Iconic in so many ways.

Icons are more than just shadow, shape and shine, they are a key component of today’s modern visual language and carry massive cultural weight. From emojis to logos and everything in between, humans have a desire to capture the essence of a feeling or mood and use that symbol as a shorthand to communicate with others. While techniques and styles change, the spirit of symbols have a history as old as humanity and they develop in parallel all around the world as they fulfill a basic human need to conceptualize and define the world around us.  

But to say this in a less ‘arty’ way, icons, like the ones we have been developing as a cross company team here at Microsoft, tell a story, set expectations, define a brand and invite a user into a world of possibilities.

Looking across Microsoft over the years we can easily follow the changes in iconography in a manner similar to fashion. Designers can tell what was trendy at the time and see it reflected in these tiny cultural time capsules we call icons.  So as society goes through cultural shifts, and businesses follow and evolve, we will always see icons, logos, product UI and brands shift and evolve to stay current. If we used fashion for an analogy, the product UI is the clothing and the icon is the haircut - it's a huge part of your first impression, and it will always need slight tweaks to fit what's in style today. Meaning it will grow and change over time.

The redesign of our icon system was an effort that was inspired and fueled by change, and our willingness to embrace new opportunities; as discussed here. As the culture at Microsoft has evolved, so has the way we express the connectedness at the core of our identity and across our teams.  We are no longer operating in separate silos – we think and work as one. Ultimately, this collaboration took advantage of that change, and helped us discover even more opportunities to embrace our Growth Mindset and make changes, both great and small. I feel that is reflected in this powerful, flexible and open system that we've developed as a symbol for the Microsoft of today.

I am proud to have been part of a true team effort that spanned across the company, and played my role in connecting the many branches of our ‘Capital D’ Design teams; helping to build even stronger partnerships between Brand, Marketing and Engineering.

Ultimate achievement, total suiteness.  

Recognition for this redesign goes far and wide but I would love to thank some folks, both on my team and across the company, who played a key role in this effort: 

Stephanie Battershell, Arry Chanthamaly, Yvonne Chien, Paul Cooper, Pallavi Damera, April Dimartile, Caitlin Donahue, Joe Hallock, Jennifer Han, Michael Harnisch, Sofia Ibarra, Matthieu James, Lauren Keckley, Jason Kilpatrick, Sang-In Lee, Lena Macomson, Cybele Moscrip, Hannah Pham, Ron Sasaki, Sven Seger, Bo Smith, Carmela Yu, Tracie Westby and a special shout-out to Jon Friedman and Albert Shum for continued partnership across Microsoft Design leadership.

In lieu of listing everyone involved in this effort, I'd also like to extend a special thanks to the hundreds of individuals who have contributed to this effort across Brand, Marketing, Research, Legal, Trademarking, Engineering and many other extended teams

Thank you, all.