New Mozilla Firefox logo arrives next week, but you can see it here now
Scoop: We got a sneak preview of the new logo, which hasn't been updated since 2017.
- Shankland covered the tech industry for more than 25 years and was a science writer for five years before that. He has deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and more.
This new logo officially arrives next week.
Mozilla is announcing its new Firefox logo next week, but you can actually get a peek now.
Last year, Mozilla creative director Tim Murray announced a rebranding plan to accommodate Mozilla's growing suite of software and services beyond the Firefox browser. Last week, Murray said the nonprofit will reveal the new Firefox logo design the week of June 10.
But if you poke around the open-source software project, you can get a sneak preview right now.
New Firefox logos are on the developer site for the Fenix version of Firefox for Android. And on Tuesday, Sean Martell, Firefox's communication design leader, tweeted a photo of a box of Firefox stickers that appears to include the new design, too.
I am ready. pic.twitter.com/TaB3tX8UZZ
— mart3ll+ (@mart3ll) June 4, 2019
The new logo shows Firefox's world-embracing fox looking more toward you -- a first for the icon's history, though no vulpine facial features are visible. The design is more simplified and stylized, compared with the current version. But it's got the same general colors and appearance, so you're not likely to be thrown off by the change when clicking icons.
Here's the current logo.
Changes to icons, logos and brands often accompany bigger changes at an organization -- like Mozilla's Firefox Quantum launch in November 2017, which brought Mozilla's most recent logo update.
Despite the fresh coat of paint and many deeper changes to Firefox, though, Mozilla's browser continues to slowly decline when it comes to the number of monthly users. Mozilla's newest push to stand out against Google's dominant Chrome is its major embrace of user privacy.
If you're keeping score, the new Firefox design looks like Mozilla's system 1 styling, one of two options that Murray proposed last year. The logo embodies the present "flat" design trend with clean, stylized graphics replacing "skeuomorphic" rendering of real-world objects. The new logo continues Mozilla's earlier push toward a flatter design.
Mozilla didn't comment on the new Firefox logo, but it said in a statement Wednesday that it's planning to speak about its new design system next week.
Still, the organization has been transitioning to a new look. Its new Lockwise password manager uses the new design language. The Firefox section of Mozilla's design guidelines currently has no Firefox icons.
Mozilla shared this master brand idea in 2018, a template for designs it plans to extend beyond its Firefox browser.
And when Mozilla Chief Executive Chris Beard announced a new default setting on Tuesday under which Firefox blocks websites from tracking you across the web, the top graphic showed the system 1 styling.
Martell's stickers included two versions of new Firefox logos: the regular red-orange-yellow one and the purple-blue-aqua variation for the Nightly test version of the browser.
If you're looking for something more amusing, he also showed promotional stickers featuring Ken from Street Fighter shooting a Firefox hadouken, as well as Firefox-flavored Bowser from Nintendo's Mario Bros. and Eevee from Pokemon.