Just call us Googz
We Aussies are a unique lot, on a unique land. Since we arrived in Australia in 2002, our goal has been to build and adapt our products to best serve Aussies – whether you’re finding your way around town using Google Maps, or chatting with your Google Assistant about brekkie recipes.
And just like our products, we’re always testing and iterating on our visual identity to keep our communications relevant, relatable and real for Aussies. Over the years, we’ve played with our logo through Google Doodles celebrating various Australian icons – from gumnut babies to our Great Barrier Reef.
Recently, we’ve been prompted to examine how our brand might be shaped by rising popular culture and linguistic trends in Australia. We all know abbreviations are the hallmark of Australian English. And upon further analysis of this evolving dialect, we made a fascinating discovery: Just like Maccas, Aussies are increasingly calling us “Googz.”
We had a real “yeah, nah” moment. That inspired us to reimagine our brand from the ground up, in partnership with leading Australian designer Jazza. We conducted in-depth focus groups on beaches and in skate parks across Australia – and went back to the drawing board to define a new logo identity that would be authentic to Aussies, roll off the tongue but still anchored in our heritage. After months of sketching, mood boarding, foraging and finger painting, we are delighted to unveil our shiny, new ‘Strayan logo:
In the end, we landed on exactly the same typography and colour palette, with a gorgeous, gumtree green, lowercase ‘z.’ We opted for the ‘z’ over an ‘s’ as the former felt unexpected and gave us snazzy typographic angles to work with. To get a glimpse into the design journey, check out Jazza’s video:
Starting today on April 1, you’ll see this new brand identity out in the wild - in Pyrmont and in our products. Just ask your Google Assistant “Ok Google, What’s your name?” on your Google Home device or Assistant enabled iOS and Android phone.
With Jazza’s help, we’ve also produced some swanky swag:
To get your hands on these Googz goodz, head over to the Google Store.
UPDATE: April Foolz!
