The Cuban Council design firm has announced that several of its employees have been hired by Google and will be focusing their talents on Google+. Google's latest hires carry an impressive portfolio that includes work with Facebook (Cuban Council designed the social network's iconic logo), Quora, Evernote, and Rdio. Cuban Council has also worked with various project groups at Google since 2005, according to the blog post. Those efforts include work on the soon-to-be defunct iGoogle, where the firm was responsible for both creating the site's logo mark and designing hundreds of user themes.

In an interview with The Verge at Google I/O last month, Vic Gundotra and Bradley Horowitz emphasized the success of Google+ as crucial to the company's strategy as a whole. So the idea that the folks in Mountain View would want to pursue top-level design talent as part of that initiative shouldn't surprise anyone. If Google+ Events are any indication, we look forward to seeing the creative direction of Google's social network.