The Twitter Logo Evolution

The Twitter Bird logo came onto the scene in 2010, but not many people who use Twitter today know that it has a name. It was named Larry T Bird, with the inspiration being the basketball legend Larry Bird who played for the Bolton Celtics. 

 

Twitter’s co-founder Biz Stone, being from Boston himself and a fan of the Celtics, picked the name. He has also been on record confirming that the sporting legend was the inspiration. The Twitter logo did not start with the bird, but there have only been a few variants since the first version was done in 2006.

 

2006 – First Official Twitter Logo

The first official Twitter logo was a delightful departure from the prelaunch version. Designer Linda Gavin had just a day to create it before the official launch. It was a simple wordmark featuring a unique rounded typeface, with the letters in small caps and no spacing between them.

 

 

 

 

 

The logo’s focus on simplicity blended in with Twitter’s overall design approach and helped endear users to the website. In the sky-blue color that’s become almost synonymous with Twitter, this logo lasted four years before the introduction of the Twitter bird.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2010—The Twitter Bird Icon

After four years of the wordmark, the founders decided to add something that would reflect its identity. This was when the bird was born, and it was said to symbolize the nature of a tweet—quick and short, just like the noises a bird would make. The bird was placed to the right of the wordmark, which remained unchanged except for the color switch to black. 

 

 

 

 

2012 – The Modern Bird

In 2012, Twitter management saw the need to refresh the brand’s image, with the emphasis on even greater simplicity. Twitter had by then become very popular all around the world, so much so that the logo did not seem to need the company’s name. The name was dropped, and the logo now became that little bird. 

 

The bird itself was redesigned to a more symmetrical, clean-cut look. The designers did away with the previous bird’s plumage, and three overlapping circles shaped the wings. They enlarged the icon and switched to a darker shade of blue, which made it more appealing to look at, particularly on the white background of web pages. With this bird symbol, Twitter’s brand identity was established, and it’s become one of the easiest to recognize.

 

 

 

 

Source: https://blog.logomyway.com/twitter-logo/