facebook’s rebrand as ‘meta’ reveals new logo, and the internet reacts

full header picture © reuters

fb reband as ‘meta’  reveals its metaverse plan

fb founder mark zuckerberg introduced earlier this week that the enormous tech firm is now altering its title to ‘meta’ – with a brand new emblem resembling a distorted infinity loop. this determination places a highlight on the founder’s subsequent step in connecting folks just about, which he calls the ‘metaverse’ plan. naturally, proper after the information, the web started flooding with opinions, speculations, and unavoidable criticism.

new emblem billboard at fb’s headquarters | picture © AFP

on the finish of his keynote speech in the course of the connect 2021 convention on october 28, zuckerberg highlighted that the fb rebrand as ‘meta’ was accomplished in an effort to actually signify every part that the company does and can do. in greek, the phrase ‘meta’ interprets to ‘past’ – echoing zuckerberg’s perception that ‘there’s all the time extra to construct’. he goes on stating that the ‘model is so tightly linked to 1 product that it could possibly’t probably signify every part that we’re doing immediately, not to mention sooner or later’. 

demonstrating the transition in model identification | animation © fb

enter fb’s ‘metaverse’ plan – a imaginative and prescient for the longer term the place digital and augmented realities grow to be absolutely built-in within the firm’s product and companies. ‘the metaverse is the subsequent evolution of social expertise — the place you possibly can share immersive experiences with folks even when you possibly can’t be collectively in individual, and do issues collectively you couldn’t do within the bodily world’,  writes fb on its website blog. 

picture through fb join

the meta image, defined

moreover, this all-encompassing new title is met with a brand new emblem that fb explains was ‘designed […] to dwell in movement and 3D’.  the corporate formed the brand new image as a steady loop that morphs and takes on totally different that means relying on the viewer’s vantage level; the image appears like an M for ‘meta’  from one angle and an infinity signal from one other – echoing the infinite layers of the metaverse.  

animation © fb

constructing on that thought, ‘the meta image was designed to dynamically dwell within the metaverse — the place you possibly can transfer via it and round it. it could possibly tackle infinite textures, colours and motion, capturing the creativity and creativeness of a 3D world. it was additionally necessary that the image tackle a blue gradient and pull within the coloration of our core merchandise, connecting our future to our firm’s origins,’  says fb. 

animation © fb

and the web reacts…

naturally, the web takes it one step additional and shares its personal interpretations of the ‘meta’ emblem. one concept dictates that the brand new design resembles the ‘ouroboros’ image. traditionally symbolizing infinity and the cycle of beginning and loss of life, the ‘ouroboros’ depicts a snake or dragon biting its personal tail whereas contorted right into a horizontal determine 8.

the ‘ouroboros’ image | picture © mythologian NET

there’s additionally discuss concerning the ‘eight dynamics’ or ‘octave of creation’ ideas that are primarily based on creation of life and the urge to exist for infinity. from the division of cells (mitosis) to historic egyptian scriptures, the eighth step appears to all the time be related to the act of creation and to a brand new ‘life’ forming. this idea ultimately seeped into different disciplines and cultures – just like the Eight notice octave system in music – as a option to replicate how issues perpetually renew each Eight steps advert infinitum. 

tweet by erik spiekermann in response to the fb rebrand as meta

the font selection for the brand new emblem took successful as properly. german typographer erik spiekermann had created an eerily comparable font again within the mid-1980s known as  – you guessed it – ‘meta’. the designer cynically responded to the font selection in a tweet the place he insinuated that his design is now fb’s. 

now, what’s your tackle this? 

challenge information:

title: meta

12 months: 2021