I've long been a slave to the underdog browser known as Opera. While its market share may not be the greatest (though it does very well with alternative devices), it's served me well the last few years, staying fast and featured-packed.
The logo sucks though. Really. It's terrible. Firefox has a great logo, designed by Jon Hicks, as does Safari, Konqueror, Chrome and even IE. But Opera's has always been an also-ran logo - too lopsided to hang out in the dock, too simple to invogorate the imagination, too un-browsery to evoke thoughts of zipping down the information superhighway consuming content at breakneck speeds.
People have talked about it before. Some have suggested and designed alternatives. (I use this one in my RocketDock / OSX Dock / AWN Dock.)
However, the people at Opera (now including the aforementioned Jon Hicks, who credited Oleg Melnychuk with the new icon design) have listened and finally released a new logo. It's still not the greatest logo out there, but at least it isn't lopsided in the dock any more.
Hat tip: Joen @ Noscope.
15 Comments
It's a fine dock icon. Very clean. But as a window icon at 16x16 it's pretty bad. It's almost pure red and it bleeds into any darker background.
Here's an example of how it compares to other icons - http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/4863/operaredicon.png
I never realised how much brightness range other icon designs have, and how well that range works to make the icons visible against any colour. The new icon is not as successful as the old icon in terms of visibility.
#1, Courtney Miles, Australia, 26 August 2009. Reply to this.
A bit ironic, considering the company with which the inimitable and aforementioned Jon Hicks is now gainfully employed! ... http://bit.ly/3QJyvV
#2, David Reimer, United Kingdom, 26 August 2009. Reply to this.
#1 Courtney: That link isn't working for me, but I can see what you mean - it is much darker and at small sizes doesn't seem to stand out as much.
#2 David: Whoops! I had intended to mention that! I've updated the post accordingly.
#3, Dave Child, United Kingdom, 26 August 2009. Reply to this.
Better than before, but still lagging behind FF and Chrome in my opinion.
Just checked out Courtneys, I have to agree it doesnt look great on a darker background.
#4, Alex, Unknown, 1 September 2009. Reply to this.
I like it. The old design looks dated now and the new logo with the added gradient effect looks much more contemporary and up to date. Good work I say.
#5, Matty, UK, 3 September 2009. Reply to this.
OT: looks like my own blog isn't letting me post a comment at the moment! So thought I'd reply to your comment here.
Other than some very occasional wordpress updates, it's not being maintained as such. I never posted much in the first place!
To be honest, not having worked on a web site since March 2008, I haven't really seen the point in adding anything, It still exists, but whether the blog will get posted to ever again, or whether I'll use the domain for something else, I don't know.
I was sad to see you had problems with JD in the end, Addedbytes is looking good even if you're not padding it out much!
#6, Adrian, United Kingdom, 7 September 2009. Reply to this.
Looks good - guess they were stuck between the confines of having to make it similar to the old one for continuity's sake, and needing to drastically change it in order to modernise it and keep up with the rest. Thought they might have gone for the 3d glossy web 2.0 look a bit more though?
#7, Joey, UK, 9 September 2009. Reply to this.
I completely agree, crappy logo... If they simply re-branded the browser they could probably gain more market share.
#8, Dataflurry, Phoenix, 9 September 2009. Reply to this.
The shadow is meant to finish it off, but doesn´t quite work for some reason.
More important, though, is for Opera to focus on product performance (can, always, update logo).
#9, Ed, Spain, 12 September 2009. Reply to this.
I like Opera, its a great browser with a lot of nice extra features but sometimes it just bogs down for me. Given a few more years and come more popularity and it could be a major player. Nice logo redux!
#10, atantero, Unknown, 14 September 2009. Reply to this.
imho the best opera icon :)
but everybody likes other things.
i don´t like the firefox icon
#11, Paulmann, Germany, 8 October 2009. Reply to this.
Design is clearly a 2.0. Made exclusively for the web.
#12, grafismo, Spain, 22 November 2009. Reply to this.
I like it, looks more modern.
#13, TL, Germany, 23 November 2009. Reply to this.
I like it. Its clean, fresh and has a modern touch.
#14, Izdelava Strani, Slovenia, 25 November 2009. Reply to this.
and that's why i called it OPERA..because its O!.
#15, research papers, USA, 4 December 2009. Reply to this.