Google Chrome 100 landed on the Stable channel yesterday and it brings tons of improvements to cookie handling, multi-window placement, and purchasing of digital goods via web apps in the Play Store. However, a relatively minor change that was not mentioned in the release notes is also that it packs a new logo.
The logo change was first announced by Google designer @elvin_not_11 on Twitter back in February. As you can see above, the design changes are subtle and primarily include removal of shadows and brightening of colors.
This is the first design modification to the Chrome logo since 2014. As can be seen in the graphic above, since 2011, Chrome has been gravitating more towards a flatter design and the removal of shadows in the 2022 logo just emphasizes this approach.
Elvin went into further details about the update to the logo, saying that the design is actually slightly different across each platform to make it fit in with the theme and design language of the OS too:
We also found that placing certain shades of green and red next to each other created an unpleasant color vibration, so we introduced a very subtle gradient to the main icon to mitigate that, making the icon more accessible.
Then, we created OS-specific customizations. We want the icons to feel recognizably Chrome, but also well crafted for each OS. For example, on Windows, the icons take on an obviously gradated look, appearing at home on Windows 10 & 11.
On ChromeOS, they use brighter colors without gradients to match the looks of the rest of system icons. For macOS, they look 3D.
The updated Chrome logo should be available to everyone after updating to version 100. It probably won't make a difference to your browsing habits but it does align the graphic to Google's current design principles.
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