Xbox Metro

Posted by mellerad on August 23, 2012 03:08 pm 6

With Microsoft's first new logo in 25 years, it's clear they are trying to cohesively wrangle their bevy of products under the Metro...errrr Modern UI design language. However, when you watch the logo video, you can see that Xbox still doesn't quite fit the family, even though they did their best by removing any gradients and going with the two-color scheme.

When Xbox first debuted, its logo appeared to be the top of a flat surface that was splitting open in the shape of an X. I assumed this was to portray the next big thing in video gaming was breaking through.

Fitting for the time, I suppose. But when Xbox 360 debuted, it borrowed the surface-splitting X idea but slapped it onto a globe.

While it made for a cool crossover to the wireless controller power button, it always bugged me a little that the Xbox used a globe as its logo. They added "360" to the name, possibly to portray that this "box" could do everything, why not make it a cube? Too close to GameCube? Possibly.

I assume a Metro/Modern-UI redesign is coming with the looming next-gen Xbox (the dashboard already has it). With its clean lines, simple color scheme and reliance on 90-degree angles, it represents the perfect time to bring the Xbox logo full circle (bad pun intended) and create a logo that better represents its name. Instead of waiting for Microsoft, I went ahead and took a stab at it:

A couple notes about how I made this:

1. The green is taken from the Xbox Android app icon
2. The decision to write Xbox vs XBox was made mostly on personal preference, but also due to a few other places I've seen it written like this (including the Android app)
3. I re-created the letters for the Segoe font in Illustrator, since I don't own it
4. The X is based on the original curvature of the surface-splitting X. I traced the original in Illustrator, then made one with straight lines only, as I feel it better suits the Metro/Modern UI.

Just an idea.