebrating many more years to come. Few would have guessed where Linus’s little hobby from 30 years ago would be today and it’s hard to imagine what the world, especially computing, will be like in another 30 years time!
Internet Explorer was first released in August 1995 as a core part of Windows 95. It raised controversy at the time for the fact that it was bundled into Windows, resulting in lawsuits against Microsoft for monopolistic practices. This lead, in no small part, to the downfall of the previously leading browser Netscape Navigator.
Internet Explorer, or IE in tech circles, became the defacto standard and by the early 2000s over 90% of all browsing was being performed via Internet Explorer.
Competitors started to challenge for Internet Explorer’s throne, with potent competitors in the shape of Mozilla Firefox emerging in 2004, and Google releasing the first Chrome in 2008.
Firefox and Chrome took a new approach to browsers, with regular updates adding new features, which developers could leverage to create a more interactive web. IE started to lag with updates being few and far between, generally being bundled into their large Service Packs.
Starting with Windows 10 (and retro-fitted to Windows 7) Microsoft eventually moved their main browser to Microsoft Edge which has subsequently been re-architected to share the rendering engine underpinning Google’s Chrome.
So where did this leave Internet Explorer? Internet Explorer 11, released in 2013, is the last version of the platform and is still installed on the majority of Windows 10 PCs for compatibility purposes, but buried away to encourage people to use Edge. Unlike IE, Edge receives regular updates keeping pace with its main competitors. Currently Edge sees around a 5% market share, far below the lofty heights that previous IE versions once commanded.
Today, Internet Explorer languishes at around 1% market share which is almost entirely within large corporate networks, often running internal systems with lengthy update cycles and / or legacy software.
In 2020 Microsoft acknowledged that Internet Explorer has reached the end of the road and that they plan to cease support for it within their Microsoft Office 365 suite with effect from August 2021.
With the release of WordPress 5.8, which is scheduled to occur in July 2021 we will see WordPress, the dominant website Content Management System (CMS), cease support for Internet Explorer 11. As primarily WordPress agency Infotex will be following suit.
By ceasing to support a browser, this means that we will no longer be targeting it during development or testing that your website functions correctly on Internet Explorer. This allows us to focus on browsers that support modern CSS & JavaScript features, offering greater interactivity and performance than was previously possible.
At this time we will not be taking actions to specifically cause your website to be unusable by Internet Explorer so you are unlikely to see any immediate impact. However, unless specifically agreed to the contrary, we will also not be fixing any Internet Explorer specific issues which occur going forward. This means that over time your website may become less usable within Internet Explorer.
WordPress have similarly stated that they will be removing testing for Internet Explorer 11 gradually over versions 5.8 & 5.9 and it is anticipated that the first area that will be impacted will be the content administration areas which utilise modern features to provide the high levels of user experience that site administrators come to expect today. Users on Internet Explorer 11 and earlier may also see a banner within their administration areas advising them to upgrade to a more modern browser.
Goodbye to the friend we all loved to hate and welcome to a more interactive web of the future!
Progressive web apps are essentially web applications that feel and function like a native mobile application. They continue to gain traction due to the positive impact they have on user-experience: advanced capabilities such as offline use and push notifications, and the ability to be “installed” on the user’s device.
PWA’s encompass the best things about a native phone app along with the flexibility and instant nature of the web.
An app, or application, is simply a piece of software designed to serve a purpose. This can range from simple applications such as a calculator through to more complex applications such as word processors.
A native application is one that is designed for a specific device. An application designed for a specific device will often have deep access to that device’s functionality and will be able to maximise performance and integration through the device’s API’s.
Modern applications, such as those within the iOS app store, have to follow strict rules in order for them to be available to download on a user’s device. These rules are intended to improve security, performance, and experience. Apps within these stores are there at the whims of the platform owner and rules are not always obvious nor technically motivated (such as whether to allow a competing payment provider).
Web applications are written for browsers. They utilise various platforms and libraries to provide an experience that can be accessed anywhere. A single website application is able to target desktop, mobile, tablets, tv’s, consoles etc all from a single codebase.
Web applications leverage the inherent power of the internet offering high levels of discoverability and a vast ecosystem of 3rd-party providers, tools, and integrations.
For all of the freedom they provide, web applications require launching a browser and typing an address to access them and they typically do not have access to the same device features as a native application (such as the local file system storing your media, camera, microphone, fingerprint scanner etc).
Progressive web applications are intended to close this gap by offering the advantages of a web application whilst behaving more like a native application on a user’s device (such as the ability to be “installed” and access to more device features).
Progressive web applications leverage a variety of technologies to provide an experience as close to native as possible – so it may be best to think of them as a design/development philosophy. There is no single test to prove that a web application is a PWA although there are tools, such as Google’s lighthouse, that will attempt to score the application based on the presence of certain features.
That said, there are a number of features that exist within PWA’s:
A service worker is a script that intercepts requests and allows for the control of functionality such as caching to allow the web application to function whilst offline and background services.
They offer a lot of potential by responding to, and controlling, data even when the user is not actively using the web application – such as push notifications.
This is a file that describes how the web application appears in the context of the device it is on. For example it dictates the icon displayed when the web application is installed on the device.
The web application must be served over HTTPS in order to have access to features such as service workers.
Many modern websites that you visit are actually using progressive web app technologies to provide an experience closer to that of native applications. You can see this when you visit sites like Twitter, Gmail, etc.
If you want to install them, you can simply utilise your mobile browsers built-in functionality. This varies from browser to browser; On Chrome for Android, for example, PWA’s get an “Install app” link in the browser menu. Whilst any site can be added to your home screen, PWA’s can be installed and will provide you with a more immersive experience when you do this (crucially they will launch in their own window with no browser interface, have a nice icon, colours matching the app, etc).
The functionality available to web applications through browser API’s is improving all the time which means that PWA’s will become more sophisticated and able to offer you parity with your native applications. This means you get all of the benefits of the web whilst still being able to offer a great experience on individual devices.
If Netflix has you hooked, then it won’t take you long to get your head around the concept of smart content loading. Have you noticed that today the ads on your computer screen are selling you exactly what you were searching for yesterday? We’re moving into a world where user data is personalising our online experience, and customers are happy to hand over their details for the right results. It’s no wonder 47% of consumers check Amazon if they’re unsatisfied with the products suggested by the brand they’re shopping with – the personalised shopping experience is too good to resist. Well, now there are increasing opportunities for smaller businesses to tap in on this consumer impulse.
Smart Content refers to the dynamic elements of your website that change depending on the site user profile. Instead of being restricted to typical static content, which stays the same for everyone, smart content offers some important benefits: it targets individual customers with a personalised experience, and also increases site loading times. These things combined mean that a website with smart content loading built in will drive significantly higher conversion rates and ROI than one without.
In order to determine which tailored content to show when a unique user visits the site, smart content responds to demographic/firmographic user data (age, gender/business details) as well as behavioural (on-site activities and history) and contextual data (location, device type, time of day). This way, websites can optimise their content to increase engagement through offering visitors only the most relevant material. For example, your smart content system could tweak a landing page instantly when it knows a certain user has visited the page before, offering them a new and more relevant response the second time around. By finding out who your customers are, you can offer a friendly, personal service that keeps them coming back again and again.
Site loading speed is always a priority for engaging users. But businesses are also increasingly opting for smart content loading with the same aims of maximising page visits, time on site, and reducing bounce rates. As a development of “lazy loading”, whereby site images are only loaded when necessary, smart content loading websites limit downloads to the necessary content for a particular user, saving time by withholding unnecessary text and images.
If your potential leads have varying needs, interests, desires, or character profiles, then you should employ using smart content loading.
Some examples of the types of smart content you might create include targeted blog posts and articles, personalised calls-to-action and case studies, discounts and offers, and video content. You don’t need to go full steam ahead to begin with, but gradually segmenting the traffic to your site will enable you to make the most of your business online and keep those potential leads returning.
However, the aim is to offer a personalised, suitable experience without appearing overly familiar… no customer wants to feel like they’re being watched without remembering giving permission, so there are some things to avoid, too. For instance, unless it is a situation where the user will definitely remember their prior visit to the site, smart content loading should avoid using a user’s personal details such as their name and location.
Technology is creating amazing opportunities for small businesses online, including smart content loading. If you feel like your business is too small, or too far behind the current internet trends, you’re wrong! There’s never been a better time to join in with the excitement of web development and help your business outcompete the rest.
Get in touch for website advice, or read about more top website trends for 2021 in our blog.
If you have an e-commerce website, or utilize content marketing, Web Push Notifications could be the next step for you to keep re-engaging with your website visitors, allowing you to reach them on any device, without them needing to hand over any personal data.
We’re all familiar with regular push notifications: the banner notifications that come from the apps on your phone, such as a missed call, unread text notification, BBC news update, new match on Tinder. If you have enabled notifications for any app, that app is able to use the phones operating system to send you messages. Everyone with a smartphone knows how engaging these notifications are, grabbing your attention in real-time, with direct access to your screen no matter what you’re doing.
It is commonly believed that this type of customer-engagement marketing is limited to those who have a ‘native app’ (that is, an app that customers have to download onto their phone from the app store in order to access it’s features). However, with the efforts being made by Google and Apple to explore and move towards ‘progessive web apps’ (apps that you don’t need to download from a store, more like a website), more and more of the features of smartphone operating systems are available to improve and enhance your website or online marketing… without needing to develop a native app.
In the same way that when you install a native app on your smartphone your app asks the user for permission to access notifications features, your website can ask new visitors for approval to send them website push notifications. Once this ‘visitor’ has become a ‘subscriber’, you can then send them notifications from the website in the form of customised text, URL links, and images.
Web push notifications instantly offer some big improvements from other forms of notification marketing and native app notifications (e.g. newsletters, SMS).
You might now be wondering how to use push notifications in your marketing strategy. While the technology is not that new any more given it’s been used on every smartphone over the past 10 years, it’s introduction into a new medium (website) does mean that we can be a lot much more creative.
These are just a few of the more obvious ways to implement push notifications. But with the wealth of creative minds in our industry it is likely to be used in new and exciting ways. We have already created a push notification for a green lobbyist client, that allows them to send push notifications on their articles, but also send out real time smog warnings for affected cities or other urgent messages.
If you would like to talk more about push notifications and now it could improve your website marketing, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Situated on the banks of the Deben, the Woodbridge Tide Mill has been harnessing the power of the river for over 800 years. Continuing to mill to this day, it is ranked as the number 1 thing to do in Woodbridge (TripAdvisor) and required an updateable website to entice and educate potential visitors.
Using the existing branding we incorporated a bright and bold website, that’s easy to navigate to make sure information is quickly found. Key information is available on every page, and details such as the Tide Mill Mouse and a flowing “swoosh” sets the design of the site apart.
The Tide Mill is a charity and receives little state funding, so the majority of upkeep costs are provided by the community and friends. We advised on using GoCardless which allows for cost effective regular repeat donations automatically, alleviating administration and complex paperwork. The site also invites people to be a volunteer, with milling roles through to PR and fund raising positions available.
Infotex have been delighted to support the Tide Mill, and look forward to many more years of milling and turning.
Why not take a look woodbridgetidemill.org.uk
Great photography boosts website appeal in the commercial construction industry. A varied assortment of our favourites follows:
ANDERSON
Some great photography and moody atmospherics helps give the site a dramatic intrigue and a certain magnetic appeal.
BALFOUR BEATTY
A really good showcase of global projects making Balfour Beatty a powerhouse when it comes to international infrastructure operations.
BECHTEL
A superior website from one of the most respected engineering, construction and project management companies in the world. A pictorial feast of engineering wizardry.
GRAHAM
A vast array of impressive infrastructure projects throughout the UK. The showcase menu is structured well and easy to read – a nice touch with each project swapping around when scrolling across the sub headings in each category.
KIER
A fun vector graphic used as a footer showing in simplistic form of some of the services that Kier provide from construction and property development to facilities management and project investments.
MASTERSON HOLDINGS
The use of a concrete image for the background makes for a very masculine website and in the words of the Ronseal ads ‘does exactly what it says on the tin’ – after all the company are reinforced concrete and groundwork specialists.
MORGAN SINDALL GROUP
The triangular grid background of this website forms a good basis for the geometric shapes of the imagery and text panels to work together. The movement of these layers shifting independently when scrolling down gives extra appeal to the browsing experience.
RG CARTER
www.rgcarter-construction.co.uk
A straight forward layout design making the navigability very easy especially for the uninitiated.
SHERRI BUILDERS
Very professional imagery used made all the more interesting with the way that each image emerges into view giving the site a more dynamic feel.
WILLMOTT DIXON
A visual treat showing full width photography for the greater impact emphasizing WD’s commitment to being proud of their chosen industry and in particular their achievements.
If you’re interested updating your web design or digital marketing strategy, then get in touch with us today!
An app is any form of software application, most notably thought of as the tools we download on our phones and tablets to chat to friends, make bookings or play games. But it can also be the programs we use on our computers or IOT devices.
Previously an app has been something you download from an app store – Window or Apple app store, Google play (android) – or a software reseller. You need to download the right type of app for your device and make sure it is compatible with your version of software but once installed you are in its own little microcosm; with notifications, offline processing, access to the inbuilt camera, storage – it’s more secure and less likely to get hacked – and incredibly fast.
Until now mobile websites were unable to compete on this level, as they are not equipped to make use of the built in processes of a handheld device.
But it wasn’t all in Native apps’ favour. Knowing what you want and going to find an app in an app store is one thing but discovery through search engines is a powerful way to gain more visitors. Add to that the fact that a user must download, install and setup the app before they are even allowed through the door – which is known on the web as friction – it’s pretty damaging to the conversion rate of the visitors that do come.
In an attempt to combat this effect, Google decided to try and align the best elements of both web pages and applications to create Progressive Web Apps (PWA). This technology loads quickly, even on flaky networks, sends relevant push notifications, has an icon on the home screen and loads as a full screen experience.
PWA’s are still searchable on search engines but make use of the inbuilt processor. It lowers friction by allowing users to immediately get a feel for the content then gently suggesting saving the app to their home screen. It runs a ‘one size fit’s all’ when it comes to compatibility with OS and devices and does not rely on requiring each user to activate updates to their install.
One of the earliest examples of progressive web apps being adopted is Flipkart – India’s answer to Amazon and one of the country’s largest online shops – releasing Flipkart Lite. This version saw 3x more visits on a mobile than the old site and returning visits go up by 40%.
Service Workers
All of this is possible because of the development of Service Workers, which formulate the building blocks of web apps and hugely improve load time. They run as scripts working in the background of the browser or web page, opening doors to features which don’t need a web page or user interaction.
The offline capabilities of the service worker are already apparent with the push notifications you receive from various apps. However, the future lies in their ability to background cache/sync and in geofencing – a location-based mobile service that lets marketers send messages to your smartphone when you enter a defined geographic area.
Response, Animation, Idle & Load (RAIL)
It is clear that we are living in an instantaneous society where an ever-increasing speed with our technology is demanded from the public. This is where RAIL comes in. RAIL stands for Response, Animation, Idle and Load and represents the four key stages involved in the actions for your website/app. The optimisation of each of these distinct areas will reduce user frustration and retain viewers – 40% of audiences are lost if a page takes 7 seconds to load, remember that goldfish from last month’s AMP article?
Unfortunately no – well not yet…Progressive Web Apps are only available on Android devices and even then, service workers are only supported on Chrome and Opera browsers so their accessibility is hugely limited (although it is suggested that iOS devices may be supporting this technology as early as late 2016).
This is why our job as digital designers and system developers is to listen and learn from all that is out there and make sure that our work is not dependent on a new product from an internet giant, but that we heed the underlying message that users are sending out which culminates in these type of responses – two of which I have talked about here. Making sure that we offer the correct and considered advice to our clients and that our websites and applications work and continue to work optimally and inclusively for the needs of your business.
This new form of web app can be taken advantage of by most industries but one we feel is of special interest is estate agency. Many of our clients have talked about the benefits of an app, but the budget and friction of installation has generally made it prohibitive when competing against the property portals. The benefits of a web app bring the barriers of entry way down making it inviting for both estate agent and applicant. An estate agency could expect an increase in returning visitors and improved site stickiness if customers can be prompted to save the app to their mobile or tablet home screen and applicants get to just save and browse the agents they know are right for them not trawl through pages of unsuitable properties on the portals each time. Could this even be the real start of the decline in power of the portals?
The golden arches in any country gives me a craving for chocolate milkshake, a small apple with a bite taken out of it implies luxury technology and a mulberry tree makes me want to sell my husband just to get my hands on a leather bag!
The past couple of years have seen a number of brands alter their logo and 2015 saw the Infotex logo evolve and develop (more on this from our Design Director Abi Fawcus next month). But why did these companies change their already well-known brand symbol?:
1. TO ADAPT TO A CHANGING MARKET:
This year we saw the Google logo had its biggest redesign since 1999. The change was based upon how people react to Google across “many different platforms, apps and devices.”1 The typeface of the new logo is ‘product sans’ which combines “the mathematical purity of geometric forms with the childlike simplicity of schoolbook letter printing”. The renowned four colour is seen across the brand even featuring in the microphone design when using voice controls on your mobile.
Thetrainline.com has also adapted to the mobile market by changing their name to simply Trainline. They launched a new mobile app to illustrate their new brand concept of ‘Smarter Journeys’, with the CEO Clare Gilmartin stating that their “mission is to help people travel smarter, and by using their phones they can enjoy the advantages of saving money by buying in advance and ensuring they have real time travel updates during their journey.”2 The #IAmTrain campaign was also launched to promote the change with a heavy emphasis on using social media to promote the new mobile friendly brand.
2. IN RESPONSE TO A MAJOR CHANGE IN THE COMPANY:
Pizzahut has recently redesigned their logo in response the their biggest menu change in years. Dubbed as the ‘Flavour of Now’ this new menu is seen as a response to their recent stagnation in the market and this logo change is used to help the transition. The Vice President of Marketing commented that “Any good flavorful pizza starts with a sauce swirl”3 which is what inspired the red swirl on the edge of the logo.
3. TO PROMOTE A NEW BRAND IDENTITY:
Airbnb completely changed their brand positioning in 2014 by promoting the sense that their customers can ‘belong’ in any of the properties rented through their website. They introduced their “Bélo” logo – “It’s an iconic mark for our windows, our doors, and our shared values. It’s a symbol that, like us, can belong wherever it happens to be”4
4. A BAD RESPONSE TO A LOGO DESIGN?
American restaurant giant IHOP (International House of Pancakes) changed their logo for the first time in decades this year. They have simplified the logo but the most major change is the red line below IHOP from a downward to an upward curve. According to the company’s Vice President of Marketing, the old logo “appeared as a person’s frown.”5 Instead he believes that the new and more positive logo will be more attractive to customers and “make them smile.”
5. FOR THE SAKE OF CHANGE?
Facebook have made very slight alterations to their logo using a custom typeface to “modernise the logo to make it feel more friendly and approachable”6 (Josh Higgins, Facebook’s creative director). The most noticeable change is the “a” which is fuller and rounder.
1 Evolving the Google Identity
2. thetrainline.com Rebrands itself to Trainline
3 Inside the Pizza Hut’s Saucy Rebranding
5 IHOP Changed its Logo, says the old one looked like a frown
6. Facebook unveils new logo in stunning change for fans of the letter A
Discover how our team can help you on your journey.
Talk to us today