Moz://a, Mozilla’s New Logo

NewsDoru Ciobanu • January 20, 2017 • 3 minutes READ

In June 2016, Mozilla, the Internet advocacy and software group, initiated its rebranding process. However, in an unusual move, instead of hiring an agency to do the work, Mozilla chose to conduct the process in the open, setting up a blog through which it shared ideas and invited feedback.

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The initiative was aimed at helping Mozilla to differentiate itself from Firefox, its most popular product, and showcase the broad spectrum of projects it is involved in. Moreover, it worked! The amount of community feedback, comments and blog posts was astonishing.

And the Winner Is … Protocol!

If you followed the selection process, then you are familiar with Johnson Banks’s wordmark design, which replaces the “ill” in “Mozilla” with the colon and twin slashes found in URLs.

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The new logo uses Zilla, a free font created by the legendary Dutch type foundry Typotheque. The color palette is derived from the highlight colors employed by Firefox and other browsers.

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Selected to evoke the Courier font used as the original default in coding, Zilla has a journalistic feel reinforcing our commitment to participate in conversations about key issues of Internet health, said Tim Murray @Mozilla.

Known as Design Route D: Protocol, the logo design underlines the nature of Mozilla. The “://” suggest that Mozilla is not only a browser vendor, but a fully fledged web company, that produces and supports many web products, encourages Internet literacy, and promotes the open web.

Our logo with its nod to URL language reinforces that the Internet is at the heart of Mozilla. We are committed to the original intent of the link as the beginning of an unfiltered, unmediated experience into the rich content of the Internet, Murray said.

Protocol was selected from more than designs. In the final round, Protocol competed with Dino, Flame and Burst.

The logo follows the principles of flat design. However, it can be easily integrated into complex imagery. In fact, with the launch, Mozilla plans to continue developing its visual identity by inviting artists to contribute to an imagery collective. Selected images, GIFs and animations will eventually find their way in Mozilla’s products and digital experiences.

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And while Mozilla has a new logo, the process of updating the brand identity it is far from over. Currently, Mozilla is working on its brand identity guidelines, which will be made public in January.

Was Mozilla’s new logo a must? Of course! Mozilla’s famous dinosaur logo that traces its origin from Netscape’s mascot and especially the old bland wordmark was long due for a change. Is the new logo the best choice? I have mixed feelings about this. While moz://a is sleek, the “://” is an artifact from the early internet. It’s a geeky thing. What’s up with Mozilla preoccupation with prehistoric elements?

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