Remember Nokia? Once the king of mobile phones, the brand was overtaken by the likes of Apple and Samsung after the advent of the smartphone. And now, to signal a shift away from mobile phones, Nokia has unveiled a radically new logo.
For the first time in nearly 60 years, one-time smartphone giant Nokia is changing its iconic logo. On Sunday, before the official start of Mobile World Congress Barcelona, the company unveiled a new brand identity, and it’s a dramatic change. Gone is the iconic typeface and “Yale blue” that defined its previous logo. The company has instead adopted a look it claims is more modern and digital.
Revealed before the official start of Mobile World Congress Barcelona this week, the new logo does away with Nokia’s iconic typeface and navy blue colourway, replaced with a much lighter series of disembodied shapes. And the whole thing is reminding the internet of another recent (and much derided) rebrand. Looking for design inspiration? Check out our page of all time.
“We are updating our strategy, and, as a key enabler, we are also refreshing our brand to reflect who we are today: a B2B technology innovation leader pioneering the future where networks meet cloud,” Nokia has announced(opens in new tab). “In most people’s minds, we are still a successful mobile phone brand, but this is not what Nokia is about. We want to launch a new brand that is focusing very much on the networks and industrial digitalisation, which is a completely different thing from the legacy mobile phones.”
The new logo, designed by creative consultancy Lippincott(opens in new tab), features a series of lightweight lines and circles, which loosely spell out the word Nokia. As seems to be the trend with various recent(opens in new tab) rebrands(opens in new tab), several of the letters have chunks missing, which some are arguing negatively impacts legibility. And, yep, a lot of people are comparing it with the recent Kia rebrand.
The new logo definitely raises many questions, and the first one that comes to my mind is how all this will be reflected in the new Nokia products. Looking at the new strategy shift Nokia announced in the press release, the new brand could mean a further distancing from consumer products, especially phones, as many people still associate the latest Nokia phones with Nokia itself. If new Nokia-branded products continue to be launched with the old brand, it could mean that I am not sure if new Nokia devices The licensing agreement could still use the old Nokia logo for the branded products, as many new Nokia products still appear with the old logo. However, all the products we see today were developed long before the new logo was approved, so devices with the new logo may not hit the market until later this year or in 2024.
