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Microsoft just redesigned all of its Office icons to embrace the AI era, and, according to the company, that means ditching solid shapes for all things fluid and vibrant. The 12 new icons, which began rolling out on October 1, encompass all of Microsoft’s platforms from Outlook to Word Documents and Teams. This is the first time that Microsoft has updated the icons aesthetics in seven years, and the companys designers have reworked every logo to be curvier, brighter, and more colorful. Today, as we roll out refreshed icons for Microsoft 365 apps, small but significant design changes are a reflection and a signal, a Microsoft blog post, published on October 1, reads. As a reflection, they encapsulate how AI is shifting the discipline of design and the nature of product development. Microsofts new icons are reflective of a broader trend in the tech world. Now that AI is ushering in the next major era of the industry, its biggest players are trying to figure out exactly how these expanded capabilities should be reflected in their branding. So far, one trend is clear: AI is becoming visually synonymous with a colorful gradient. [Image: Microsoft] Why Microsoft just redesigned its icons Microsoft, like many of its competitors, was a victim of the 2010s blanding trend, when companies across a variety of sectors were scrambling to trade their serif wordmarks for sans-serif and ditching 3D logos for ulta-simple 2D shapes. For tech companies, blanding and flat logo design was especially rampant, as simplified branding made it easier to design for different devices and apps (Google was arguably one of the first tech companies to go bland back in 2013). Microsofts last icon redesign effort was in 2018, when it adopted ultra-flattened versions of its 10 Office app logos. Per the recent blog post, those designs were intended to offer a connected look across platforms and devices in the early days of apps that composed together and truly collaborative experiences. Now, the post continues, workflows have undergone a major change thanks to AI: collaboration is no longer just human-to-human, but also human-to-AI. A timeline of Microsofts icon progression. [Image: Microsoft] With that paradigm shift come significant changes to the UX discipline itself and how we approach product making, the post continues. It explains that, while longer cycles of development used to be followed with a reveal of big changes, AI models are allowing UX developers to make changes in continuous waves. Research shows changes to iconography are almost always received as a signal for product changes and in an era of ongoing, smaller shifts, the icons should reflect that. [Image: Microsoft] The flat logo is out. Say hello to the gradient logo Microsofts answer to that challenge has been to bring a tiny bit of life back into its icons. A broader color palette has allowed the company to give icons like the Outlook envelope, PowerPoint bubble, and Teams people more visual depth. Any sharp shapes and crisp lines have also been swapped with curved ones. Weve modernized Microsoft 365 icons to feel alive and approachablesoft curves, smooth folds, and dynamic motion that reflect Copilots brand,” says Gareth Oystryk, Microsoft 365’s senior director of consumer marketing. Perhaps most noticeably, Microsoft has implemented a gradient color palette across almost every icon. Words flat blue hues are now blue, navy, and purple; PowerPoints orange is accented with pink and red; and Excels green includes a hint of yellow. [Image: Microsoft] Where gradients were once subtle, theyre now richer and more vibrant, featuring exaggerated analogous transitions that improve contrast and accessibility, the post reads. This shift makes the icons feel brighter, punchier, and more dynamic. Gradients have long been a motif of choice for tech companies (see Instagram and Apple Music), but, more recently, theyve become analogous with AI for companies that choose not to go the Open AI black void route. Microsofts own Copilot has embraced a gradient logo, alongside others including Apple Intelligence, Google Gemini, and Meta AI. Google recently reworked its iconic G to feature a gradient across all platforms, noting at the time that the move visually reflects our evolution in the AI era. This embrace of gradients is, to some extent, Big Techs safest answer to visualizing something as amorphous as AI. But it may also be evidence that the tech design pendulum is swinging away from blanding and back toward an earlier era of playful color and skeuomorphic icons. If flat logos were the hallmark of the digital era, its possible that gradient logos are becoming the symbol of the AI age.
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Office dress code has been trending more casual for years, and the pandemic helped turn athleisure and sweatpants into business casual. And now, there’s a growing debate around one practice long thought to be standard for anyone wishing to look presentable and professional: ironing. In fact, many people on social media are saying they never iron anythingwhether its work clothes or otherwise. For science, how many of you still own an ironthe one for taking wrinkles out of clothingAND know how to use it? one Threads user recently asked. Its a sentiment others have shared online from TikTok to Facebook. Naturally, the replies were divided. I use mine weekly and I can’t imagine how anyone can look as though they haven’t just rolled out of bed without one, one user replied. Do I own an iron? Yes. Do I know how to use it? Also yes, replied another. Have I used it at any time in the past 7 years? Hard no. While it might be tempting to put the decline in ironing down the generational differences. Growing up during COVID with remote learning on Zoom from home for years, Gen Z has struggled with navigating dressier attire. But the reality is more complex. Just a few years ago, after all, headlines constantly churned about how millennials killed everything from napkins to mayonnaise, homeownership, and middle management. It is true, roughly 30% of 18- to 34-year-olds dont own an iron and have never even touched one before, according to reports. Yet, the debate to iron or not to iron transcends generational dividesin some cases, uniting generations over a common cause. A screenshot on Reddit reads: One main thing millennials can be proud of is that we collectively banished ironing clothes. Responding to the post, one reply read: Im GenX. I refuse to wear clothes that require high maintenance or ironing. Another wrote: Gen Z here (26) similar with me, I know how to iron but I very rarely do it cus I mostly dont have too. Modern easy-care fabrics, the invention of handheld steamers and wrinkle release spray, as well as shifting work culture that encourage less formal dressing, have turned a once essential appliance into a relic of a bygone era for some. As one response to a viral post by The Imperfect Mum read: “My mum once said she doesn’t remember the ’80s because she spent the entire decade ironing.” The rise of dual-career households means many simply dont have the time, or the desire, to stand at the ironing board for hours on a Sunday ironing socks for the week ahead. This iron avoidance has led to the development of a number of ingenious coping mechanisms: Dark colors and synthetic fabrics hide wrinkles better. Dryers, or hair straighteners, can stand in for irons in a crunch. Leaving the house in slightly rumpled outfits is no longer the fashion faux pas it used to be. (Besides, the creases will probably relax by the time you get to where you need to be.) Still, there remain those who point blank refuse to leave the house in a wrinkled shirt, diligently hauling out the ironing board on the daily. And truly? Nothing says you have your life together quite like a crisp, crease-free shirt.
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I dont know if urbanism is science or art, but I do know its outcomes are best with a dose of creativity. Theres plenty to learn from the giant leaps in art and science to improve your urbanism advocacy. Happy, healthy communities aren’t made from being stuck in a bygone era. The value of fog Impressionist painters didnt discover fog. It was always there, but it wasnt something people were discussing much in the early 19th century leading up to the impressionists and tonalists. Each of those artistic movements created illusions of reality with familiar scenes. James McNeill Whistler was an influential figure and one of the original tonalists. Heres what he had to say about finding inspiration from natural elements previously left off the canvas: {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"","headline":"Urbanism Speakeasy","description":"Join Andy Boenau as he explores ideas that the infrastructure status quo would rather keep quiet. To learn more, visit urbanismspeakeasy.com.","substackDomain":"https:\/\/www.urbanismspeakeasy.com\/","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}} And when the evening mist clothes the riverside with poetry, as with a veil, and the poor buildings lose themselves in the dim sky, and the tall chimneys become campanili, and the warehouses are palaces in the night and the whole city hangs in the heavens, and fairy-land is before usthen the wayfarer hastens home; the working man and the cultured one, the wise man and the one of pleasure, cease to understand, as they have ceased to see, and Nature, who, for once, has sung in tune, sings her exquisite song to the artists alone. Claude Monet is probably the most famous of the impressionist bunch. Monets focus shifted from clear objects to the effects of atmosphere and light, after he stumbled into the London fog. Critics would argue about deeper meanings, whether impressionism was creating a dreamy or nightmarish mood for London, angelic or demonic. But the meaning (or lack thereof) isnt what got me thinking about these 19th-century art movements. Its the idea that something was always there and it took artists to draw the attention of normies to it. Claude Monet, The Houses of Parliament (Effect of Fog), circa 1903 [Photo: Szilas/Wiki Commons] The influence of gravity Some 300 years before Monet and Whistler, Nicolaus Copernicus was making the shocking case that Earth and other planets revolved around the sun, rather than Earth being the center of everything. He didnt get everything right. Copernicus had no concept of gravity, so he wasnt clear on how the celestial blobs swirled around each other or why they all orbited the sun. Not many decades later, Isaac Newton watched an apple fall out of a tree. He organized his math homework and philosophy into laws of gravity that were eventually used to describe planetary motion. In hindsight, it seems almost childish to talk about major leaps in art and science because the advancements seem so obvious. Of course this foggy picture with shadowy figures in motion makes me feel uneasy. Of course gravity makes things fall to the ground. Great leaps forward Generations ahead of us will probably read stories about our era that begin like this: Once upon a terrible time, Americas most educated city planners were convinced that cities optimized for motor vehicle traffic would be the safest and most prosperous. Things that dont even cross our minds today as possible outcomes will be boring in their obviousness later. Consider space: In 1960, science fiction was the only reasonable place for stories about a group of humans traveling beyond our atmosphere, circling the globe, and returning safely in their ship. In 1961, Project Mercury launched multiple such voyages, making all sorts of discoveries about how people and machines function in weightless environments. Consider music: In 1965, anyone interested in hearing a new band had to either listen live to one of a few radio stations or suffer through a friends attempt to sing. In 1966, the portable cassette recorder was introduced, making it possible for anyone to make and play recordings without cables and microphones. Consider city planning: In 2022, land use planners and politicians still worked under the assumption that the social and physical harms of zoning were necessary and would always exist. In 2023, a brave local planning department liberated its community from the crushing burdens of zoning, becoming a model for others to follow. (Maybe.) Theres no reason to always be operating from a yesteryear mindset with issues like affordable housing, traffic engineering, parks planning, and intersection design. Challenge what others take for granted. Open your eyes to the hidden potential of your block, your street, your neighborhood, and your city. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"","headline":"Urbanism Speakeasy","description":"Join Andy Boenau as he explores ideas that the infrastructure status quo would rather keep quiet. To learn more, visit urbanismspeakeasy.com.","substackDomain":"https:\/\/www.urbanismspeakeasy.com\/","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}}
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