SOCIAL MEDIA IMAGES BECOMING ROUND - WILL THIS AFFECT BRANDING?

On the 15th of August, Facebook announced the implementation of several design changes to improve readability, navigation and overall experience with the website. One of the changes is the use of circular profile pictures - a form that is already used by the second and third largest social media websites - Instagram and Twitter. 

No big deal you might say, but can this design trend have some kind of impact on branding and logo design in particular? We believe it can.

As a consumer or a potential client, when was the last time you visited a product or company website? That's right, you probably saw their Facebook page, their latest tweet or you followed them on IG. As social media profiles become the hub of brands, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are now probably the only places where you see brand logos online. And if your business is online based only, that's actually the only place where your target audience sees your logo. Period.
And that logo is in a circle.

Of course, any logo can be put on a circular background - take a look at these examples:

You can click on the pictures to enlarge them.

You see, Nike has a great logo but it has to be smaller in the circle so it could "breathe", as designers would say. Making it smaller means making it less visible, though.
In the next example, we can see Shell's logo which is almost round, but not quite. It had to be reduced to fit in the Facebook's circular frame.
And then, we have Starbucks - their logo is round and they can expose it in its full brightness, without white spaces around it, completely visible and looking very natural on Facebook.

The circular frame is even more challenging for square logos. Ours is exactly like that and it probably doesn't look in its best shape when made circular:

Would we change our logo to circular? Of course not, we love our logo the way it is as it evokes quite a few ideas related to our philosophy and brand identity. However, we are pretty sure that these social media changes will influence the way we perceive logos. The circle is actually an extremely suitable form for logos and is quite easy on the eyes, so don't be surpised if we offer a circular logo to your newly chosen name...
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