Iconic open-source email client Thunderbird is getting a brand new logo.
The Thunderbird project is in rude health of late. It’s bagged a big boost in funding thanks to donation drives, got an official Android app, and showcased a major UI redesign that has a lot of people, myself included, super stoked.
With the project now thriving Thunderbird’s Project Manager, Ryan Sipes, has revealed a brand new icon for the app that they say “properly represents this revitalization”.
And here it is:
Strikingly different yet still eminently recognisable as Thunderbird, isn’t it?
The designer of the original Thunderbird icon, Jon Hicks, was called upon to help reimagine the logo. Hicks worked with the Thunderbird Council, the Mozilla Foundation (who own the Thunderbird trademark) and other folks to hone the new logo in to something that hits all the right notes.
Aware that redesigning a classic is a fraught process Sipes adds:
“We all have a soft spot for the old Thunderbird logo (what I affectionately call the “wig on an envelope”), but our project is changing is some big, positive ways and we want to be able to clearly show that to the world with a beautiful, revitalized logo and icon.”
Don’t panic if you don’t need the new logo on your system. The icon isn’t rolling out to existing builds of the client (that I know of). It’ll most likely debut in a future update.
We’re even given a little sneak-peek at how the new icon looks in-situ, on the Ubuntu desktop:
I totally love the fact the new Thunderbird icon has been spun around on to its back, and “mirrors” the Firefox logo (after all, they were/still are stable mates) by facing the opposite way. The new Thunderbird icon looks great (IMO) on its own, but there, next to Firefox, well they look totally awesome together.
Are you a fan? Let me know what you think of the new logo down in the comments!
H/t Essi